The Tao of Jesus Crisis

Death and Publication (not necessarily in that order)

jc@crisischronicles.com (Jesus Crisis) — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:12:00 GMT

It looks like new work of mine is forthcoming in Erbacce, in Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, and in the book World Wide Hippoetry 2010. When they're published, I'll be sure to let you know, unless I drop dead first, which -- though unlikely -- is always a possibility.

This week, I'm saddened by two deaths.

I received a message from his ex-wife that my dear friend Debabrata Basu passed away during the past month in India. I met Deb when I worked in the library at Marion Correctional Institution. I was an inmate reference clerk and he was the newly hired librarian. I'd like to write more about our friendship and those sometimes crazy times when I have a chance, but for now I'll just mention a few fond memories. He's the one who talked me into leaving my comfort zone at the reference desk and becoming the administrative clerk, thus giving me my first-ever experience on a computer. He turned me on to several books that have strongly influenced my intellectual and artistic evolution: including Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (by James Lovelock), Gitanjali (by Rabindranath Tagore), Why I Am Not a Muslim (by Ibn Warraq), and especially The Tao of Physics (by Fritjof Capra). He also snuck in CDs by Ravi Shankar and several Bengali musical artists I'd never heard before and turned me on to the fabulous films of Satyajit Ray. After his retirement, he returned to Kolkata and we stayed in touch -- with Deb always encouraging me to visit and me putting it off until it's now too late to ever see him again.

A few days ago, my wife's longtime best friend's daughter, Pamela Thompson, died after a long bout with cancer. Geri's known her all her life, and I've known her for more than two decades (she lived down the street from me in the mid 80s). Pam was 36 years old and leaves behind three children. Her funeral is today.

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copyraunch 2010 - just give credit where due

Lix & Kix present Philip Metres, Lou Suarez & Monica Igras on 9/15/2010

jc@crisischronicles.com (Jesus Crisis) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:17:00 GMT

The Lix and Kix Poetry Extravaganza is pleased to present featured readings by Monica Igras, Lou Suarez and Phil Metres -- followed by an open mic emceed by Dianne Borsenik and John "Jesus Crisis" Burroughs.

Monica Igras is a poet/performer from Erie, Pennsylvania, who Dianne and John had the pleasure of meeting and hearing for the first time during Snoetry: A Winter Wordfest at the Last Wordsmith Book Shoppe. Her work has appeared in numerous places including the Enhanced Poetry CD Live @ the Jive, available at http://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00ZX7HHH.

Lou Suarez is the author of two books of poems, Traveler (Mid-List Press,2010) and Ask (Mid-List Press, 2004), as well as three poetry chapbooks: Losses of Moment (Kent State University Press, 1995), The Grape Painter (Frost Heaves Press, 2001), and On U.S. 6 to Providence (Red Mountain Review, 2006). Lou is currently Professor Emeritus at Lorain County Community College, and his book Traveler is a finalist for one of The Lit's Lantern Awards. Find him online at http://www.lousuarez.com.

Philip Metres, Professor of English at John Carroll University, was recently awarded the 2010 Cleveland Arts Prize for Emerging Artist. His books include To See the Earth (2008), Come Together: Imagine Peace (anthology of peace poems, 2008), Behind the Lines: War Resistance Poetry on the American Homefront since 1941 (2007), Instants (2006), Primer for Non-Native Speakers (2004), Catalogue of Comedic Novelties: Selected Poems of Lev Rubinstein (2004), and A Kindred Orphanhood: Selected Poems of Sergey Gandlevsky (2003). His poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Best American Poetry and Inclined to Speak: Contemporary Arab American Poetry. Find him online at www.philipmetres.com and http://behindthelinespoetry.blogspot.com.

We hope to see you there!

copyraunch 2010 - just give credit where due

Thou Shalt?

jc@crisischronicles.com (Jesus Crisis) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:33:00 GMT

On Facebook this morning, a friend posted a link to an article called "How to Kill Goyim and Influence People: Israeli Rabbis Defend Book's Shocking Religious Defense of Killing Non-Jews," which you can read here. The article's contents inspired me to write this poem:

Thou Shalt?

