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Robert K. Johnson is a consulting editor for Ibbetson Street magazine and was for many years a professor of English at Suffolk University, teaching the work of such writers as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dante, Wordsworth, Flaubert, and Frost. He has written several collections of poems, and two non-fiction books (one on Francis Ford Coppola, the other on Neil Simon). His poems appear in many publications including Webster Review, Main Street Rag, New York Times, Chiron Review, and Minotaur.

Robert K. Johnson

MY LATEST DRAFT

has over-revised

my new poem,

blunted–

not nurtured–

the fresh promise

the first worksheets

contain.

I will go back,

try again

till I get it right,

unlike with my life’s

past days.

NIGHTFALL

Another sunset’s

orange

sinking

into darkness

portrays

the failure

of another day

with such beauty

it softens

the hurt

of my day’s failures.

— Robert K. Johnson

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