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Sara Eliza Johnson
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Bone Map: Poems (National Poetry Series) Kindle Edition

by Sara Eliza Johnson (Author), Martha Collins (Introduction) Format: Kindle Edition
4.7 out of 5 stars 39 ratings

“These poems, like light, clarify even as they pierce.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Selected for the National Poetry Series by Martha Collins, Sara Eliza Johnson’s stunning, deeply visceral first collection pulls shards of tenderness from a world on the verge of collapse.

Here violence and terror infuse the body, the landscape, and dreams: a handful of blackberries offered from bloodied arms, bee stings likened to pulses of sunlight, a honeycomb of marrow exposed. “All moments will shine if you cut them open. / Will glisten like entrails in the sun.” With figurative language that makes long, associative leaps, and with metaphors and images that continually resurrect themselves across poems, Bone Map builds and transforms its world through a locomotive echo—a regenerative force—that comes to parallel the psychic quest for redemption that unfolds in its second half. The result is a deeply affecting composition that establishes Sara Eliza Johnson as a vital new voice in American poetry.

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  1. Part of series
    National Poetry
  2. Print length
    75 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Milkweed Editions
  5. Publication date
    September 9, 2014
  6. File size
    4.0 MB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Not Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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 See full series
There are 126 books in this series.
3 unreleased or unavailable books are excluded.
  • Kindle Price:
    $81.31
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"The territory mapped in this gorgeous book—first a forest with animals, then water and winter ice—is wracked by violence, war, and loss, with the bones and viscera of the living and dead laying claim to our attention. But it is also a world of dream and vision: 'All moments will shine if you cut them open,' the poet says. And though the process is often brutal, as war edges toward apocalypse, then quiets to elegiac ache, a fierce beauty emerges, line by line, image by image, transforming darkness as well as light."
—Martha Collins

"Bone Map attunes us not to cosmic harmonies that remove us from the world in which we live, but to those violent facts that thrill easier orders back into the difficulty of actual existence. She asks us to enter, not to contemplate; asks us to bite, not to savor. Returning again and again to brute nodes of meaning—owl, deer, berry, blood, wound—Johnson guides us back into those primary symbols where the husk of human intelligence breaks apart, leaving only that shining germ that admits to basic needs: hunger, meaning, love, want. Poems of dark wonder result, calling back into the surface complexity of our daily lives those deeper realities of folklore and fairy tale, and the child’s astonished realization, that she is—as we are—both predator and prey. And so I hear the prayer of these poems. Not deliverance. But entrance—into the dark woods, into the deep loam, where the berry bleeds, the owl calls, and the wolf still roams."
—Dan Beachy-Quick

"Here, the moon can 'roll through you like a great city before a war,' this place where a creature newly born 'makes a thimbleful of sound,' where 'men do not know yet what their hands will be made to do to other men.' So begins the unnerving, seemingly speechless days and nights of Sara Eliza Johnson’s fierce and tender Bone Map—a collection that continues on, to haunt and reorder human experience. A much earlier world lives in these poems, and our own sad time as well. Private and oddly not private at all in her mythic feel and often through brilliant riffs of metaphor, Johnson is careful about the deep silence in things, and her direction. Which is to say, this book is a map. Carry it with you. Then open it. Let it advise and scare you again and again."
—Marianne Boruch

“Sara Eliza Johnson’s Bone Map charts a dreamscape that mixes elements of folk tale into mysterious itineraries through the commingled fringes of the world of sacramental animals and a frail humankind. She writes with the sere precision reminiscent of Alaskan poet John Haines, yet with a delicacy of language and magical thought all her own. The logic in her narratives is that of dreaming—primitive, chthonic, and subtly terrifying. Hers is a cunning and dangerous poetry, deceptive in its apparent innocence, not written against the dark backdrop of identifiable horrors, but drawn from a well of the beautiful and the macabre, a crystal cup of roses dipped in the tongueblood of wolves. In all, there is the mystic vision of wintry things first seen at the cusp of spring, not yet sorted into any commonplace order. For Johnson is a builder of miraculous worlds and not their devourer. O magnum misterium!”
—Garrett Hongo

About the Author

National Poetry Series and Rona Jaffe Award winner Sara Eliza Johnson has published poems in Boston Review and the New England Review, among many others publications. She is the Vice Presidential Fellow in creative writing at the University of Utah. She lives in Salt Lake City.

Martha Collins is the author of six collections of poetry and three books of co-translations from the Vietnamese. She founded the Creative Writing Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston and for ten years served as the Pauline Delaney Professor of Creative Writing at Oberlin College. Currently editor-at-large for FIELD and an editor for Oberlin College Press, she lives in Cambridge, MA.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00LDYFF0C
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Milkweed Editions (September 9, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 9, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4.0 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 75 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 out of 5 stars 39 ratings

About the author

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Sara Eliza Johnson

Sara Eliza Johnson

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Sara Eliza Johnson grew up in Stratford, Connecticut. She is a graduate of Cornell University and received her MFA in poetry from the University of Oregon. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Boston Review, New England Review, Ninth Letter, Best New Poets 2009, Crab Orchard Review, Tampa Review, Memorious, Vinyl, Pleiades, Meridian, TriQuarterly Online, and Salt Hill, as well as the anthologies Read Women and February, and has been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and the Academy of American Poets website. Her first book, Bone Map (Milkweed, 2014), won the 2013 National Poetry Series.

A finalist for the Stadler Fellowship and Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship, she is the recipient of numerous honors, including a 2015 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in poetry, a 2010 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, two Winter Fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and a 2011 work-study scholarship to the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, as well as fellowships from the University of Oregon and the University of Utah, where she was a Vice Presidential Fellow in creative writing and is currently Managing Editor of Quarterly West. Visit her at www.saraelizajohnson.com.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
39 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers praise the book's beautiful imagery and effective poetic movements, with one noting how the poems flow seamlessly together. They appreciate its craftsmanship and consider it a breath-taking debut, with one review highlighting its profound exploration of myth.

