Mike Johnson Selected Poems

A meaty and satisfying selection of the work of one of New Zealand's most preeminent and prolific poets, tracing the development of his work from the seventies to today


'Johnson is one of New Zealand's most accomplished and inventive writers, at one with the word, its power, its airy fitness and everyday solidities, its resourcefulness, its craft.'

Siobhan Harvey, Winner of the Kathleen Grattan poetry award, 2019

'The immense complexity of human relationships, social, sexual and everyday are at the heart of much of Mike's best poetry. However, there's an almost equal pull towards the empyrean: the cosmic mysteries of nature and the visible world, the beauty of the birds, trees and beaches which surround him in his longtime home-base, Waiheke Island.'

Jack Ross, editor of Poetry New Zealand (2014-2019)

'[Johnson finds] just the right formulation to deliver a descriptive vitalism that is open, alert, tentative, ambulatory, elegant, palpable.'

David Eggleton, Poet Laureate, 2019-2022