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I Know Howl
Richard Eric Johnson

after Viet Nam
soul still young
learning contemplation
evolving new frames of mind
I discovered the beats

I picked up my own beat
a pulse to live a life
sing write dance sun life
make love neon moon glow
catch a muse of comet fire

made my fingers touch
important limbs of love
move through capsuled dreams
between a then and now
all the ours of tomorrow

now I float an egalitarian moment
pushed from streets stores and people
baptismal font watered for battlefield fire
my forever survivor remorse and joy—
Hell yeah I know how to howl

—
Richard “Eric” Johnson is a graduate of Indiana University and holds a B.A. in Germanic Languages and an M.S. in Education. Eric has five previously published volumes of poetry: Of Museums, Monsoons and Mausoleums (1998), Schemes of Consciousness (2003), Memoir Poetic of a Naked Cop (2013), Watching Angels Dance by Candlelight (2019), and Free Air Berlin: Of A Wall And A Walnut Tree (2022). His poetry has appeared in numerous online and print journals.

Eric served in Viet Nam and West Berlin with the U.S. Army before beginning a career in law enforcement as a road patrol officer with the Marion County Sheriff’s Department in Indianapolis. After retiring, Eric traveled overseas with his wife who was likewise stationed in Germany with the U.S. Army. They now happily reside in Arlington, Virginia.

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