Chuck Johnson• Show poetry

Poetry is the art of imagination mixed with the language of choice, the creativity of the mind, and the effects of the senses. Poems do not necessarily reflect the personal thoughts or beliefs of the Poet. I think when you browse a Poet's page, you should take the poems for what they are and not what you may think they reflect. Like an Artist who paints a canvas and creates a scene of heavenly beauty, that painting does not mean he is religious. As you browse my poems, remember, they are just reflections of my desire to be poetic at that point in time and not necessarily an accurate nor descriptive reflection of my beliefs or thought processes. I do allow my daily life to influence my poems, but that does not mean it is an accurate reflection of my existence, thoughts, beliefs, or intentions. Nor does it mean I'm directing them towards anyone. Often I will send my poems out for some feedback. Sending them does NOT mean the poem is written about anyone. All artists desire feedback no matter the medium they are using. No matter what happens somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.

"You see, but you do not observe."
Arthur Conan Doyle
(1859-1930)

Errors and misconceptions no doubt remain, and are my own.

Now please enjoy yourself here.

"The weight of a burden of life can exceed the benefits of living but then our family and loved ones enter our sight and that makes living worth enduring. " Me.

Fear not the mind of the fearful nor envy the mind of the warrior - Me

Conflict comes in many clothes, poetry wears a variety of expressed vestments.

The mind is a cistern
a cesspool of thought
occasionally inspired
usually not.

This site may not be reproduced anywhere else. Copying is prohibited

" The Poet makes himself a seer by a long, vast and reasoned derangement of the senses - every form of love, of suffering, of madness." - Arthur Rimbaud

-----///\\-----Please
----///-\\\----Put This
---|||---|||---On Your
---|||---|||---page If
---|||---|||---You Know
----\\\-///----Someone
-----\\///-----Who Died

------///\-----Of
-----///\\\----Cancer

Joined date: 18 December 2003

My love of nature is reflected in this simple poem:

The Desert

The summer breeze caressed the trees, beneath the desert moon,
And fragrance drifted in the air, from the flowers in full bloom.
Purple mountains framed the scene, beneath the cloudless sky,
And in the distance one could hear the coyote's mournful cry.

A summer rain began to fall, and quenched the desert's thirst,
So soft and gentle it began, just before the storm clouds burst.
With raging winds the lightning flashes, and lit the darkened sky,
And in the distance one could hear the coyote's mournful cry.

Now the storm released its power, the rains became a flood,
Trees and flowers washed away, in streams of flowing mud.
It seemed as though all life would end, and everything would die,
And in the distance one could hear the coyote's mournful cry.

Came the dawn the storm was gone, the air was fresh and clean,
A gentle breeze caressed the trees, and the birds began to sing.
And everywhere were signs of life, the desert seemed to sigh,
And in the distance one could hear the coyote's mournful cry.

And like the desert we too will face the storms of pain and strife,
The wind will blow and bend our will, to test us through our life.
But we can weather all the storms if we place our faith on high,
For in the distance God can hear our lonely mournful cry.


Albert Einstein
A country cannot simultaneously prepare and prevent war.

Benjamin Franklin
Never has there been a good war or a bad peace.

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.

Emperor Hirohito
All men are brothers, like the seas throughout the world; So why do winds and waves clash so fiercely everywhere?

Ernest Hemingway
Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.

Gandhi
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?

George McGovern
I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.

Marcus Tullius Cicero
An unjust peace is better than a just war.

Georges Clemenceau
War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men.

General Douglas MacArthur
It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.

William Shakespeare King Henry V
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, Or close the wall up with our English dead! In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility; But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger: Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.

Albert Einstein
So long as there are men there will be wars.

Albert Einstein
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

Winston Churchill
England has been offered a choice between war and shame. She has chosen shame and will get war.

Joseph Heller, Catch 22
"Let someone else get killed!" "Suppose everyone on our side felt that way?" "Well then I'd certainly be a damned fool to feel any other way, wouldn't I?" "Englishmen are dying for England, American's are dying for America, Germans are dying for Germany, Russians are dying for Russia. There are now fifty or sixty countries fighting in this war. Surely so many countries can all be worth dying for?" "Anything worth living for," said Nately, "is worth dying for." "And anything worth dying for," answered the old man, "is certainly worth living for."

Kosovar
You know the real meaning of PEACE only if you have been through the war.

Peter Weiss
Once and for all the idea of glorious victories won by the glorious army must be wiped out. Neither side is glorious. On either side they're just frightened men messing their pants and they all want the same thing - not to lie under the earth, but to walk upon it - without crutches.

Plato
Only the dead have seen the end of war.

Ronald Reagan
History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.