New Reviews of my Water Works and Chance

Jennifer Polhemus reviews my Water Works (The Poet's Haven, 2017): "My first read in celebration of National Poetry Month 2017...The sensual physicality of John's poetry leaves me feeling like I've taken one too many Vicodin; pleasantly spinning with just a slight annoyance of itchiness. Only some sort of orgasm will distract from the need to scratch. Delightful read!"

Jennifer Polhemus reviews my It Takes More Than Chance to Make Change (The Poet's Haven, 2013): "My second read in celebration of National Poetry Month 2017...What a frolicking good time! In respsonse to 'Tooth Telling', pg. 16, I write: 'So leave your tooth then, / beneath one of my pillows. / I promise you a quarter / moon at dawn. / Give the silver disc / to a Hobbit / hiding in the roots / of my mountain. / He knows what is precious... / the same as you.'"

One More Chance

Cover art by Smith

Thanks to everyone who's bought a copy of my Poet's Haven Author Series chapbook, It Takes More Than CHANCE to Make Change. Publisher Vertigo Xi'an Xavier has just notified me that it's going into a new printing. So if you still haven't gotten your copy yet, you can now for a mere $6.  Just click here.

This Un D'Elyrious

I recently (for the first time) stumbled upon this clip of me reading my poem "This Un" during D'Elyrious Night at the Lorain Arts Council's 737 Gallery on 15 September 2011.  Sal Kovach filmed it.  Alex Gildzen (with whom I read that night) uploaded it.  "This Un" was written in October 2010, first published in Rising in Hope: A Tinfoildresses Anthology, and finally included in my 2013 chapbook It Takes More Than Chance to Make Change.  Now the Lorain Arts Council needs our help to keep their gallery alive.  Please consider donating to the cause.

This Un

if i was nameless
my name would be
nothing
or like nothing
or unlike
if i were
nick cave
i’d be the place
where i reside
where i died
or e-did
or convinced
myself i.e. did
assuming nick
is an adjective
but i’ve been
nicked inside
and out of the cave
and i’ve been
caved in
and naked
and named things
i was and wasn’t
and am and
damned if mane
and mean
and amen
aren’t anagrams
of my name
and every other
which is also
an anagram
of o very there
which means both
nothing and whatever
you think it does
like this un
named poem

*