"When I Told Her She Was Sexy..." – A Poem by Kenneth G. Johnson

When I Told Her She Was Sexy...
by Kenneth G. Johnson*

"You're projecting," she said, 
Her face turning red, 
"The sexiness you see 
is all in your head." 

"You're right!" I agreed
With the lovely objector,
"But I like the way
You run my projector." 


*The late Kenneth G. Johnson—Professor, Department of Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee—authored the popular General Semantics: An Outline Survey, among other works. Ken remains one of the most important of the scholar-teachers of korzybskian GS at the Institute of General Semantics after Korzybski's death. 

"Authoritarian" – A Poem by Kenneth G. Johnson

Authoritarian
by Kenneth G. Johnson*

A perfect world 
This would be
If everyone 
Would be like me. 

Or better than
The way I am, 
The way I like 
To think I am. 

*The late Kenneth G. Johnson—Professor, Department of Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee—authored the popular General Semantics: An Outline Survey, among other works. Ken remains one of the most important of the scholar-teachers of korzybskian GS at the Institute of General Semantics after Korzybski's death. 

"Expectations Anticipated" – A Poem by Kenneth G. Johnson

Expectations Anticipated
by Kenneth G. Johnson*

I do what I do 
Because what I do 
Is what I believe
You expect me to do. 

You do what you do
Because what you do
Is what you believe 
I expect you to do.

How can I know you? 
How can you know me? 
When reflexpectations
Distort what we see?


*The late Kenneth G. Johnson—Professor, Department of Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee—authored the popular General Semantics: An Outline Survey, among other works. Ken remains one of the most important of the scholar-teachers of korzybskian GS at the Institute of General Semantics after Korzybski's death. 

"To A Neurone" – A Poem by Kenneth G. Johnson

To A Neurone

by Kenneth G. Johnson*

Twitter, twitter little neurone

Though the impulse be not your own

For without your ceaseless twit

I would cease to be—a wit?

*The late Kenneth G. Johnson—Professor, Department of Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee—authored the popular General Semantics: An Outline Survey, among other works. Ken remains one of the most important of the scholar-teachers of korzybskian GS at the Institute of General Semantics after Korzybski's death. 

"GS Seminar" - A Poem by Kenneth G. Johnson

GS Seminar
by Kenneth G. Johnson*

We learn we are creative stuff
And that five senses aren't enough
We learn to feel that which we sit on
And what to do when we are spit on. 
Delay your reactions — that's the trick,
Until the cortical neurones click. 
And then with every thought intact
Take careful aim and spit right back. 

*The late Kenneth G. Johnson—Professor, Department of Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee—authored the popular General Semantics: An Outline Survey, among other works. Ken remains one of the most important of the scholar-teachers of korzybskian GS at the Institute of General Semantics after Korzybski's death. 

Korzybski on Poetry

"...poetry often conveys in a few sentences more of lasting value than a whole volume of scientific analysis." 
— Alfred Korzybski, 
p. 437, Science and Sanity