John Philip Drury

I'm thrilled that Able Muse Press will publish my fifth book of poems, The Teller's Cage, in Fall 2023! Many thanks to Alex Pepple, publisher and editor extraordinaire.

The video of the Able Muse Press poetry reading from Friday, September 17, 2021 is now on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2OQVZsab1U. I’m the first reader, followed by the amazing Rhina P. Espaillat. Unfortunately, our third poet, Gail White, had technical difficulties and could not appear, but several of us read poems of hers aloud. The Zoom event concluded with a Q&A session. I devoted my time to poems about my mother (some in her voice) from a new full-length poetry manuscript, The Teller’s Cage.

On March 6, 2019, I visited two classes taught by Jake Riordan at Walnut Hills High School, the premier academic public high school in Cincinnati. I read one of my favorite sonnets by John Keats, “On the Grasshopper and the Cricket,” and four poems from Sea Level Rising: “Girl on a Fishing Boat,” “Meeting in Water,” “Music of the Spheres,” and “How to Stay Awake.” Then I answered questions from the lively, well-prepared, enthusiastic students. It was exhilarating!

On October 12, 2018, I was happy and honored to serve as Guest Critic for the monthly meeting of the Greater Cincinnati Writers League. In addition to offering critiques of poems submitted by members for a workshop, I also read three poems from Sea Level Rising: the title poem, “Coastal Warning Displays,” and “Burning the Flags.” I chose those poems because the meeting took place two days after Hurricane Michael made landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida.

Today my poem "Ghazal of the Lutanist" (about the Elizabethan composer John Dowland) appears on the Cincinnati Poetry Month Daily blog, posted by Pauletta Hansel, Poet Laureate of Cincinnati. It includes a link to the video in which my reading of the poem is accompanied by lutanist Rodney Stucky. Thanks to Alex Pepple for publishing it first in Able Muse and later in Sea Level Rising.

At 7:00 pm on Tuesday, April 25, 2017, I’m giving a poetry reading in the main branch of the Cincinnati Public Library. I’ll be reading with Linwood Rumney and Susan Glassmeyer as part of the Poetry in the Garden series, which is sponsored by the Greater Cincinnati Writers League. Susan is subbing for my wife, LaWanda Walters, who had to withdraw because of continuing pain from a back injury she suffered in early March.

Kelly Blewett interviewed me about three poems from Sea Level Rising: “Falling in Love at the YMCA Pool,” “Language Lesson,” and “In the Green Room with Robert Lowell.” I read them aloud, and we talked about them. The broadcast aired on April 9, 2017, and is now archived at National Poetry Month: Local Poet John Philip Drury.