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9 customers mention "Visual quality"9 positive0 negative

Customers find the book visually appealing, with beautiful imagery and stunning clarity, and one customer describes it as a captivating read.

"...skill in weaving together the primal and the poetic, making it a captivating read for anyone drawn to the depths of human experience through verse." Read more

"Strong, vibrant, violent yet beautiful writing." Read more

"Great book well written and inspirational" Read more

"Johnson creates some beautiful imagery in her poems and the journey that Bone Maps took me through was gripping. Give this book a try." Read more

6 customers mention "Writing quality"6 positive0 negative

Customers praise the writing quality of the book, noting its lyrical prowess and ability to haunt and surprise readers, with one customer highlighting how the poems flow seamlessly together.

"...a testament to Johnson's skill in weaving together the primal and the poetic, making it a captivating read for anyone drawn to the depths of human..." Read more

"Strong, vibrant, violent yet beautiful writing." Read more

"Great book well written and inspirational" Read more

"...; for a poetry workshop class, but Ms Johnson's writing is so effective in its poetic movements, lyricism, and insights that I have since sought out..." Read more

3 customers mention "Craftsmanship"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the craftsmanship of the book, with one noting its cohesiveness.

"Strong, vibrant, violent yet beautiful writing." Read more

"...a whole book of poems, I would recommend "Bone Map" for its cohesiveness, which is both one of its strengths and one of its flaws...." Read more

"Good craftsmanship, but grizzly subject." Read more

3 customers mention "Narrative quality"3 positive0 negative

Customers praise the narrative quality of the book, describing it as a breath-taking debut with great use of stories, and one customer notes its profound exploration of myth.

"...'s writing is so effective in its poetic movements, lyricism, and insights that I have since sought out her other works...." Read more

"Breath-taking debut! These poems haunt and surprise. They speak of a shadow world at once familiar and strange. Read it, then read it again." Read more

"A Profound Exploration of Myth and Memory..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Mickie Kennedy
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Profound Exploration of Myth and Memory
    Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Sara Eliza Johnson's Bone Map delves into a haunting landscape where violence and tenderness intertwine, each poem a visceral journey through the shadows of myth and memory. Johnson's lyrical prowess and evocative imagery create a world where every line resonates with raw emotion and stunning clarity. This collection is a testament to Johnson's skill in weaving together the primal and the poetic, making it a captivating read for anyone drawn to the depths of human experience through verse.
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  • HooDoo
    5.0 out of 5 stars Worth it
    Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Strong, vibrant, violent yet beautiful writing.
    Helpful
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  • Elizabeth Vrenios
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great book well written and inspirational
    Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Great book
    well written and inspirational
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  • A. Freeman
    5.0 out of 5 stars Johnson creates some beautiful imagery in her poems and the journey that Bone ...
    Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Johnson creates some beautiful imagery in her poems and the journey that Bone Maps took me through was gripping. Give this book a try.
    Helpful
     Report
  • J. WINTER
    4.0 out of 5 stars Great Intro to Serious Poetry Reading
    Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    I was originally assigned "Bone Map" for a poetry workshop class, but Ms Johnson's writing is so effective in its poetic movements, lyricism, and insights that I have since sought out her other works.
    If you aren't used to sitting down and reading a whole book of poems, I would recommend "Bone Map" for its cohesiveness, which is both one of its strengths and one of its flaws. The poems flow seamlessly together, and one benefit of that is that it gives you as a reader more time to think along with Ms Johnson. You grow used to her language, her recurring motifs, and her 'obsessions': eyes, horses, bees, rural life, pain and love. It gets to the point where when you see another bone or deer pop up in a poem, it feels familiar. This can help readers string along the messages that accompany those motifs more easily. However, it can also be a bit confusing. Sometimes the poems, with all of their similar tones, blend together at times and it can be hard to keep each poem distinct in your mind. It almost feels like reading one long epic poem, but again, depending on what you're after, that might be just what you want.
    Ms Johnson makes great use of narratives, and is a great story-teller throughout "Bone Map". She incorporates both tales we are all familiar with, such as "Little Red Riding Hood" in one of her more memorable pieces, "Marchen" (German for fairy tale), as well as stories you may have to flip back to the notes section to figure out, like "The Voyage of St. Brendan".
    "Bone Map" is a great introductory book for somebody who wants to become a real reader of poems. It is full of beautifully crafted lines, and the obsessions of Ms Johnson are universal enough that you may find them becoming your own.
    I look forward to reading more of Ms Johnson's work.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Amie L. Whittemore
    5.0 out of 5 stars Breath-taking debut! These poems haunt and surprise. They ...
    Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Breath-taking debut! These poems haunt and surprise. They speak of a shadow world at once familiar and strange. Read it, then read it again.
    Helpful
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  • Cheyenne Black
    5.0 out of 5 stars An incredible book by an amazing poet.
    Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Gorgeous in every way. An incredible book by an amazing poet.
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  • Karstin K. Painter
    5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning. Just stunning.
    Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    This is a beautiful book. Buy it a million times, pass it around to your friends.
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • John Mccutcheon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Four and a half stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2025
    Verified Purchase
    Some excellent poetry here. The themes are brilliantly carried through the poems. There is also an underlying music to most of the poems that gives individual poems, and the work as a whole, flow.
    Report
  • Raven
    5.0 out of 5 stars stunningly beautiful, haunting poetry
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 20, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    closed the book after the first poem and said to myself: holy sh*t. just wow.
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