Horror in the Torah
killing in the name
of life for G*d
despite a commandment
to the contrary

perhaps proving it
a holey book
like so many other
religions possess

*

copyraunch 2010 - just give credit where due

Video of me reading Out and Inaudible at Visible Voice

jc@crisischronicles.com (Jesus Crisis) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 02:21:00 GMT

My poem "Out and Inaudible" was originally published in issue 24 of The City Poetry. Later, I changed the word "ablation" in it to "oblation." Dianne Borsenik recorded this clip of me reading it at Visible Voice Books in Cleveland on August 4th 2010:

copyraunch 2010 - just give credit where due

Jesus Crisis Gets Religion in Tremont

jc@crisischronicles.com (Jesus Crisis) — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 13:26:00 GMT

Trenchcoat Manifesto, Dianne Borsenik and I performed at Visible Voice Books in the historic Tremont of Cleveland on August 4th 2010. Here are clips, recorded by Dianne, of me sharing three poems with religious themes that evening. I don't believe this is the order in which I read them.

copyraunch 2010 - just give credit where due

Mais Non May Know (a series of three I-ku)

jc@crisischronicles.com (Jesus Crisis) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:15:00 GMT

I don't want to be
one of you self destructive
poets but I am.

So maybe I do
and maybe I want to be
but I don't see it.

Seems though that since I
no it and still mutter know
I must see something.

*

copyraunch 2010 - just give credit where due

Going Mobile x 2

jc@crisischronicles.com (Jesus Crisis) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:57:00 GMT

Another clip from our 8/4/2010 event at Visible Voice Books in Cleveland, videoed by Dianne Borsenik:

Going Mobile
a title as redundant as I sometimes feel

Often I feel I
overthink
most everything I do or say -
other times I feel I don't
think enough
or am thoughtless -
sometimes I feel I'm doing
or not doing
both simultaneously.
It's enough to render me immobile
like the main man in John
Barth's The End of the Road.
That's when by sheer force of will,
whether it's a waste
of energy
and time
or not,
I make myself remain mobile -
at least in
this three ring
gerbil wheel circus -
because I feel
if I'm not
doing something
I might as well
stop.

-- by John Burroughs, April 2009

-*-

copyraunch 2010 - just give credit where due

Numb and Numbered and Blood Letting

jc@crisischronicles.com (Jesus Crisis) — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 20:07:00 GMT

Another clip from our 8/4/2010 event at Visible Voice Books in Cleveland, featuring one poem by me and one by Geri, videoed by Dianne Borsenik:

copyraunch 2010 - just give credit where due

Unspeakable Dreams and Visible Voices

jc@crisischronicles.com (Jesus Crisis) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 12:53:00 GMT

I had the most disturbing dreams last night -- dreams that I don't want to share with anyone, though I wish I knew what they meant -- and if they meant nothing, I wish I knew why I dreamed them. But enough of the unspeakable....

Tonight (21 August) at 7 p.m., I'm emceeing a reading at Visible Voice Books, 1023 Kenilworth, in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, where the featured poets will be Lou Suarez, Jack Vanek and Eric Anderson.

Lou Suarez is the author of two book-length collections of poetry, Ask and Traveler, and three poetry chapbooks, Losses of Moment , The Grape Painter, and On U.S. 6 to Providence. He is currently professor emeritus at Lorain County Community College.

Eric Anderson is the author of a novella, Isn't That Just Like You?, and a poetry chapbook, Confederate Season. He has work forthcoming in The Sun and North American Review.

John (Jack) Vanek is the author of a book of poems, Heart Murmurs. His novel manuscript won a Helen McCloy scholarship from the Mystery Writers of America and was awarded 1st Place at the Writers in Paradise Conference.

