WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT HERE ALONE, AWAY FROM EVERYONE?
"All the things about yourself and your life you think no one can relate to? Or the shit you don't want to talk about because it hurts? Right here. Poetry like a mirror. Everything about your life that hurts."
-Elizabeth Victoria Aldrich, author of Ruthless Little Things
Hooked at the first poem, and it only got better. These poems read like a peek into the lives of a dysfunctional family from every single point of view. Tales of personal struggles, broken homes, infidelity, alcoholism, cops, and lawyers. I laughed, had WTF moments, even a few FTW moments. This is an excellent collection of hard-hitting poetry, observing the fact that things really are tough all over.
- James D. Casey, IV, Founder/Editor-in-Chief of Cajun Mutt Press
"Literalism and sincerity merely scratch the surface of these wryly funny deadpan confessionals. Outlaw poetry for a sentimental hard-luck generation conditioned to be cynical. Will make you guffaw, wince, question, and bittersweetly turn the page on answers no less instructive for being unsatisfactory, like time spent in the elements informs muscle memory while eluding meaning."
- Manuel Marrero, author of Not Yet and founder of Expat Press
What Are You Doing Out Here Alone, Away From Everyone? digs deep into the panting desperation of the modern American male and his myriad failures and fantasies. It is a lonely alcoholics plea to his children, down and out in suburban noir poetry. These poems are littered with accidents on purpose, life insurance policies, suicidal texts, domestic disturbances big and small, and a furious resignation. Adam Johnson’s poetry is hilarious and confrontational. He finds the absurd plumbing the depths of man’s collective impotence. These poems are sharp as thumb tacks, pricking our psyche.
- Derek Maine
Adam Johnson’s What Are You Doing Out Here Alone, Away From Everyone? is the definitive poetic exploration of the banality of human existence. The book delves deeply and cogently into life’s casual cruelty without resorting to apologies, rationalizations, romanticism, or delusions. Here are small people living small lives and suffering small, inevitable deaths. And yet the reader is still given a wealth of humor and joy, even if these pleasures are fleeting and hard-won, like the perverse, profound satisfaction of dying while on vacation.
- William H. Duryea, Co-Founder/Editor-in-Chief of Misery Tourism
These poems are about addiction and disease, marriage and abuse and infidelity, love and hate and anhedonia and falling down the stairs drunk with a bottle of gin. Reading this collection is like driving through a suburb of Hell. The people are hospitable but you’re glad to just be visiting. The characters here rage for joy and end up with heartburn. I loved this book. It’s like William T. Vollmann rewrote Spoon River Anthology.
- Graham Irvin, author of Liver Mush
Adam Johnson’s What Are You Doing is a chokeslam that sends that reader straight to hell. This collection is a masterclass in self-deprecation and honesty.
- Shawn Berman, author of Mr. Funnyman and Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Drunk
"So much suffering and drinking. I thought I was really looking at America.... It is like a huge compendium of very short stories. Some of the endings were killer diller. The final lines of good poems are like ski jumps, they should project you out into empty space where you just float helpless. Or they should be like knockout punches. These are that."
- Jesse Hilson, author of Blood Trip
"This is a great collection. Absurd, quiet, domestic, insane, sad, funny. There are lots of funny poems. There are also lots of sad poems. There are especially a lot of poems I would describe as funny/sad. Someone almost lights a shoe, thinking it’s a cigarette. I especially liked that poem. Ted’s Lawyer is my favorite poem from this book. It’s mostly sad (not funny). I would buy this collection for someone if I liked them a lot. I would buy this collection for someone if I didn’t like them all that much but they said they didn’t like poetry and I wanted to prove them wrong."
- Calvin Westra, author of Family Annihilator
Poetry
Paperback
December 21, 2021
$14
Adam Johnson