Chesapeake, Virginia
Phyllis’ poems have appeared in Home Life magazine, Dorchester Media publications, In Concert, Jewish Magazine, anthologies including numerous Skipping Stones publications, a collection by Hampton Roads poets, several Soundings anthologies by Open Page Poets in Virginia Beach, and in Ripples, the editor’s favorite 100 poems from the first four years of Skipping Stones. She has served as an editor for Skipping Stones on one occasion.
Phyllis has enjoyed hosting open mic nights in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach and has led poetry workshops in Richmond, Wakefield and Chesapeake. Her favorite poetry workshop has been held with romance writers. It was titled the “One Night Stanza Poetry Workshop.” Phyllis serves on the literary panel at the Suffolk Annual Literary Festival at Paul D. Camp Community College. She has also lectured numerous times on writing at Virginia Wesleyan College. She is inspired and delighted by the enthusiasm of the teens she works with in a Writing Club at a local high school where she has helped produce several poetry anthologies by the students.PUBLICATIONS:
Being Frank with Anne (Community Press) beingfrankwithanne.com
Hot and Bothered by It (Community Press)
Twelve is for more than Doughnuts (Lulu.com)
Online:
Being Frank with Anne review at Tidewater Women
Review in Religious Herald
Hot and Bothered by It review at Authors Reviewed
Podcast of radio interview with Dr. Michael Cortson
You view your
past as though it were a movie.
All the freedom,
friends and fun
play before you
like a screenplay and
you compare the
old and new Anne.
Superficial and social,
she peers back at you,
laughing.
You like her but
find her shallow,
finding life’s real meaning
in love, nature and God.
—Phyllis Johnson
And Proverbs says
Don’t wear yourself out getting rich.
Like a carrot before a horse,
we’re all on this course,
bound for riches or bust.
Distrustful of silence,
too busy to listen,
too scheduled out
to take a deep breath
and the essence of it all,
what our drive
has driven us to,
the frenzied lives we lead,
in which there’s no time to
plant a seed,
to fertilize His fields,
and so we’d better yield
to words we’re just too
busy to hear.
Be still and know
that He is near.
—Phyllis Johnson
Excerpt from Twelve is for more than Doughnuts