Meanwhile, here's a combination of dream and Visible Voice -- a clip of me reading "Met a Mat, a Door I Didn't Like" (from my chapbook 6/9: Improvisations in Dependence), recorded by Dianne Borsenik on 4 August 2010 when she and I had the pleasure of sharing a bill with Trenchcoat Manifesto. If you missed it, you can catch Richard Hearn and Tom Adams of Trenchcoat Manifesto doing a multimedia show at Mastroianni Arts (2648 W. 14th Street) in Tremont on 10 September. I'll be there.

copyraunch 2010 - just give credit where due

Last Call

jc@crisischronicles.com (Jesus Crisis) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:01:00 GMT

Last Call -- 20 August 2010
for Jim's Coffeehouse in Elyria, best shop of its kind in Lorain County and one of the first places I read poetry publicly

At Jim's Coffeehouse,
downtown Elyria's last
drop evaporates.

chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2010/08/20/jims-coffeehouse-closing-in-elyria

copyraunch 2010 - just give credit where due

Recent Journal Entries - First Week of August 2010

jc@crisischronicles.com (Jesus Crisis) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:01:00 GMT

[These were just meant as notes to remind me of what I wanted to write about. But in case I don't have time to turn them into anything more, here's what little I wrote during the first week of August in the journal I use when I don't have access to (or feel like using) a computer. I wrote much more in it during the second week, while we were in West Virginia, and maybe I'll post that part soon as well. --JB]

                    3 August 2010

Some apologies need no apostrophe
Some apostrophes need know apology

I seem to be a glutton for excrement
on a knead to nose basis

"No one gets to finish a sentence in this house except John Burroughs" -- Geri

"The last sentence I recall finishing was from 1993 to 2004" -- John

I'd rather be living than underground.

Rub holy water on your midsection for absolution.

For absolution, do lots of crunches.

You're a cunt tree, urine nation.

Then Jesus bows, resisting lazy blight,
in pretend prayer plans to display his "light."

                    4 August 2010

Barnes and Noble is for sale.
Barren and ignoble?

                    7 August 2010

Wonder why we need Republicans --
Weren't the original publicans enough?

After 11 years in prison
I decided I'd rather be an in-law
than an outlaw.

*

copyraunch 2010 - just give credit where due

Recent West Virginia Pics

jc@crisischronicles.com (Jesus Crisis) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:14:00 GMT

Burroughs and Borsenik perform poetry in Richwood, WV -- photo by Geri Burroughs

Maybe you've already seen them, but I recently posted two albums of photos from our recent West Virginia trip on Facebook. I wanted to put them all in one, but Facebook only allows 200 photos per album. I hope to post my journal account of our doings there on this blog in the very near future.

Album 1 -- August 10th through 14th 2010 (including Elyria, Logan, Parkersburg, Richwood, Hinkle Mountain, Craigsville, New River Gorge, Hawk's Nest, Briery Knob, Cranberry and Hillsboro) -- www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=62033&id=1072416429

Album 2 -- August 14th and 15th 2010 (including Hillsboro, Droop Mountain Battlefield, Buckeye, Marlinton, Richwood, US-19, Glenville and Elyria) -- www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=62053&id=1072416429

Here's another sample:

view of the New River from Hawk's Nest State Park, WV -- photo by John Burroughs

copyraunch 2010 - just give credit where due

Offline this weekend

jc@crisischronicles.com (Jesus Crisis) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:21:00 GMT

We're leaving at 9:30 a.m., heading to Dublin so I can pick up the journal I forgot there on the way home from Gary's memorial service, then through Athens so we can scope out the Italian restaurant where Dianne and I are scheduled to read in May, and finally down to my hometown Richwood, West Virginia. I'm packed, but can't start loading the car yet because everyone's asleep in the living room. I'll have to soon, before Dianne and James Borsenik (who are traveling with me and Geri) arrive.

