Ghost River invites readers to stare down blue-mouthed crevasses, venture into old growth forests, and peer beneath the floorboards of ancestral homesteads.
In this lyrical and intimate portrait of America's Pacific Northwest, wilderness and home are interwoven. But this is not Arcadia. Deep time is punctured by strip malls and freeways, wildfires, and dams. Questioning the influence of the past on the present, the central sequence reimagines this landscape from the perspective of the British explorer, George Vancouver, who charted its waterways on an expedition to locate the illusive Northwest Passage.
In their passage between America and England and the terrain of early motherhood, these poems of loss and renewal explore what it is to be home. Born and raised in America's Washington state, Kris Johnson moved to the UK in 2007. Ghost River is her first book-length collection.
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At night, when I am caught in the near-darkand I hear the neighbours arguing.I also smell the tar of the pier, skid row,exhaust from the viaduct.- BODIES OF WATER
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(Bloodaxe Books, 25 May 2023, e-book, 72 pages, #ARC from the publisher via Edelweiss+)
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This is a new poet for me. I enjoyed Ghost River though not as much as other collections I've read recently. The poems are beautifully written and vivid. A great many of them focus on nature, the natural world, and the like. These were lovely, vivid poems but the subject matter didn't do it for me. I'm not a huge fan of nature poetry. The other poems deal with a range of subject areas such as loss and motherhood which I enjoyed a lot more.
