FLIGHT SONGS

Johnson presents a set of contemplative and urgent poems that confront discrimination and the climate crisis.

This collection begins with scenes of travelers—displaced but determined refugees who want to stay near their ancestral roots and have freedom of movement. Some of the book’s most moving passages describe the tortuous dynamics of exile, as in “Homeland”: “My people are not the ones to tell you how to think, and I / spent lifetimes wishing they were but we are fluent in the / language of losing it all.” Many poems contain evocative language: “We blew our canvasses across car windows, fingertips tracing: here a smile, now a cat, heart” (“Flame Throwers: A Retrospective”). The works share themes of migration and of the exploitation of colonialism, and the staggered motion of constant displacement has an almost rhythmic quality. Gradually, the poems become more formally inventive. Many include footnotes, which have different effects; some elaborate on historical incidents, and others are more affecting in their detailing of the physical and emotional effects of dispossession. Toward the end of the collection, many poems consist of two columns, side by side, with one showing the perspective of an oppressed people, and the other the colonizer’s point of view. As one reads these poems, up and down or across each column, one gets a keen sense how much these two groups of people are entwined. Still, the poems are not simply about pain and suffering, as the author makes sure to depict the beauty and joy that endures despite hardships.

An admirable and powerful collection that’s politically astute and relates grand emotions.