Tag: John Arthur

ONE ART x The Poetry Box Reading

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Sunday, March 1, 2026
ONE ART x The Poetry Box
Featured Readers: John Arthur, Katie Dozier, John Wojtowicz, Laura Foley
Information & Registration via The Poetry Box
Tickets are FREE!
>> Register Here <<

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A special crossover event celebrating poets who have been published in ONE ART and who have been winners of The Poetry Box Chapbook Prize.

  • Katie Dozier – Editor’s Choice Winner, The Poetry Box Chapbook Prize 2025 for All That Glitter

You can learn more about The Poetry Box Chapbook Prize, which is open from February  1st thru March 15th, at ThePoetryBox.com/chapbook-prize.

About the Poets:

John Arthur is the author of Lucy the Elephant Wins in a Landslide. John is a writer and musician from New Jersey. His work has appeared in Rattle, DIAGRAM, Frogpond, Failbetter, trampset, ONE ART, and many other places. He has worked as a valet at a casino, a waiter, a Ferris Wheel operator, a cook, a pizza delivery driver, a fast food delivery driver, a landscaper, a journalist, an editor, a librarian, a library director, a manager, and for one long, hot day as a guy going door to door asking if you’d like to donate to the Sierra Club.

You can purchase John Arthur’s winning chapbook at:

https://thepoetrybox.com/bookstore/lucy-elephant

(or wherever you like to buy books)

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Katie Dozier’s love of poetry first bloomed as a child. She memorized Robert Frost sitting on a tree stump and bathed in Edgar Allan Poe as an adolescent. While studying words at Florida State University, Katie also played with chips and became a professional poker player. She’s passionate about encouraging others to discover and share contemporary poetry—through her social media, Substack, and NFTs.  Katie is the author of All That Glitter; Watering Can: a Month of Poems; and the co-author of Hot Pink Moon: a Crown of Haibun and Did You See the Moon Honey. She is the creator of the top-rated podcast The Poetry Space_,   the haiku editor for One Art,   and an editor at Rattle. Katie lives in The Woodlands, Texas, with her husband Timothy Green, their four children, and way too many books.

You can purchase Katie’s winning chapbook at:

https://thepoetrybox.com/bookstore/glitter

(or wherever you like to buy books)

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John Wojtowicz, author of No Lightsabers in the Kitchen, grew up working on his family’s azalea and rhododendron nursery and still lives in the backwoods of what Ginsberg dubbed “nowhere Zen New Jersey” with his wife and two children. Currently, he teaches social work at Rowan College South Jersey. He has been featured on Rowan University’s Writer’s Roundtable and the Painted Bride Quarterly’s Slush Pile Podcast. Several of his poems were selected for Princeton University’s 2021 Unique Minds: Creative Voices exhibition at the Lewis Center for the Arts. When not writing, teaching, or rolling around in the yard, he enjoys monitoring bluebird boxes, volunteering at the Cohanzick Zoo, and flipping horseshoe crabs.

You can purchase John Wojtowicz’s winning chapbook at:

No Lightsabers in the Kitchen

(or wherever you like to buy books)

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Laura Foley, author of Ice Cream for Lunch: a grandparents handbook, is also the author of ten previous poetry books, most recently, Sledding the Valley of the Shadow. Her book Why I Never Finished My Dissertation received a starred Kirkus Review and an Eric Hoffer Award. She has won a Narrative Magazine Poetry Prize, The Common Good Books Poetry Prize, Atlanta Review’s Grand Prize and others. Her work has been included in many journals including: Alaska Quarterly, Valparaiso, Poetry Society London, Atlanta Review, Poetry of Presence, and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope. She lives on the steep banks of the Connecticut River in New Hampshire, and romps with her grandchildren as often as possible.

You can purchase Laura’s book at:

https://thepoetrybox.com/bookstore/ice-cream-lunch

(or wherever you like to buy books)

Mango Languages by John Arthur

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Mango Languages

on his deathbed he lay
learning Italian one phrase
at a time from a free app
I downloaded for him
from the public library.

my daughter asked him why
learn something new now, grandpa?
what’s the point?
I think you mean perché he said
and that was his final word.

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John Arthur is a writer and musician from New Jersey. He is the 2025 Grand Prize winner of The Poetry Box’s chapbook contest for Lucy the Elephant Wins in a Landslide, which will be released early in 2026. His work has appeared in Rattle, DIAGRAM, Failbetter, trampset, ONE ART, Frogpond, and many other places.

Thirty-Eight Rings by John Arthur

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Thirty-Eight Rings

last night’s lightning split the sycamore.
how can I pledge myself
to you when I don’t know
what I am? you can see
where the wood was scorched.
you can see where it wasn’t.
I know death is impossible,
but it feels real when it happens
to anyone other than me.
and when it does happen to me
I imagine my daughters
will feel much as I do
looking now at this tree.
I rev my chainsaw and cut
what’s left into pieces
small enough to carry away.

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John Arthur is a writer and musician from New Jersey. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Rattle, DIAGRAM, Failbetter, trampset, ONE ART, and elsewhere. He has been nominated for Best of the Net.

Roll Call Please by John Arthur

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Roll Call Please

falling through the hole
in her pocket—
another violation

The barista says, “you have to buy something to use the bathroom.”

The librarian says, “without proof of residence, we cannot give you a card.”

The officer says, “you have the right to remain silent.”

left behind
the library—her
temporary structure

*

John Arthur is a writer and musician from New Jersey. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in ONE ART, Rattle, DIAGRAM, trampset, Failbetter, and elsewhere.

America’s Favorite Playground by John Arthur

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America’s Favorite Playground

My daughter asks if she can see
a picture of gravity.
She’s four but before I can answer,
more questions come at me,
gleaned, it seems, from the TV—
What’s a tariff? What’s a trade war?
We buy most of what we own
from the local thrift store.
Just home from work,
I sit next to her, still wearing
my new old peacoat, only $9.99,
one button missing, but warm
enough to get me through
at least the rest of this winter.
Now the anchor is saying Canadians
are expected to boycott—
no more trips this summer
to the Jersey shore.
When I was a valet in AC,
I used to count the Ontario plates,
smoking on the top floor
of the parking deck,
looking out at the gold plated facade
of the Trump Taj Mahal
before it was demolished.
It only took a couple
of well placed explosives.
I show my daughter a video
of the building imploding.
That’s gravity, I say.

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John Arthur is a writer and musician from New Jersey. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Rattle, DIAGRAM, ONE ART, trampset, Failbetter, and elsewhere. He has been nominated for Best of the Net.

Phanatic by John Arthur

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Phanatic

the day you swung my Louisville
Slugger at me and I caught it
with my bare hands
you smacked my bare ass
while Jimmy held my pants
at my ankles and I was
getting hard, harder
each week from dead
lifts, lunges, and power cleans
until mom poured a gallon
of milk on my head,
the lactose sticky on my skin
as I let it soak in
laying there on the dogsmell couch
where dad drunkslept during Phillies
games. we were there at Citizens
Bank Park when they broke
the record for most
innings played in a game,
at infinity, and everyone
left the stadium except for us.
They’re still playing.
We’re still there.

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John Arthur is a writer and musician from New Jersey. His work has appeared in Rattle, trampset, Maudlin House, Third Wednesday, and other places. His band is called The Deafening Colors.