All selections © 2000 The Literary Estate of Ronald Johnson,
from To Do as Adam Did: Selected Poems of Ronald Johnson,Talisman Press, 2000

from The Shrubberies
(previously unpublished)

quincunx of succulents
subtle colors and forms
succinct in dust
appropriate the pot
assigned, set each
for spill into Other
always my core dream
winding a garden
secret in every sense