poetry by Michael Lee Johnson

Carl Sandburg, Idols in the Sand, and Galesburg Shacks

By Michael Lee Johnson

(Photos available on request)

Idols are what idols appear to be.

Idols are men that idols are.

They’re the sleep walkers,

the self-styled hobo's,

saints in small villages

people living alone.

Birthright of saviors, railroad men, famous poets.

Birthright of little places, big hearts,

speakers of cold skillets and dainty bedrooms.

Folk songs fall, black and white,

divided cracks celebrated brick streets.

They form modest communities,

quiet spaces, momentous churches

named my denominations and breed-

rail tracks divide their ideologies, brands

of beer, run down shacks divide their lives.

Property vultures, ex Maytag mongrels’

Maytag treason, traders of trade, traitors to Mexico,

walk simple steps away.

Jobbers walk and jobs move away.

Streets quiet lights, slate deserted

house shacks of many races abandoned, colors

form rows PMS color charts leading to his birth place;

folk songs, Swedish heritage, Remembrance Rock,

savior of a poetic dream born in a slum.

Just a roadside museum,

mile and a half walk from downtown,

summer sweat, drenching summer heat,

Galesburg railroad days June 2010, ending-

beginning humidity, snippets of beer bottles

tossed around, Saturday night drunks

lie in flush untailored grass.

A three room shack, half-pint bedroom,

curtains merge the window with sun rays,

more summer heat.

Idols grow as children, their ambitions-

toss them away.

Idols are what idols appear to be.

Idols are men that idols are.

-2010-

Anecdote:  this poem is based on a real travel experience to Galesburg, IL in June 2010.

The poem was developed from the vivid pictures and images taken my Carol Marcus, a devoted friend of many years.

Author's Notes:  "Carl Sandburg...." Is a beautiful portrait of life in rusting America, how what happens in far off Washington affects a small town, it couples images of the land with the ghosts of its people.

Michael Lee Johnson is a poet, freelance writer and small business owner of custom imprinted promotional products and apparel:  www.promoman.us, from Itasca, Illinois.  He is heavily influenced by:  Carl Sandburg, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Irving Layton, Leonard Cohen, and Allen Ginsberg. His new poetry chapbook with pictures, titled From Which Place the Morning Rises, and his new photo version of The Lost American: from Exile to Freedom are available at: http://stores.lulu.com/promomanusa orhttp://www.lulu.com/spotlight/promomanusa. The original version of The Lost American: from Exile to Freedom, can be found at: http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0-595-46091-7.  New Chapbook:  Challenge of Night and Day, and Chicago Poems, by Michael Lee Johnson: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/challenge-of-night-and-day-and-chicago-poems-%28night%29/12443733?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/2.  He also has 2 previous chapbooks available at:http://stores.lulu.com/poetryboy. Michael has been published in over 24 countries. He is also editor/publisher of five poetry sites, all open for submission, which can be found at his Web site:http://poetryman.mysite.com.  All of his books are now available on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=michael+lee+johnson.  Borders: http://www.borders.com.au/book/lost-american-from-exile-to-freedom/1566571/.

Now on You-Tube:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih5WJrjqQ18, 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMmyjFKJ5fQ.

E-mail: promomanusa@gmail.com.   Audio Mp3 poems available; open to interviews.