The annual Cherry River Festival will be happening in Richwood through Saturday. Dianne and I will be bursting out of the crowd and sharing poetry at noon on the last day, maybe with no warning to the unsuspecting crowd beyond the tee-shirts emblazoned "OHIO POET" that we'll be wearing. We're also contemplating riding the Cass Scenic Railroad, taking in the West Virginia state fair, and exploring what's being billed as the world's largest garage sale (taking up two counties) around Buckhannon. But who knows? I'll be content to sit on the porch, read, and write poetry.

copyraunch 2010 - just give credit where due

Reading Poetry Saturday 14 August 2010 in Richwood, West Virginia

jc@crisischronicles.com (Jesus Crisis) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:34:00 GMT

I've just confirmed that Dianne Borsenik and I will be reading Saturday 14 August at noon outdoors in the Sterling Spencer Memorial Sculpture Garden on Main Street in downtown Richwood, West Virginia. I'm very excited to be sharing poetry in the city where I was born way back in 1966. If you're in the area, please come join us. There will be an open mic for anyone interested in sharing his or her own work.

me in the Sterling Spencer Memorial Sculpture Garden c. 2006 -- photo by Geri Burroughs

the west end of Richwood, West Virginia -- photo courtesy of Wikipedia

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copyraunch 2010 - just give credit where due

First prize in my first slam - 27 years after my last poetry first prize

jc@crisischronicles.com (Jesus Crisis) — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 13:35:00 GMT

self portrait at the Kathleen Howland Gallery in Canton, Ohio - 6 August 2010

When I was in 11th grade, my creative writing teacher George Edward "Ned" Lyons at Midview High School in Grafton, Ohio, surprised me by calling out my name at a school assembly when I wasn't paying attention. It was a senior awards ceremony and I wasn't a senior and I didn't know Mr. Lyons had submitted five of my poems (published that year in Kaleidoscope) to a contest.  A friend nearby in the bleachers said to me, "Hey, I think he called your name," which I didn't believe at first. But he did -- and it turned out I won first prize -- so I shyly went down to the podium on the floor where he handed me something like 20 dollars cash and a certificate. That was 1983.

Last night I went down to the Kathleen Howland Theater, where Vertigo Xavier emcees Canton's First Friday Poetry Spectacular, to check out new Facebook friend Phoenix Clouden's featured reading, witness an open mic at a (to me) new venue, and check out my first-ever poetry slam. In a hesitant last second decision after the feature, I signed up to compete in the slam. That's when I got nervous. This was my first slam and I had mixed feelings about it -- but the mood was right and I figured one time couldn't hurt me.  Wound up winning 50 dollars... finally outdoing my 1983 self.

It's still hard to believe I won 1st prize in the slam....   There were a couple of other poets/performers who I thought could've won. I performed "Bloodshot," a piece I'd avoided doing Wednesday at Visible Voice when I shared a stage with Trenchcoat Manifesto and Dianne Borsenik because, though I think it's a strong piece, I feel it's overexposed and has lost some of its effectiveness among those familiar with my work. But since only two people in the Canton crowd had heard it before, I said what the heck and laid it on them.

I didn't video the Canton event, since Vertigo was already doing that. But I did take lots of photos, which you can view here. While you're at it, you can view photos from the aformentioned 8/4 show at Visible Voice (and afterparty at Prosperity Social Club) here. I did, however, video the Visible Voice show (Trenchcoat Manifesto and Dianne were especially fabulous!), so stay tuned.

Meanwhile, if you wanna see me performing "Bloodshot" elsewhere, you can check out this clip of Dianne and me delivering a joint reading on March 27th during Feed the Gays 2. I had to break up my footage into 10 minute segments thanks to You Tube limitations, so this is only the second 10 minutes of what turned out to be about a 45-minute performance. I'll try to add all the rest to the Crisis Chronicles Online Library in the near future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMd6DcpmnT4

Check out Canton's First Friday Poetry Spectacular every first Friday (honest!) at 7 p.m. in the Kathleen Howland Theater (below the 2nd April Galerie), 324 Cleveland Avenue NW in Canton, Ohio. Their usual format includes a featured poet, an open mic for anyone who doesn't wish to compete, and finally a poetry slam with cash prizes.

