John Allen Taylor
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johnallentaylor.bsky.social
John Allen Taylor
@johnallentaylor.bsky.social
750 followers 260 following 63 posts
TO LET THE SUN • Univ. of Arkansas Press 2025

Writing Center Coord • University of Michigan-Dearborn

johnallentaylor.com
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johnallentaylor.bsky.social
And look at these. My houseplants are in agreement 💚🪻🌷🌸
African Violet plant with blush pinkish white flower. White and pink orchid unstaked in a cedar vanda box. African Violet with cluster of white flowers.
April 24, 2025 at 6:18 PM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
Look at this.
Tiny darling mini variegated African Violet plant with itty bitty purple flowers with yellow stamens.
April 24, 2025 at 6:15 PM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
If you're in Michigan in May, come see me! I'm reading with @britrogers.bsky.social & @sabadilla15.bsky.social in Ypsilanti to celebrate my new collection of poetry, To Let the Sun. Published by @uarkpress.bsky.social and selected by the amazing Patricia Smith 🧡

www.eventbrite.com/e/john-allen...
John Allen Taylor - author of To Let the Sun - a book release celebration with Saba Keramati and Brittany Rogers. Friday May 2, 2025. 7pm. Ladies Literary Club. 218 N Washington St. Ypsilanti, MI
April 17, 2025 at 8:16 PM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
Rhubarb says it’s spring.
Rhubarb leafing out. Looks like a green brain over dried leaves.
April 3, 2025 at 6:32 PM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
Book cover with three subs and to small figures silhouetted on a low hill. Title reads To Let the Sun by John Allen Taylor.
March 27, 2025 at 8:26 PM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
If you’re at AWP, I’m signing at the University of Arkansas Press table at 2:00! Table 1136.

Come see me :)
Book Signings. Thursday March 27. 2:00PM. John Allen Taylor. To Let the Sun. Booth 1136
March 27, 2025 at 8:24 PM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
I am really, really excited about my debut collection coming out from University of Arkansas Press. Selected by Patricia Smith(!).

You can pre-order it here ❤️

www.uapress.com/product/to-l...
Poetry collection book cover. Light pink background with the silhouette of a hill and two small figures. Above them, three suns embroidered into the sky. “To Let the Sun” in purple, san seriffed all-caps.
February 28, 2025 at 3:51 PM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
Photo from r/pasadena depicting catastrophic fire damage to a neighborhood
January 9, 2025 at 12:55 AM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
Merry Crustmas! 🍕
Little white dog in sweater that says Merry Crustmas. Features an ornamented pizza. Little white and black dog wearing a green white and red Christmas sweater.
December 27, 2024 at 3:18 PM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
Never got to share these two from december mag this summer. It was a really lovely issue :)
Picture of cover of December magazine. Yellow square with black and pale yellow design of a sun. Poem: Sugar Ant I am twenty-six years old & I think my mother is very beautiful. I always have. &, to be fair, I think my father is very handsome. Sometimes, I'll show a photo to a friend, very rarely, when I trust them to understand. I think my parents are beautiful: My father with his soft eyes. My mother with her cool hands. My father with his broad, square hands, always dry & warm when mine are clammy. My mother tall. Shorter than I am now, but tall. My father short, though still taller than I am. The smell of sawdust. The smell of peat moss. When they kiss, a kiss practiced over thirty years, my father's eyes wrinkle above a child's smile & he turns to me, I am so happy. & my mother pretends to blush, I am so happy. I am sitting on a stoop in Michigan, where I live, 2,250 miles from California, where my parents live, & I'm watching a very small ant, smaller than usual, like three specks of pepper in costume, walk to the tip of a sycamore leaf, six feet off the ground, twenty feet from the trunk, sailing in a warm breeze. How have you come to be here, ant? Where did you think you were going? Where are your parents & their beautiful faces? Do you still believe in righteousness? If you remembered the way home, would you go? Poem: SELF HARM When you first saw my arms & legs you took my hand & squeezed it hard. A gesture of presence. I am not sorry for what I've done. Though I'm learning to romanticize the body I was born with, treasure the stretches of myself which have never needed care. Look, I did not bury my razors, I put them back in the junk drawer. I will not call this self-harm or self-care. Though I am learning my need for precision. You wrap your arms around my stomach & kiss the back of my neck as I water my African Violets with a syringe I swiped from my dentist. I ask you if you know the woman who was healed when she touched the edge of Jesus' cloak. No, you say, and I say, Me either, they both died so long ago.
December 12, 2024 at 6:31 PM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
Cute
December 3, 2024 at 3:59 AM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
I found this old rock tumbler at an estate sale for $1.00. So I brought it home and made it new :) 💚
Small, rusty green rock tumbler with silver sticker that says Beacon Star. Small, rusty green rock tumbler deconstructed. With green sides, an aluminum back, steel shafts, a little fan motor, and a cord. Green rock tumbler reassembled. With new motor, paint, and belt. Green Beacon Star rock tumbler all pretty and new with a black tumbler barrel.
December 3, 2024 at 3:55 AM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
I got author photos, so I obviously threw in a portrait sesh with my dog.
White man in blue button down holds a small white dog with black spots. White man in blue button down holds a small white dog with black spots. White man in blue button down holds a small white dog with black spots. Dog is squinting.
November 11, 2024 at 5:12 PM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
On my final day at the Carolyn Moore Writers House:

Poetry books as rocks📕 🪨

THE GREAT UNCLUTTERING // blue kyanite
October 24, 2023 at 9:38 PM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
Poetry books as rocks📕 🪨

FAITHFUL AND VIRTUOUS NIGHT // carborundum

by Louise Glück
October 21, 2023 at 10:32 PM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
Poetry books as rocks📕 🪨

WHEN I GROW UP I WANT TO BE A LIST OF FURTHER POSSIBILITIES // red snowflake obsidian

by Chen Chen
October 16, 2023 at 12:29 AM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
Poetry books as rocks📕 🪨

OVERLAND // banded chert

by Natalie Eilbert
October 11, 2023 at 11:22 PM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
Poetry books as rocks (fossils) 📕 🪨

A RIVER DIES OF THIRST by Mahmoud Darwish // Cedrelospermum nervosum. Eocene.
October 8, 2023 at 11:11 PM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
Poetry books as rocks📕 🪨

SALT BODY SHIMMER // thunderegg

Aricka Foreman / YesYes Books
October 6, 2023 at 12:31 AM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
Poetry books as rocks📕 🪨

BESTIARY // wavelite

by Donika Kelly
Graywolf Press
October 5, 2023 at 12:39 AM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
Poetry books as rocks📕 🪨

THE BOOK OF NIGHTMARES // brecciated jasper
The Book of Nightmares by Galway Kinnell and a polished, circular red stone of brecciated jasper.
October 4, 2023 at 12:43 AM
johnallentaylor.bsky.social
Poetry books as rocks📕 🪨

NOT HERE by Hieu Minh Nguyen // pyrite
October 1, 2023 at 10:20 PM