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John’s Year In Books

John’s 2025 Year in Books

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2026 Reading Challenge

2026

READING

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John Burroughs has read 2 of 100 books.

John Burroughs

Goodreads Author

Born

in Richwood, West Virginia, The United States

Website

http://crisischronicles.com

Twitter

jesuscrisis

Genre

Poetry, Biographies & Memoirs, Literature & Fiction

Member Since

February 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/jesuscrisis

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John B. Burroughs of Cleveland served as the National Beat Poetry Foundation's 2022-2023 U.S. Beat Poet Laureate and 2019-2021 Ohio Beat Poet Laureate. He is the author of The Wrest of the Worthwhile: Unselected, Uncollected and New Poems, 1983-2023 (2023, Far Queue Press), Rattle and Numb: Selected Poems, 1992-2019 (2019, Venetian Spider Press), and more than a dozen poetry chapbooks including, most recently, Awash (2025, Pure Sleeze Press). Since 2024, he has been 2nd Vice President of the Ohio Poetry Association.

A dynamic performer who has wowed audiences from Oakland to New York City, Maine to New Mexico, and myriad points in between, John has hosted numerous poetry events in the Greater Cleveland area including the Poetry+ series at Ar John B. Burroughs of Cleveland served as the National Beat Poetry Foundation's 2022-2023 U.S. Beat Poet Laureate and 2019-2021 Ohio Beat Poet Laureate. He is the author of The Wrest of the Worthwhile: Unselected, Uncollected and New Poems, 1983-2023 (2023, Far Queue Press), Rattle and Numb: Selected Poems, 1992-2019 (2019, Venetian Spider Press), and more than a dozen poetry chapbooks including, most recently, Awash (2025, Pure Sleeze Press). Since 2024, he has been 2nd Vice President of the Ohio Poetry Association.

A dynamic performer who has wowed audiences from Oakland to New York City, Maine to New Mexico, and myriad points in between, John has hosted numerous poetry events in the Greater Cleveland area including the Poetry+ series at Art on Madison in Lakewood, Monday at Mahall's, PoetryElyria, and (with Dianne Borsenik) the Lix and Kix Poetry Extravaganza and Snoetry: A Winter Wordfest. He helps maintain the Cleveland Poetics blog and Northeast Ohio literary calendar at clevelandpoetry.com. Since 2008, has served as the founding editor for Crisis Chronicles Press, publishing over one hundred twenty books by esteemed writers from around the world. Find him at www.crisischronicles.com.

Older bio: John Burroughs, a.k.a. Jesus Crisis, is a nationally touring poet and performer, born in West Virginia, raised in Elyria, Ohio, and currently residing in Greater Cleveland. John is the author of Dogging Catastrophe (2022, The Grind Stone), You Can't Trust It to Remain (2022, Between Shadows Press), Loss and Foundering [NightBallet Press, 2018], The Eater of the Absurd [NightBallet Press, 2012], the collaborative book Oct Tongue -1 (with Mary Weems, John Swain, Steven Smith, Lady, Shelley Chernin and Steve Brightman) [2014, Crisis Chronicles Press]. and nearly a dozen chapbooks including Beat Attitude [NightBallet, 2015], It Takes More Than Chance to Make Change [The Poet's Haven, 2013], Water Works [Recycled Karma Press, 2012], Electric Company [Writing Knights Press, 2011] and, with Doug Manson and Bree, Identity Crises [Green Panda Press, 2009]. John has also published Cheap and Easy Magazine, Songs in the Key of Cleveland: An Anthology of the 2013 Best Cleveland Poem Competition, #ThisISCLE: An Anthology of the 2014 Best Cleveland Poem Competition, and the anti-censorship anthology Fuck Poetry.

John won his first poetry contest as a high school student in 1983. Around the turn of the millennium, John served as a playwright and occasional music director in residence for the Ministry of Theatre at Marion Correctional Institution. In 2007, his blog was ranked number 1 in several categories on MySpace when he abandoned it to create his own website. Subsequently, John won the first poetry slam he ever competed in; created PoetryElyria; formed Poets of Lorain County; has contributed irregularly to the Cleveland Poetics and Ohio Poetry Association blogs; served as the OPA's webmaster; has performed at bars, festivals, theaters, bookstores, libraries and galleries across the Midwest; and is perhaps most proud of his work (since 2008) as the founding editor of Crisis Chronicles Press. ...more

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John Burroughs's Blog

November 15th: Get Sharp! 2025 Ohio Poetry Publishing Conference

Join the Ohio Poetry Association on November 15th from 10 to 4:30 at the Cuyahoga County Public Library's South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch for an absolutely free Ohio Poetry Publishing Conference. Registration and more details at https://attend.cuyahogalibrary.org/event/13881294.

