Carl Martin Johnson
Poet, Author, Slayer of Dragons
© Carl Martin Johnson, All rights reserved
CLOUD MOUNTAIN BURNING
By Carl Martin Johnson
There’s a great cloud mountain glowing,
Flaming red in the sunset sky.
From Satan’s closed realm overflowing,
Striking awe to the human eye.
Even Lucifer loves beauty,
Though his soul is trapped in shade.
Like all who live his duty
Is to see God’s grandeur made.
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COME TO ME, MUSE
By Carl Martin Johnson
I search to fill the emptiness
That echoes, hollow, in my soul.
I need to find a love to bless
My life and make it whole.
I am not made to be alone.
I need a muse to inspire me.
A queen to sit on my heart’s throne,
Who will care for and desire me.
Come, dear, make me complete.
Let us travel life as one.
In sweet sacred dreams we’ll meet
And fly together past the sun.
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NO ONE AT THE GRAVE
By Carl Martin Johnson
There was no one at the grave
When they put him in the ground.
There’d be no memory to save,
No trace of him to be found.
Yet, he had lived a life,
And mostly lived it well.
He’d seen joy and strife,
Though there was no one to tell.
He had died in a strange land,
With no one to call friend.
Not what he had planned,
But who can know their end?
He had had a story.
He’d not always walked alone.
There were moments filled with glory,
Sunsets he had known.
But as the dirt fell on his face,
His soul smiled and took flight.
Now he’d be held in God’s embrace
In Eternity’s long night.
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I SIT HERE AND WONDER
By Carl Martin Johnson
I sit here and wonder
What brought me here and why.
Perhaps I’m just a blunder.
Well, no use for me to cry.
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A CANDLE IN THE WIND
By Carl Martin Johnson
Life’s a candle in the wind,
A brief and flickering flame.
Use the light, for it will end
And return from whence it came.
It will illuminate the dark.
Quickly take in what it shows.
Use the vision as a spark
To set a fire that, enduring, glows.
The dark will soon return.
But you will know what shadows hide.
Though the candle no longer burn,
You will keep its light inside.
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BOOM
By Carl Martin Johnson
Boom! I hear the heartbeat,
Life sweeps us all along.
Making hot love in the back seat
To a 1950’s song.
Soon awake, but now we’re dreaming.
Which is better, which is wise?
Is this reality or seeming?
Should I trust my mortal eyes?
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SLIP SILENT SPIRIT
By Carl Martin Johnson
Slip, silent, past me, spirit.
Touch me but softly in the night.
Wail, but let none hear it,
Lest they try to block your flight.
Make haste to Heaven’s Gate.
In case the Devil runs behind you.
Should he grab you, it’s too late,
So do not let him find you.
Wish me only brief farewell.
We’ll meet again on the other side.
Race past the doors of Hell,
Before Satan knows you’ve died.
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A GLIMPSE OF PARADISE
By Carl Martin Johnson
For a moment I glimpsed Paradise,
Behind the cloud that just slipped by.
I admit it’s very nice,
But it’s too soon for me to die.
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HER LIPS
By Carl Martin Johnson
I found Heaven on her lips,
Sweet portals of desire.
I took love in gentle sips
Until passion became fire.
I still recall the cinnamon taste,
The hot and sensuous flavor,
So erotic and yet chaste,
A memory I fondly savor.
Other lovers arouse my lust.
My loins have not been tamed.
But from her kiss only did I combust,
Body and soul inflamed.
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WORTH
By Carl Martin Johnson
Will I make the world a better place?
Will my life have worth?
Will I advance the human race?
Honor my mother’s pain of birth?
It is not enough to do no harm,
To timidly exist.
I must wield a sword with my strong arm
And fight evil with my fist.
Then when I die, let men recall
That I did all I could.
Life saw me rise, though I did fall,
And fought on the side of good.
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SGT JACKSON
By Carl Martin Johnson
Sergeant Jackson lost the war today.
The enemy finally won.
He’d fought the battle night and day,
But the fight at last was done.
The enemy took him unaware,
Though he knew the end was near.
He just had time to say a prayer
To overcome his fear.
Odd, the brave sergeant thought,
That his defeat took so long.
He wondered at how long he’d fought.
He was proud he’d been so strong.
He held it a source of pride
That his enemy was so brave.
He wished he’d been on the sergeant’s side.
Then both lives they might save.
The barrel had a metallic taste
As it fit between his jaws.
He had not found the peace he’d chased.
It was time for life to pause.
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THIS LIFE
By Carl Martin Johnson
This life is a good friend.
We’ve been close for years.
It is a friendship that will end,
But that will not bring tears.
This life has a twin
That waits the other side of death.
Our friendship will begin
Just after my last breath.
And perhaps there’ll be another,
Until at last I reach perfection.
But who will be my mother?
Or will rebirth be resurrection?
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BURN
By Carl Martin Johnson
Blaze!
Take life in white-hot flame.
Amaze!
Make the cosmos know your name.
This life belongs to you.
Show mankind that you own it.
In all that you do
Make certain you have shown it.
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NEW NIGHT
By Carl Martin Johnson
The new night soon is falling,
Taking me in her soft arms.
Nocturnal magic calling,
Seducing with her charms.
The day and I will sleep,
Night will tell us when to rise.
She will Life’s vigil keep,
Watching close with loving eyes.
Meanwhile she’ll pleasure me with dreams
To revive me from my sorrow.
And massage me with moonbeams
To restore strength for the morrow.
Until at last she will not wake me.
She will have my sleep endure.
Another life will take me
Into a night that has no cure.
