Just To Spend A Little Time With You

To make it easily understandable -- to the reader -- each poem is titled, dated, and where it was written.  In most cases, the place where the poem was written will say, most vividly to those that know me well exactly what I was doing.   In other words, if the poem was written in Da Nang, South Vietnam, those that know me will readily know that I was in the Army, and that I was fighting the war as a soldier, and not as an administrator for some governmental agency, or some other private company.

I started writing poems and other poetic verses and phrases as far back as I can remember, but only through the encouragement of teachers did I began to save my writings.  Thusly, the first recorded poem was in 1962, a song for a band I played with in college.

Over the years, my writings have given hope, inspiration and liveliness to others, as well as tons of insightful memories to me, and hopefully, these poems will reach countless others and bring some laughter, hope, inspiration and joy to their lives.  That is the purpose of my writing.

I have written songs for choirs, gospel groups and individuals, some of which have been set to music, recorded and copywrited.

If you look closer, the average reader can sense the changes in my life through my writings, from the do-nothing attitudes through the it’s-mine-or-else selfishness to the I-love-you-in-spite-of-yourself idea.  Those of you that find only intrigue, or laughter in those areas that are not fully comprehensible, it is safe to note that I will be laughing with you, for I, as the author, was often intrigued, and even lost at some of my own writings.

Here’s hoping you find something of value in my poems.

James Monroe Johnson, born in the Mississippi Delta, started writing in the second grade of elementary school.  His teachers encouraged him throughout his elementary and high school years, and surprisingly, he found professorial encouragement in college.  During his years in the Army, and especially the two years he served in Vietnam, he wrote letters and poems for his buddies who sent them to their wives and girlfriends.  James graduated from Okolona College, where he recorded his first poem, as he wrote songs for The Twilighters – a band in which he played guitar and bass.  After nine years in the military, he enrolled at University of Miami, where he graduated in 1975.

Moving back home to his Native Mississippi – then westward to Houston, then Dallas, Texas, he kept on writing.  Back home, on the Gulf Coast for awhile, he traveled extensively – on and off the job – and finally in California, he wrote considerably.  Having lived in, or spent at least one night, in forty-eight of the fifty states (he regrets having missed Vermont and New Hampshire), the author feels inspired to share his experiences with others.  Being a lifelong lover of books, and poetry in particular, he read often and with the coming of educational channels on television and the internet, he enriched his life tremendously through reading and watching.