Dog Ear

Like the “page turned down to make another / page,” Dog Ear explores the marks we leave on a world whose social, political and personal markers are constantly shifting. In his fourth book of poems-and most focused work to date-Jim Johnstone establishes himself as an exquisite observer of decay, both physical and spiritual. This is a universe where man resembles “the final / generation of a species branching / towards an in-between.” Johnstone’s poetry blurs past and present, private and public in a kinetic style marked by weird semi-narratives, defamiliarizing close-ups and raw self-examinations.