This eclectic assemblage is a metaphorical exploration of the compartmentalized personality and the collection of feelings, thoughts, and life experiences that we gather over time and put in a junk drawer or a basement. We revisit our collection on occasion, as if we are conjuring a visit from our ancestors.

What is in John's Basement is a meditation by poets across the globe at a time when some believe we are closest to the veil of the beyond and we are more able to talk to the dearly departed. The harvest is done, and we can rest and reflect on what we have decided to keep with our life force that once or still has meaning to us. It could be anything: boxes of photos, broken china, rusty old tools still with useful life. Boxes of aspects of our lives that make us laugh or are frightening to consider.

Contributing authors

John Angell Grant

K.R. Morrison

Dane Ince

Ron Whitehead

Bryan Franco

Deborah C. Segal

Mbonisi Zikhali Zomkhonto

Mark States

Jeff Cottrill

Michael Sindler

Antoinette Vella Payne

Jonathon S. Baker

Chiina Bloodmire

John Burroughs

Merilee Johnson

Tyler Frederick

Frogg Corpse

Gary Huskisson

Eddy Forman

Darrell Parry

Clive Oseman

LKN

Fin Hall

Jon Wesick

Sophia Falco

Phynne Belle

hil hoover