Appearing in DEPOSE: An Anthology of Working Class Solidarity

One of my photographs and two written pieces, "Home of the Enslaved" and "Don't Freeze," appear in this new anthology published by Mark Lipman's Vagabond Press. 

254 pages, paperback. 

Buy DEPOSE for $25 here.

I have two poems in Orange is Not a Colour: Poems Against Totalitarianism

I'm grateful that my poems "Abbreviate" and "What They Did" appear in this new anthology alongside strong work by fine folk.

Edited by Fin Hall and published by Like a Blot from the Blue. 

Available at https://www.lulu.com/shop/fin-hall/orange-is-not-a-colour/paperback/product-4597v7y.html

Video: Me reading "What They Did" at the 2023 Beat Poetry Festival

As we prepare for a second Donald Trump presidential term, I am finally getting around to sharing the video of me reading my poem "What They Did" at the National and International Beat Poetry Festival on 2 September 2023 in Barkhamsted, Connecticut. Recording by Paul Richmond. This poem appears in my recent book, The Wrest of the Worthwhile. 

Video permalink: https://youtu.be/DeEIrvf6iO0

My poem "What They Did" featured on the Poets Against Racism and Hate website

You can read it here.

Learn more about Poets Against Racism and Hate USA at poetsagainstracism-usa.org.

My poem "What They Did" featured 12/3 in Winedrunk Sidewalk

I am pleased to report that my poem "What They Did" is featured today (day 1416) in Winedrunk Sidewalk. Many thanks to editor John Grochalski for including it—and for keeping up the good fight!

For daily resistance poems, follow winedrunksidewalk.blogspot.com.

Permalink to just my poem: https://winedrunksidewalk.blogspot.com/2020/12/day-fourteen-hundred-and-sixteen.html.


Poem Process:

I wrote a lot of the first draft of this poem on 1 June 2018 during Write! hosted by River River at the Carson McCullers House in Nyack, New York. On that particular day, one of the workshop prompts was "What they did [was]...." A couple of days later, I edited the rough piece a little and added most of the section from "What they did was spit" through "white Jesus / made in our image." But it still didn't feel finished.

Fast forward to 2020. I found the unfinished handwritten piece while going through a pile of paperwork in my office, found it still unsettlingly relevant, and dusted it off to try out at a couple of Zoom readings. Finally, in late November I decided to transcribe it into a Word document and strengthen and (as much as possible) finish it. One glaring item was that my original ending had alluded to the then still-pending 2020 Presidential election. In the wake of Trump's loss, that ending no longer seemed to work, so I replaced it with the six final lines you now see.

[12/24/2020 UPDATE: When I originally posted this blog entry I said I began this poem during a workshop in Amherst, Ohio. I was wrong. Today, going through other old papers, I realized that while I had the date correct, I had misremembered the location. The poem was begun on 1 June 2018 in Nyack, New York, and I've corrected the paragraph above accordingly. Side note: this was the same day I wrote "Odd Missive," which is the final poem in my book Rattle and Numb.]

[12/23/2024 UPDATE: I've continued to revise this poem, including a newer version in my 2023 collection, The Wrest of the Worthwhile. Then in the lead-up to the November 2024 U.S. Presidential election, Poets Against Racism and Hate USA featured this newer version on their website. As of today, I'm still working on it.]

My poem "Food for Thought" featured 1/15 in Winedrunk Sidewalk

I am pleased to report that my short poem "Food for Thought" is featured today (day 1092) in Winedrunk Sidewalk. It's another that I wrote at the Hill Billy Grill in West Jefferson, North Carolina, during my recent Tiny Cabin, Big Ideas residency. Many thanks to editor John Grochalski for including it—and for keeping up the good fight!

For daily resistance poems, follow winedrunksidewalk.blogspot.com.

Permalink to just my poem: here.

And they're still accepting submissions of poems and art as we speak. So send them something!

SUBMIT2RESIST: winedrunksidewalk@gmail.com.

My latest poem, "Judge Marks," featured 10/17 in Winedrunk Sidewalk

I am honored to report that my poem "Judge Marks" is featured today (day 636) in Winedrunk Sidewalk. Many thanks to editor John Grochalski!

For daily resistance poems, follow winedrunksidewalk.blogspot.com.

Permalink to just my poem: here.

And they're still accepting submissions of poems and art as we speak.
SUBMIT2RESIST: winedrunksidewalk@gmail.com.

My "Abbreviate" featured 7/7 in Winedrunk Sidewalk

I am honored to report that my short poem "Abbreviate" was recently featured (day 169 - July 7th) in Winedrunk Sidewalk. Many thanks to editor John Grochalski!

Because the day it was published was the day I departed for my cross-country trip I'm just now blogging about it.

For daily resistance poems, follow winedrunksidewalk.blogspot.com.

Permalink to just my poem: here.

And they're still accepting submissions of poems and art as we speak.
SUBMIT2RESIST: winedrunksidewalk@gmail.com.

Crisis Chronicles Press publishes Diary of a Feminist Thug by Lyz Bly

Crisis Chronicles Press is ecstatic to team up with Guide to Kulchur Books to present a new Lyz Bly masterwork, Diary of a Feminist Thug, Volume I: His[tories] of Her Land.

Diary of a Feminist Thug is a poetically written narrative that is replete with stream-of-consciousness thoughts and original journal images of a white GenX grrrl-woman, growing up in rust belt America in the late 20th century. Bly’s text is memoir meets deposition, revealing the subtle and explicit ways in which patriarchy, misogyny, and toxic masculinity crush the psyches and abuse the bodies of women, even white, heterosexual, cisgender middle-class women of Generations X and Y, who grew up amid the promises of the 1960s and 70s social “revolutions” for gender and racial rights and equality. 

