Award-winning poet Bryana Johnson writes in her first full-length collection of poetry,
I want my ink to do happy dances,
to careen across the pages staggering
like a drunken fellow, giddy
on moonshine or sunset.
-FOUND
and the words that she has strung together in this winsome compilation do just that. Having Decided to Stay is an exploration in verse of G.K. Chesterton's assertion that, "gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." Its 40 poems present the colossal wonders of human existence with elegant and startling cadence. Bryana embraces both free verse and fixed forms, and her language sings regardless of the pattern she employs. Drawing from classical literature, popular culture, personal experience and the awe of the untamed wild, these poems were spun out of the spilling over of an overwhelmed heart. The poet earnestly entreats the reader to lean in and become transfixed.