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BEWARE THE TIGER
By Carl Martin Johnson
Beware the tiger when he stalks,
Lest his hunger you would sate.
At his side Death’s Horseman walks,
And feeds on mankind’s hate.
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SING SWEETLY
By Carl Martin Johnson
Sing sweetly, mockingbird,
Of this world and all its glory.
Let your song be heard.
Tell all creation’s story.
Your notes make angels’ song.
In them we hear God’s voice.
You take us up where we belong.
In your music we rejoice.
Your melody rings a prayer,
Heard with favor by God’s ear.
So commend us to His care
And beg Him our petitions hear.
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FEELING
By Carl Martin Johnson
Will I have emotions in the next life?
Will I know joy and pain?
Will I feel envy’s sharp knife,
As drove Abel’s death by Cain?
Or will soul without Man’s need
Absolve me from desire?
Will I from ardor’s grasp be freed,
Immune to passion’s fire?
I pray this not be true.
I crave my human flaws.
Though some ill they may do,
They are evolution’s cause.
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PASSION’S FLAME
By Carl Martin Johnson
Does your body feel the heat?
Is it warming next to mine?
Shall we make our love complete,
Drunk with passion’s wine?
Come and we will flame.
Let the cosmos feel our fire.
We will couple without shame,
Explode with our desire.
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TOGETHER
By Carl Martin Johnson
At best times we all act as one,
Our species unified.
Those times wondrous things are done.
Then mankind deserves pride.
Should we do that every day,
Humanity would go far.
Nothing could stand in our way.
We’d be better than we are.
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LIFE’S WORTH
By Carl Martin Johnson
Every day has meaning.
Every life has worth,
With all moments intervening
Between death and cry of birth.
Embrace each precious minute.
Take pride in your time’s use.
Eternity dwells in it.
The gods take no excuse.
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CONCERT IN THE TREES
By Carl Martin Johnson
Hear the concert in the trees.
Nature composed the score.
The orchestra conducted by the breeze,
Deserving an encore.
No music can be half so sweet
To a mortal ear.
No mortal music can compete
With that of God we hear.
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JOIN ME
By Carl Martin Johnson
Join me in my madness.
The sane world gives no joy.
Cast off all your sadness.
It’s boring to be coy.
The world may call us clowns,
But it will envy us our laughter,
And never see our frowns
From now and ever after.
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MIDNIGHT GHOSTS
By Carl Martin Johnson
At midnight my ghosts come to me.
They surround me in my bed.
We’ve been friends so long, you see,
It matters not that they are dead.
We talk about so many things,
Angels’ envy, mortal strife,
New songs the Heavenly Chorus sings,
This and the after-life.
They are too polite to ask me why
It was they who died, not me.
Brave warriors do not fear to die,
It’s life that’s hard, you see.
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SLIP GENTLY INTO NIGHT
By Carl Martin Johnson
Gently slip into the night.
It does no good to balk.
Surrender then without a fight.
No use in anxious talk.
The next life will be better still,
Though it be natural to fear.
Best face eternity with strong will,
And hold your courage dear.
Sing your lifesong clear and loud.
Leave this life with glory.
Let your last day on earth be proud,
So men will praise your story.
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SHARING LIFE
By Carl Martin Johnson
I share Life with all living things.
We have a common soul.
My own separate spirit sings,
But the world’s ghost makes the music whole.
I feel each being’s death.
I suffer with their pain.
I inhale their exhaled breath.
Their evolution is my gain.
When I die I will live on,
In all life that survives me,
Until all God’s creation’s gone
And His kind hand revives me.
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LAST FIGHT
By Carl Martin Johnson
I can see them in the treeline,
Rising up now our guns are still.
Soon my platoon’s fate will be mine.
Attack whistles are blowing shrill.
Fourteen of us have died this night.
It will be fifteen in a minute.
This will be my last fight.
I don’t think I’ll win it.
I will make a final kill.
At least I’m going to try.
Another human’s blood I’ll spill,
Before I fade and die.
Life is leaking out of me.
The enemy better hurry.
Sight is blurry, I can’t see.
Guess he doesn’t need to worry.
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JOSEPH, MY NEPHEW
By Carl Martin Johnson
I sang my Life Song loud.
I held the world in wonder.
I lived and I walked proud.
I was Lightning. I was Thunder.
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BALANCE OF LIFE
By Carl Martin Johnson
For every death comes soon a birth.
A new soul fills the void,
To keep life growing here on earth,
So Man is not destroyed.
When loved ones die, shed tears of grief,
Then kiss the newly born.
Remember, mortal life is brief,
So take not long to mourn.
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YOU ARE LIGHTNING
By Carl Martin Johnson
Day is not yet done.
Life is not yet ended.
There are battles to be won,
Lovers to be friended.
Yield never to despair.
Hope will not desert you.
With tears and joy in equal share,
Misfortune cannot hurt you.
Rise each time you fall.
No enemy can defeat you.
If you cannot walk, then crawl
To every challenge sent to meet you.
Remember, you are Man,
All Creation’s wonder.
What you dream you can.
You are Lightning, you are Thunder.
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DREAMING MY PAST
By Carl Martin Johnson
Did I really live my past,
Or is it just a dream?
If so, then the die, though cast,
I may yet redeem.
I will erase my grievous sins,
And dream a new beginning.
So, when my redone past begins
I’ll leave out youthful sinning.
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DEATH I DO NOT FEAR YOU
By Carl Martin Johnson
Death, I do not fear you.
You are only Heaven’s gate.
You are coming; I can hear you.
Do not hurry; I will wait
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