John James
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ecotopian.bsky.social
John James
@ecotopian.bsky.social
Poet, scholar, environmental humanist • Author of The Milk Hours (Milkweed, 2019), Winter, Glossolalia (Black Spring, 2022), and Extinction Song (Tupelo, 2026) • Following the X-odus.
I’ve got two new poems out in Image. Here’s a teaser, but you can read both poems in full on the website — or order the print issue!
imagejournal.org/issue-124
April 26, 2025 at 10:37 PM
This is why they hate us. Because we make things. Because we resist their structures of power, and do so with intelligence. Because they know, as Shelley says, "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world."

This one's mine, from Winter, Glossolalia (BSPG, 2022).
#smallpoemsunday.
March 16, 2025 at 2:30 PM
My poem, “The Field Which Had Been a Meadow Once,” is in THE LAST MILKWEED, out now from @tupelopress.bsky.social. The poem takes its title from a poem in @joriegraham.bsky.social’s book TO 2040 (which I highly recommend) and leans into dialogue with Robert Duncan.
#poem #newpoem #poetry
February 7, 2025 at 8:45 PM
A poem for #smallpoemsunday. Robert Hass’s “Iowa, January,” one of my favorite small poems in the language.
January 26, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Happy MLK Day to all. Power to you.
January 20, 2025 at 5:32 PM
DC from the air. (Well, really the VA side of the Potomac.)
January 10, 2025 at 7:56 PM
This week! DC! Busboys and Poets, K St location, Sunday, 5 PM.
@busboysandpoets.bsky.social
January 9, 2025 at 12:37 AM
Joseph Brodsky’s “Star of the Nativity,” from his Nativity Poems (FSG, 2001, but originally published much earlier). A holiday post for #smallpoemsunday on this day, the shortest of the year. Happy belated #soltice!
December 22, 2024 at 11:55 PM
Another short piece for #smallpoemsunday, this one from A. H. Jerriod Avant’s MUSCADINE (Four Way, 2023).
#poem #poetry #shortpoem
December 15, 2024 at 4:41 PM
Krystal Anali Vasquez’s Lady Without Land is out now! I had the distinct honor to blurb the book, which is so smart (and hilarious), and I’m reading with Krystal next month in DC to celebrate its release (Busboys & Poets, K St).
#newbook #novel #fiction #hybridgenre #latinxlit
December 13, 2024 at 12:50 PM
Here's the beginning to a long-ish poem, "Pastoral," which appeared in Tupelo Quarterly / @tupelopress.bsky.social. It's the last I'll post by way of introduction to Bluesky, but I've got some new poems coming soon!

Read the full poem here: www.tupeloquarterly.com/editors-feat...

#poetry #poem
December 11, 2024 at 3:47 PM
Timothy Donnelly’s “Jonah,” from The Problem of the Many (Wave, 2019). #smallpoemsunday #shortpoemsunday #poetry
December 8, 2024 at 4:43 PM
The kids are excited for tonight’s festivities, whatever they might be… Merry Krampusnacht!
December 5, 2024 at 10:00 PM
Not my regular content, but the millennial in me couldn’t resist. 😋
December 1, 2024 at 1:49 PM
Read Forrest Gander’s Mojave Ghost this weekend. One of his best.
November 26, 2024 at 6:22 PM
One for #shortpoemsunday. A haiku by the great Kobayashi Issa, translated by Robert Hass.
November 24, 2024 at 5:15 PM
An excerpt from my poem “Circles,” which appeared as part of a folio in Tupelo Quarterly, along with an interview by the great Henk Rossouw.
www.tupeloquarterly.com/editors-feat...
November 22, 2024 at 12:44 PM
Here's the companion poem to "Action in the Infinitive," which I posted earlier today. This one is called "Infinite Gyre of Possible Ends" and also appeared in @hopkinsreview.bsky.social, with thanks again to @doramalech.bsky.social!

(Click image for alt-text.)
November 21, 2024 at 8:05 PM
New poem in @hopkinsreview.bsky.social with thanks to @doramalech.bsky.social!! I’ll post it’s brother this afternoon.
November 21, 2024 at 2:05 PM
So basically Door Dash.
November 21, 2024 at 1:08 AM
I was grading some student papers and was reminded how strange and beautiful this poem is. Jean Toomer’s “Beehive,” from Cane (1923).
November 20, 2024 at 9:47 PM
Here’s one from the new book project, which appeared this summer in Southern Indiana Review.
#poetry #poems #newpoems
November 17, 2024 at 5:36 PM
My first collection, The Milk Hours, uses the incessant question inherent in the genre of elegy to explore questions of geography, aesthetics, and ecology. Out from Milkweed: milkweed.org/book/the-mil...
November 16, 2024 at 9:58 PM
There are a lot of good ones out there, but Whitman might take the cake.
November 16, 2024 at 3:38 AM
Here’s a bit from my new book. Full poem at: poets.org/poem/lullaby-3
November 16, 2024 at 3:07 AM