What do you think?
Rate this book
Someday Johnson Creek: Poems
In this debut poetry collection, Joshua Doležal traces one summer as a ranger in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness of north Idaho, where trail maintenance provides a touchstone for childhood, American history, and masculinity.
Someday Johnson Creek takes its name from a real place and also honors Connie Saylor Johnson, who devoted more than forty years to wilderness conservation. Doležal worked with Johnson for several summers while studying poetry and creative nonfiction with Ted Kooser at the University of Nebraska. Poems in this volume first appeared in magazines such as Hudson Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, RATTLE, and Third Coast.
Someday Johnson Creek takes its name from a real place and also honors Connie Saylor Johnson, who devoted more than forty years to wilderness conservation. Doležal worked with Johnson for several summers while studying poetry and creative nonfiction with Ted Kooser at the University of Nebraska. Poems in this volume first appeared in magazines such as Hudson Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, RATTLE, and Third Coast.
66 pages, Paperback
Published November 27, 2024
1 person want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 15, 2024
A good poetry collection is something a reader returns to again and again. One read can't be enough (and if it is, the thing should be taken to the thrift shop). This one's a keeper.
On second read, or fourth, I find different threads, snags of intention and images I haven't yet experienced. But also, a deepening of what was my first read, too. The visceral quality here is what most moves me; it's something to grab at. Might be painful, but it grows from the natural world. Even in facing death--a hunting gunshot wound (something this Canadian is familiar with) there is rawness and life lived with intimate knowledge of the shadow that is always a part of being alive.
Trail poems, working in wilderness poems, humans in the natural world, doing their unnatural things, trying to get it right.
On second read, or fourth, I find different threads, snags of intention and images I haven't yet experienced. But also, a deepening of what was my first read, too. The visceral quality here is what most moves me; it's something to grab at. Might be painful, but it grows from the natural world. Even in facing death--a hunting gunshot wound (something this Canadian is familiar with) there is rawness and life lived with intimate knowledge of the shadow that is always a part of being alive.
Trail poems, working in wilderness poems, humans in the natural world, doing their unnatural things, trying to get it right.
July 20, 2025
Like falling into something true
These poems pulled me in right away. You can feel the wilderness in every line—like you’re out there with him, hearing the water, feeling the silence. It’s raw, reflective, and so real. I love how he ties nature to memory, labor, and identity without ever trying too hard. Just honest, grounded, and quietly powerful.
These poems pulled me in right away. You can feel the wilderness in every line—like you’re out there with him, hearing the water, feeling the silence. It’s raw, reflective, and so real. I love how he ties nature to memory, labor, and identity without ever trying too hard. Just honest, grounded, and quietly powerful.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews