The Chemical Life

Jim Johnstone

"images so visceral, primal – yet controlled – that they leave us disoriented, seeing double." - Marcella Huerta & Tess Liem, Montreal Review of Books

In many ways, Johnstone is a mysterious poet. The inner world of his poems is full of strange associations and dreamlike successions of images. It is a bold, skillful sort of poetry, and it makes one curious what canyons he will attempt in the years to come. —University of Toronto Quarterly

Johnstone's poetry is incredibly efficient; there are no wasted words. Both thematically and technically, there is a dirty edge to many of these poems, which gives them a raw and uncensored feel. —The New Quarterly