The 2016 election of trump reminded women how much they are despised, yet tolerated for their role as progenitors of racial identity and paternal “family” names. Bly’s Diary of a Feminist Thug reveals the insidious psychosis at the heart of heterosexual relationships and white middle-class families and the emotional and physical toll those they take on women who appear to be “just fine.” While there are obvious privileges connected to whiteness and heterosexuality, these privileges still come with a cost; Valerie Solanas once said, “He who won’t slit your throat will torture you to death slowly, often with diamonds.” 

Bly’s generational cohorts will relish her writing style, which varies from erratic to bitingly ironic, as well as her cultural references to GenX icons and defining historical moments. Millennials will get a glimpse into what may lie ahead for even the most privileged among them in these trump-era apocalyptic times.

Where Do You Want It?

United States $10.00 USD Elsewhere $13.00 USD

Diary of a Feminist Thug by Lyz Bly is 70 pp, perfect bound. Design by Maggie Halm. Printing by Guide to Kulchur. Dimensions: approximately 5.5" x 10". ISBN: 978-0-998-1104-9-3. Available in July 2017 for $10 at the Guide to Kulchur Grand Re-Opening (July 8th in Cleveland) or from Crisis Chronicles Press, 3431 George Avenue, Parma, Ohio 44134.  Please add $2 for shipping in the US (plus $3 more for overseas orders).

My "An Augur Ration" featured 6/23 in Winedrunk Sidewalk

I am honored to report that my poem "An Augur Ration," written the day after Ill Presidente's inauguration in January, was recently featured (day 155 - June 23rd) in Winedrunk Sidewalk. Many thanks to editor John Grochalski!

For daily resistance poems, follow winedrunksidewalk.blogspot.com.

Permalink to just my poem: here.

And they're still accepting submissions of poems and art as we speak.
SUBMIT2RESIST: winedrunksidewalk@gmail.com.

My "Le Ruse et le Waaa" featured 6/9 in Winedrunk Sidewalk

I am very pleased to report that my poem "Le Ruse et le Waaa" is featured today (day 141) in Winedrunk Sidewalk. Many thanks to editor John Grochalski!

For daily resistance poems, follow winedrunksidewalk.blogspot.com.

Permalink to just my poem: click here.

Make America Literate Again

My friend Jane Rosenberg LaForge put one of my Facebook statuses onto a sign and carried it in DC during Saturday's Women's March. This is her photo.

Responding to "The Real Bubble is Rural America"

I just read I’m a Coastal Elite From the Midwest: The Real Bubble is Rural America by Patrick Thornton.  Here's my response:

I'm neither coastal nor elite, but a lot of this article rings true to me. I was born in Appalachia, raised to have conservative values, and in high school wanted to be a Southern Baptist minister. I never (knowingly) met a gay person until I was an adult. I never (knowingly) met a Jewish or Muslim person until I was close to 30. At age 18, I voted for Reagan. At 22 I voted for Bush. And at 26 I voted for 3rd party candidate Ross Perot because I had become disillusioned with both major party "establishments" and wanted to "send them a message." My journey took me to college, to managing a gay bar, to seeing the justice system from the inside, and to exploring a number of different denominations and religions before I reached my current status of atheist and thoroughly/proudly liberal. I didn't vote for a Democrat for President until 2004 (when I was 38).

Today, the ascendance of Trump frightens me deeply, and I disagree strongly with his supporters on almost every issue. But because of my experience I do feel I can understand where they're coming from. I was once one of them. I can feel them, even when I believe with everything I am that they're wrong. But I don't feel like they feel me. Indeed in many cases it seems that they don't truly feel anyone outside their bubble. On the other hand, many liberals who've never been otherwise don't always seem to feel those outside their own bubble either. This is part of why I don't defriend or block people who disagree with me politically, even if I find certain things they believe reprehensible. I don't fault others who feel they need to for their own reasons. But I would've never reached this point in my journey if everyone who didn't like me because I was Republican or Baptist or a convict or a Hare Krishna or an atheist or whatever blocked me because they couldn't stand where I stood.

Now I'm 50. Over the years, I've learned and grown much more through connection and communication than through disconnection. And I plan to keep doing so, gratefully.

With Her or Wither

On our way home from the hospital yesterday we passed the elections office and decided to go in and cast our ballots on the first day of early voting. I've spent more time than you know reading all the news, facts, opinions and conspiracy theories, and I've made the decision that I believe, all things considered, is best for me, my family, the American people and the world. When we got home, as I was trying to get my wife inside and settled in, some guy who was driving down our street saw this sign in our lawn, stopped in front of our house and started screaming at us at the top of his lungs and in a menacing fashion, "Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!" 

The last I checked, sending someone to prison who hasn't been found guilty of a crime by a jury of his or her peers (after due process of law) is unconstitutional, un-American, inhumane and even criminal. This type of crap (and not just this, by any means) is precisely why I feel we must vote for Hillary Clinton and ensure the defeat of hatemongering bully Donald J. Trump. In a more perfect world and time, I might have voted for a third party candidate (as I've done in the past), though it sure wouldn't have been the Libertarian. But this isn't that world or time, especially as I live in the too-close-to-call swing state of Ohio. 

So the deed is done and I feel good that we gave our votes to Hillary Clinton, Ted Strickland, Marcy Kaptur and the Parma City School District. I don't call you names or try to bully you or scream at your house if we disagree, so I hope you will extend the same courtesy to me and my friends and family.

Peace, love and respect,
John