Fireflies Against Darkness

Kendall Johnson's Fireflies against Darkness is in the end a bright spot in a world that could seem endlessly painful. The author has seen more evil than any one person should have to see from his tour of Vietnam where young men were asked to savage a country and murder strangers to New York City during the days of 9/11. Between and after that time, he has made a career of confronting evil through his practice as a trauma psychotherapist. What is extraordinary about him is that rather than being dragged down into that evil, he has fought to see the spots of light in an otherwise chaotic universe and to make them his practice. He has maintained his essential self, and this book is a guide for us to do the same.

-John Brantingham, Inaugural Poet Laureate, Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park

In life and in print, Kendall Johnson IS this title and believes in its tiny promises. His words are both heart-breaking and heart-mending-but most of all they encourage hope. No matter how dark the circumstance, man-caused or natural, his beautifully-wrought words are spare beacons, truly Fireflies Against Darkness.

-Tracey Meloni, Writer, Nursing Education

In this collection, Kendall Johnson displays his keen sense of observation in our human condition during our current chaotic times of darkness. Even when writing about how things couldn't possibly seem worse, the power of his words and the beauty of his haiku portray how the actions of others produce fireflies of hope in all of us.

-Annie Bien, Author of Plateau Migrations and Under Shadows of Stars

Kendall Johnson is no stranger to pain and chaos. As a former firefighter, Vietnam veteran, and psychologist specializing in crisis management and the treatment of traumatic stress, he has mastered the art of wrestling with tangled lives. He's perfected that art in this latest volume. He unflinchingly shows us the darkness while at the same time revealing exquisite, small tales of individual perseverance, generosity, and strength. The contrast is stunningly inspiring.

-Kate Flannery, Writer of Ekphrasis for the Sasse Museum of Art, poetry, and memoir

When times are tough, like they have been lately, we sometimes need help to get through. Kendall Johnson gives us that in Fireflies Against Darkness. Short hard news pieces are followed by tiny verses that, like fireflies, light the path connecting us to quietly courageous people who, using art or music or nature, bring us hope. Bring us out of the darkness. I love this book!

-Louella Lester, author of Glass Bricks

This remarkable, highly original chapbook juxtaposes bulletins from the COVID-pandemic, out of control wildfires, natural disasters, mass shootings, and climate change chaos with glimpses of the famous (and not so famous) denizens of the art world and their struggles, including Chuck Close, Georgia and Ida O'Keeffe, and Vincent Van Gogh. I could not stop reading this mesmerizing collection. I didn't want it to end. Kendall Johnson has written something important, holding up a mirror to our tarnished reality.

-Alexis Rhone Fancher, author of EROTIC: New & Selected, poetry, editor, Cultural Daily

Note to the Reader

When 2020 rolled to a close I was grateful, scarcely imagining that the new year could get worse. Yet media spectacle bombards us every hour with new more frightening atrocities and threat. We fight over what is right, real, or true. We find ourselves driving a rough road through dark night. In the face of the grinding uncertainty that is today, what can we look toward for the courage to continue?