Yesterscents and Other Traces
Poems of Transition
Mark E. Johnson, Ph.D. · 1995
Foreword
In 1995, somewhere between lectures on semiclassical mechanics and cross-country moves, Mark E. Johnson scribbled lines that pulsed with motion, rebellion, vulnerability, and absurdist clarity. These are not polished works—they are field notes from the interior. They mark a year of transition: from the East Coast to the Southwest, from restless youth to searching adult, from structure to freedom.
This collection gathers 15 poems written that year and arranges them not by date, but by emotional and thematic gravity. It traces an arc—from alienation to absurdity, from nature to introspection, and finally to release.
What emerges is a map of becoming, written in real time.
Critical Analysis
Overall Analysis
This collection represents a young mathematician-poet in radical transition, both geographically and psychologically. Written during Johnson's move from the East Coast to New Mexico in 1995, these poems oscillate between academic precision and wild abandon, between isolation and cosmic connection. The work bears the hallmarks of someone simultaneously inside and outside of institutional life—writing during mathematics lectures, on airplanes, in moments of professional tedium transformed into linguistic play.
Major Influences
The Beat Poets
Particularly Kerouac's spontaneous prose and Ginsberg's ecstatic chanting. The stream-of-consciousness style, the celebration of movement, and the rejection of conventional form all echo Beat sensibilities.
Richard Brautigan
His whimsical surrealism and ability to find profound absurdity in everyday objects. Johnson's 'barbie doll dreams' and 'malfunctioning tennis ball lobster' carry Brautigan's DNA.
Gary Snyder
The attention to landscape, the reverence for nature as teacher, and the idea of paths/trails as spiritual metaphors connect directly to Snyder's eco-Buddhist poetics.
Minor Influences
E.E. Cummings (syntactic experimentation, parenthetical intimacy) • Frank O'Hara (casual urbanism, 'I do this I do that' poems) • Charles Bukowski (raw directness, anti-establishment stance) • Shel Silverstein (playful rhythm, childlike wonder) • W.S. Merwin (sparse questioning, ecological consciousness)
Thematic Arc
The collection moves from alienation to connection, from mental imprisonment to physical freedom, from Eastern confinement to Western expansiveness. The title word 'yesterscents'—a neologism—captures the entire project: how memory, sensation, and language intersect to create meaning from transience.
Contents
Section I: Alienation & Edge
These poems explore disconnection—from systems, from others, and sometimes from the self. Thought spirals and existential friction animate this opening movement, rooted in solitude and late-night clarity.
Section II: Surreal Rebellion & Joy
These poems move into absurdity, humor, and uninhibited expression. Joy becomes rebellion, and nonsense becomes clarity.
Section III: Nature, Motion & Becoming
The world outside becomes a mirror. These poems travel through weather, paths, and landscapes—toward something new, something forming.
Section IV: Intimacy, Transition & Arrival
The final movement reveals moments of connection, solitude, and place. These are poems of departure and becoming—of letting go and landing.