Poems that we like best were the ones that moved us, that evoked a feeling, that we could relate to. In other words, poems that are honest.

“We Are Nowhere and It’s Wow for us is a collection of poems that are honest. That is what we felt when we read the first edition, published in limited edition print back in 2008 and sold out during its launch at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival.

“(This version) is nine years older and has become radically more real. Some poems were taken out; they were the ones that, although smart and provocative, were distraction from the narrative of being home, away, and in-between.

“Many are resurrected after a decade into these pages; they do not mask youthful angst, and speak volumes about how one arrives at being nowhere.
“The book has become more personal, or as Mikael puts it himself, written with all gloves off. As he bared his knuckles, us readers got to recognize parts of ourselves and our worlds in the poems.
Mikael Johani was not born in Rochester, New York, in 1927 and was never educated at Harvard or Columbia universities. He has not written nineteen previous book of poetry. Never has been and never will be Charles P. Stevenson, Jr., Professor of Language and Literature at Bard College, he does not live in New York City and Hudson, New York. His poetry is not a rigorous searched for “the unknown” – but still based on a “reasoned disordering of all the senses” by means of alcohol and, when money allows,