Get Sharp! will include an Ohio small press book fair and fab workshop presentations by Dianne Borsenik, Geoff Anderson

Combine Editions
John Burroughs’s books

Average rating: 4.77 · 452 ratings · 65 reviews · 55 distinct works

	Rattle & Numb: Selected and New Poems, 1992-2019 4.77 avg rating — 39 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Identity Crisis 4.87 avg rating — 30 ratings — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fuck Poetry by John Burroughs (Goodreads Author) (Editor / Contributor), Susan Amethyst (Contributor), Sarah Black (Contributor) 4.52 avg rating — 31 ratings — published 2011	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Eater of the Absurd 4.93 avg rating — 27 ratings — published 2012	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Electric Company 4.83 avg rating — 24 ratings — published 2011 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	It Takes More Than Chance to Make Change 4.74 avg rating — 23 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Water Works 4.95 avg rating — 20 ratings — published 2012	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	6/9: Improvisations in Dependence 4.69 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 2009	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Loss and Foundering it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 15 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	2015 Hessler Street Fair Poetry Anthology by John Burroughs (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Geoffrey A. Landis, Shelley Chernin (Goodreads Author) 4.79 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 2015	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Series by John Burroughs

Hessler Street Fair Poetry Anthology (4 books)
by

John Burroughs (Goodreads Author) (Editor / Contributor),

Christina M. Brooks (Goodreads Author),

Steve Brightman (Goodreads Author),

Tom Kryss,

Scott Wannberg,

John Dorsey,

D.R. Wagner,

Frankie Metro,

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4.81 avg rating — 27 ratings

John is Currently Reading

John Burroughs is currently reading

Deconstructing the Demiurge: Tale of the Tribe

by Carlo Parcelli

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Nov 09, 2025 04:27PM

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Bone Key Sutra

by Ray McNiece

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John Burroughs said: " Bone Key Sutra by award-winning poet and raconteur Ray McNiece is an engaging road romp, wherein he applies his signature panache to verse and stories that comprise a compelling and visionary meditation on what it means to be present, awake, and aliv ...more "

Jun 11, 2025 04:52PM · see review

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Oceanic

by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (Goodreads Author)

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Jun 01, 2025 10:29AM

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John Burroughs wants to read Watching the Potomac Burn by Carolyn Srygley-Moore	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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John Burroughs rated a book it was amazing Ordering the Storm: How to Put Together a Book of Poems (Imagination, No. 11) by Susan Grimm (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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John Burroughs rated a book it was amazing The Things We Do to Protect Our Own by Jeff Weddle (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jeff Weddle is an essential poet for our times, probing into the heart and bone of what it means to be human, swimming through the lifeblood and marrow of the modern world, revealing meaning and exposing what is most important. As Jean Cocteau famous ...more
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John Burroughs rated a book it was amazing Bruises & Love Bites by Trier Ward	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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John’s Quotes

“I have nothing to say
and I am saying it
and that is poetry
as I need it.”
― John Cage

100 likes

“If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?”
― Rumi

tags: inspirational

4307 likes

“Do not despise your own place and hour. Every place is under the stars, every place is the center of the world.”
― John Burroughs, Studies in Nature and Literature

tags: life, opportunity

1493 likes

“The one who comes to question himself cares for mankind.”
― Kenneth Patchen

38 likes

“There's more to life than books, you know. But not much more.”
― Morrissey

560 likes

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Authors Helping Authors — 615 members — last activity Mar 23, 2025 03:57PM
Fiction Authors! Come as you are. Indie, NY Pubbed, emerging. We're here to help. Whether you need help with writing, editing or publicity, post yo ...more

¡ POETRY ! — 22584 members — last activity Dec 24, 2025 01:37PM
No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read it!) Goodreads honors wordsmiths: poets and poetry promoted and prompted here. ~~~ "Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits." -- Carl Sandburg “God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.” —Anne Sexton On Clouds – “…what primitive tastes the ancients must have had if their poets were inspired by those absurd, untidy clumps of mist, idiotically jostling one another about…” —Yevgeny Zamyatin “If the poet wants to be a poet, the poet must force the poet to revise. If the poet doesn’t wish to revise, let the poet abandon poetry and take up stamp-collecting or real estate.” —Donald Hall “Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation’s tears in shoulder blades.” —Boris Pasternak “Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.” —Charles Simic “Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.” —Gustave Flaubert “Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.” —Allen Ginsberg. ~~~~~ Amy King, Moderator Amy King is the recipient of the 2015 Winner of the WNBA Award (Women’s National Book Association). Her latest collection, The Missing Museum, is a winner of the 2015 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize. She serves on the executive board of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and is co-editing with Heidi Lynn Staples the anthology, Big Energy Poets of the Anthropocene: When Ecopoets Think Climate Change. She is also co-editing the anthology, Bettering American Poetry 2015, and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College. ...more

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Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more

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Punk Hostage Press is a not-for-profit book publishing imprint that also acts as a an outreach program to connect writers and contemporary literature ...more

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Independent library open to the public with a "bring a book/take a book" method of sharing reading materials. 4975 Comanche Trail Stow, OH 44224 ...more

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John’s Friend Comments

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message 1: by Ignomat

May 01, 2014 04:51AM

Hi John What a load of books you have written for a young guy and they are so reasonably priced/and you read so many books/So I thought you might be able to help me find From the Green Box by Marcel Duchamp/I have seen them on Goodreads but when I go to the site there is nothing there/I tried Amazon and Booktopia and Amazon had one for 800 dollars/Do you know of the whereabouts of a reasonably priced copy???Regards Lee Kwo/

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