Stacey C. Johnson
Stacey C. Johnson is a lifetime educator and student in the perception of mystery. Her work is about liberation through cycles of destruction and renewal and her primary obsessions revolve around the cultivation of hope against the possibility of despair, particularly relevant in an age of mechanized destruction. Flight Songs emerges from this work. This polyvocal collection highlights voices from the margins––neglected, abused, surveilled, dispossessed, and unseen––and resonates with a transcultural pulse to expand familiar notions of human struggle into one that expands to encompass a mythical narrative of the living and the dead in this pivotal moment.
Only Hope. Only Life
Interview with Literary Titan.
Published 08 March 2024
Flight Songs addresses, through poetry, some of life’s most impactful struggles and the intense emotions associated with loss, survival, and resilience. Why was this an important collection for you to share?
What matters to me is nourishing hope against destruction and despair. Most of my stories and essays revolve around the perspective of a character on the brink, about to give up, and then something gives oxygen to a tiny flame, and life continues. This collection arose with urgency and insistence out of that constant obsession. I don’t usually see things so fully with such force all at once, but in the case of this collection, it was a powerful and almost singular vision: women and families on the road, carrying babies away from the engines of war, singing to survive.
Do you have a particular selection in your collection that resonates with you?
I am most connected to the “Notes” page and the “Song of Gratitude” at the end, because it affirms my connection to the teachers and artists who have guided me, the community that sustains and inspires my hope, and the friends and family who have made it possible for me to live.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore within your poems?
Only hope. Only life, and how to maintain and protect what may yet live in an age of mechanized destruction. I believe in the power of interconnected voices to move the moment and protect the living and the dead.
Can readers expect to see more work from you soon? What are you currently working on?
Yes. I have more poems coming out from a collection that emerged after Flight Songs. And a variety of other bodies of work that I dare not characterize just yet. They still haven’t told me their names.
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