Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Dissertations Graduate College 12-1997 Mastodon, 80% Complete: Poems Jonathan Johnson Western Michigan University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations Part of the Poetry Commons Recommended Citation Johnson, Jonathan, "Mastodon, 80% Complete: Poems" (1997). Dissertations. 1627. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/1627 This Dissertation-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MASTODON, 80% COMPLETE: POEMS by Jonathan Johnson A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan December 1997 I Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. MASTODON, 80% COMPLETE: POEMS Jonathan Johnson, Ph.D. Western Michigan University, 1997 Many of the poems in this collection are set in the vast woods and along the Lake Superior coastline of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Others take place in and around the poet's remote cabin in northern Idaho where the Selkirk, Bitteroot, and Cabinet mountain ranges converge. However, they all take as their definition of wilderness the complete external beyond the individual consciousness, including the body, other people, and the decaying cultural landscape, as well as vistas of yet unmolested nature. The poems chronicle an ongoing attempt to occupy the borderlands of faith between imaginative will and allegiance to the world, that is, between separation and participation. Structurally, a number of the poems are compressed, brief lyrics that notice the moment as a point of entry in the flow of time. These poems attempt to expand into, rise from, and speak for a continuous life. There are several traditional narrative pieces in the collection, a few that are even written in prose form. Within the book's larger dialectic between event and articulation, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the modifying imagination acts subversively in such poems, under the manifest allegiance to story. The collection's most ambitious poems follow the path of thought concurrent with the course of sensation, torquing experience against imagination, memory, and emotion. The desire to overcome (or at least comprehend) the isolating effects of imagination and autobiography expresses itself in the poems' gestures toward other people. Some poems are addressed directly to the reader or specific individuals and question, in their own ways, whether loss is the loneliest of human conditions or the basis for all human love. Other poems participate in community by speaking directly for that community, fluctuating between the first person singular and the first person plural as isolation is eclipsed by a pervasive sense of inclusion. What is common throughout the collection is a represented history of the poet's ongoing struggle to achieve connection with other people (and, for that matter, grizzlies, aspen trees, junked cars, snow, and mountains) while remaining the authentic, individual voice that speaks the poems. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9817116 Copyright 1997 by Johnson, Jonathan L. All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9817116 Copyright 1998, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Copyright by Jonathan Johnson 1997 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the editors of the following periodicals in which some of these poems first appeared: Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature; Alaska Quarterly Review; Cimarron Review; the Cream City Review; Hawai'i Review; Hayden's Ferry Review; Indiana Review; Mid-American Review; Prairie Schooner; and Sonora Review. "Renewal” also appeared in Best American Poetry 1996. I would also like to thank my fellow students in the excellent creative writing program at Western Michigan University for their encouragement, editorial help, and friendship. I thank Professor Shirley Scott for fostering a collegial, even familial department where good poetry is loved and created, and for deepening my passion for William Wordsworth's poetry. I would like to thank Dr. Nancy Eimers and Professor Herb Scott for their countless words of instruction, affection, and encouragement. I would like to thank the members of my graduate committee, Dr. Mark Richardson, Dr. James Ferreira, and Dr. William Olsen, for their critical eyes and generous attention to my words. I would particularly like to thank Dr. William Olsen, the most passionate, intelligent, and talented reader of poetry I have ever ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgments— Continued met. His mentoring and friendship have been key in my learning to speak on the page. I would also like to thank my wife, Amy Howko, for her unwavering support of and belief in my poetry. Her love and encouragement have given me voice. Finally, I thank my mother and father for their gift of poetry. This book is dedicted to them. Jonathan Johnson Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS........................................ ii INTRODUCTION........................................... 1 PART I. CALL BEFORE DIGGING............................. 16 Renewal....................................... 17 Lineage....................................... 19 Harm.......................................... 21 The Quick Stop............................... 23 Call Before Digging......................... 25 The Arborist................................. 26 Service....................................... 27 Mastodon, 80% Complete...................... 28 On Belay..................................... 30 Spontaneous Combustion...................... 31 II. THE LAST GREAT FLOOD............................ 3 3 The Last Great Flood........................ 34 Unmarked Stop................................ 35 The Purpose of Fiction in Idaho............ 36 Eclipse....................................... 37 Formation.................................... 39 Renovat i on ................................... 40 The Great Divide............................. 41 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents— continued PART Skinhead Execution of One of Their Own 42 Unemployment................................. 43 Chore......................................... 44 Sonnet in Green.............................. 46 Self Portrait With Cabin.................... 47 Three Hours out of Fairbanks............... 48 Midnight Run ................................. 49 Prime Realty................................. 50 The Wisdom of Suely......................... 51 Working Without Brothers.................... 52 The Empire Builder.......................... 53 Retirement................................... 55 III. CENTRIPETAL..................................... 56 Certain Knowledge........................... 57 Advocate..................................... 59 Centripetal.................................