Peace and poetry,
John

copyraunch 2010 - just give credit where due

Sin and Slumber - an Introduction

jc@crisischronicles.com (Jesus Crisis) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:48:00 GMT

I was incarcerated from October 1993 to June 2004 and during that time kept extensive journals. For part of that time, I maintained two separate sets of books, one recording my daily activities in prosaic detail and the other recording my "poetic" thoughts and song lyric ideas, for better and worse. My Sin and Slumber journal, filled between 31 December 1995 and 30 September 1996 at Marion Correctional Institution, fits into the latter category. For context's sake: I began my involvement in the prison's Ministry of Theatre in early 1996, with a small role singing bass in a Martin Petersime arrangement of the song "No Bird Sang" with a shepherd quartet in an Easter play called The Insignificants. Shortly after that, my friend Alan Yurko (who'd talked me into getting involved) went home and I was pressed into taking over his role as play co-writer. Martin and I spent most of the summer and fall of 1996 writing the script and songs for A Possum Gulch Christmas, a musical set in an Old Western saloon -- and because I knew the work inside and out by the time auditions rolled around, director (and chaplain) Hugh J. Daley insisted on casting me in the lead role of preacher Isaiah Hawkins, which would in turn get me submerged in the Ministry of Theater for the next five or six years and change my life significantly. But when I began filling in my Sin and Slumber journal on the last day of 1995, I was still mostly shy and reclusive, avoiding involvement with my fellow inmates as much as possible, vehemently against any and all religious programming, and I'd never have imagined myself becoming a small scale playwright, songsmith and stage star, let alone in a chapel.

Me as a shepherd in The Insignificants (1995) - photo by Hugh J. Daley

The day I began Sin and Slumber, I'd just learned that two of my dearest acquaintances from before prison, Kendale Reynolds and Sam Jordan, had died of AIDS (or AIDS-related complications). This was especially shocking because the last I'd seen them, in 1993, they seemed to be in perfect health and I had no idea they were HIV+. The first poem in the journal is about them. Maybe six months later, I learned that another friend, Timothy White, had also died. These deaths, as well as girlfriend issues I won't go into yet, played a large role in my evolving relationships with prison, others, myself and the world.

So that's my introduction to Sin and Slumber. I've posted a few poems/fragments from it on my blog in the past (Maiku, for example), albeit with less context. But even though I find a lot of the writing in it embarrassingly inadequate (to be kind), I've decided to post Sin and Slumber in its entirety on this blog. Depending on how I feel after the fact, I may post more of my old journals online.

Stay tuned....

copyraunch 2010 - just give credit where due

Crisis in Detroit - Blood Shot, Bier & Mark This at The Beat Cafe, 8/15/2009

jc@crisischronicles.com (Jesus Crisis) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 12:49:00 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsaSotxFnv0

Here I read three poems on 15 August 2009 at The Beat Cafe, 29200 Hoover Road in Warren, Michigan (a suburb of Detroit). William Burkholder introduces me. My poems are:

"Bloodshot" -- from the chapbook Bloggerel (2008, Crisis Chronicles Press)
"Bier" -- published on 9/23/2009 by Mnemosyne
"Mark This" -- published in Le Pink Elephant Press' 2nd annual bookmark series (2009) and again in Mnemosyne

Clips of other poets reading that evening at The Beat Cafe are making their way into the Crisis Chronicles Online Library.

copyraunch 2010 - just give credit where due

It seems light is escaping my larynx

jc@crisischronicles.com (Jesus Crisis) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 15:01:00 GMT

self portrait in Dublin - 7/31/2010

copyraunch 2010 - just give credit where due

Last Night's Status on Facebook

jc@crisischronicles.com (Jesus Crisis) — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 01:20:00 GMT

[I was gonna make it into a poem before I realized it IS a poem.]

A prophet is without honor in his own house - and an honor is without profit - no word yet on whether a profit or prophet is without house in his own honor. Thus spake the thunderstorm, who's obviously read at least one holey book too many for anyone's own good.