In [“For Pandora, as she enters kindergarten“], Johanna writes with care and clarity about the intersections of faith, body, and memory, offering space for tenderness, reckoning, and survival.
Through lyric attention and restraint, Johanna’s poem speaks to what it means to live honestly with the past while still reaching for meaning and connection. It is an offering rooted in reflection and becoming.
VN, Fiction & Poetry Editor, Snowflake Magazine
[“Spread Out“] takes us from night to noon as we see how a couple’s lives are shaped by love. . . . Ultimately, like the speaker, we are left in hopeful anticipation . . . A beautiful and heartfelt rendering of love & longing.
[“Hope is Stronger Than Feathers“] gently folds observation, family, and fragility into a meditation on hope, birds, and perspective. Please read [Issue 3 to] experience the full, delicate bloom of Johanna’s imagery.
“Our Lady of High-Powered Explosives” is a gorgeous poem. . . . [It] is My Chemical Romance. And community. Like, that’s the fan base, that’s My Chem, that’s the thesis, that’s everything right there. What do we even have to say? It’s been said. . . . I don’t need to explain this poem because the poem explains itself.
johanna e. hall 