John Paul Davis

In Climbing a Burning Rope, John Paul Davis focuses his peculiar imagination, philosophical lyricism, and misfit spiritual outlook on life in the hypercapitalist twenty-first century where the inscrutable logic of algorithms haunts our constantly connected selves. Celebrating the weird and wild, lamenting wounds and weariness, Davis’s poems carve out a space in which we can reclaim what is sacred and be reminded to keep something of ourselves for ourselves.

Published by University of Pittsburgh Press in 2024.

In Crown Prince Of Rabbits, John Paul Davis’s first full-length collection of poetry, Davis writes compellingly about the aftermath of “this American heartbreak” and the heart’s journey toward healing and wholeness. Set against the backdrop of his own history, current events, pop culture and an intimate landscape cluttered with electronic devices, Davis turns his keen eye on his own shortcomings, “every lame joke, missed connection, fumbled kiss, too-late comeback”, while raising his voice in celebration of the many blessings inside suffering and loneliness.

Davis maps a trail through both divorce’s deeply personal grief and the invasive and atomizing politics in an incresingly-divided America. Taking refuge in music and private tiny moments of the spirit, Davis approaches his subject with curiosity, wonder and openness in the face of sorrow and alienation, celebrating risk and the chance for love to heal love’s own wounds. “Rise up, dead man, / there is heartbreak & there’s music. So dance.”

Published by Great Weather For Media, Crown Prince Of Rabbits was published in 2017. (Check out the book’s page on Great Weather For Media’s site or check out the microsite for the book.)