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Loss and Foundering
NightBallet Press is ecstatic to announce the publication and release of a new collection of poems by John Burroughs, Loss and Foundering!
Loss and Foundering contains poems written by John Burroughs during the past nine turbulent years of his life. Confessional and raw, these poems reveal a heart both broken and healing through the power of love.
Diane Kendig, author of Prison Terms (Main Street Rag, 2018), writes:
"And while the poet is experiencing all these losses and his 'bark founders,' ... his poetry boat stays afloat ... to the fantastic music of puns, echo puns, rhyme and chime and rhythm."
Alex Gildzen, author of The Arrow That Is Hollywood Pierces the Soul That Is Me (2011) and Son of Hollywood (2018), writes:
"John Burroughs finds himself in a 'city of lost places.' that means he discovers himself living there but it also means that in that living he finds himself. by allowing us to follow him we recognize our losses & learn their light."
Loss and Foundering contains 36 pages of 24 poems. Front cover artwork is a collage, "Ohm 10.26.17" by Bree, enhanced with raindrops by Dianne Borsenik with Photo Lab PRO.The cover card stock is a linen-textured, pale dove gray, and the card stock insert is a deep royal blue. The poems are printed on a crisp white paper.
To buy Loss and Foundering, you may use the Buy Now button to order directly from the press, or you contact John Burroughs through his website for a signed copy. The cost is $10 plus $3 shipping, U.S. customers only. For outside the U.S., please contact the editor at nightballetpress@gmail.com for shipping charges.
[Description from the NightBallet Press website.]
Loss and Foundering contains poems written by John Burroughs during the past nine turbulent years of his life. Confessional and raw, these poems reveal a heart both broken and healing through the power of love.
Diane Kendig, author of Prison Terms (Main Street Rag, 2018), writes:
"And while the poet is experiencing all these losses and his 'bark founders,' ... his poetry boat stays afloat ... to the fantastic music of puns, echo puns, rhyme and chime and rhythm."
Alex Gildzen, author of The Arrow That Is Hollywood Pierces the Soul That Is Me (2011) and Son of Hollywood (2018), writes:
"John Burroughs finds himself in a 'city of lost places.' that means he discovers himself living there but it also means that in that living he finds himself. by allowing us to follow him we recognize our losses & learn their light."
Loss and Foundering contains 36 pages of 24 poems. Front cover artwork is a collage, "Ohm 10.26.17" by Bree, enhanced with raindrops by Dianne Borsenik with Photo Lab PRO.The cover card stock is a linen-textured, pale dove gray, and the card stock insert is a deep royal blue. The poems are printed on a crisp white paper.
To buy Loss and Foundering, you may use the Buy Now button to order directly from the press, or you contact John Burroughs through his website for a signed copy. The cost is $10 plus $3 shipping, U.S. customers only. For outside the U.S., please contact the editor at nightballetpress@gmail.com for shipping charges.
[Description from the NightBallet Press website.]
36 pages, Chapbook
Published April 6, 2018
10 people want to read
About the author
John Burroughs
55 books385 followersJohn 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 10, 2018
Heartbreaking and humorous by turns. Excellent wordplay. I enjoyed each poem, but I found several that demanded to be read aloud. So I did, and reveled in the sound of the words. I will read -- and speak -- these poems again and again.
April 24, 2018
This is truly a fabulous book. From the succinct haiku to the longer poems of anguish and wonderment, this is a book from a poet who has plunged the depth. There is joy to Burroughs also. A joy in the recognition of existence, a joy to be found in the revelation of honesty in the face of sorrow. To say the least, this book kicked my ass and will be a book that I go back to again and again.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews