Tag: John Wojtowicz

ONE ART x The Poetry Box Reading

~ ONE ART ~ Leave a comment

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)

Three Poems by John Wojtowicz

~ ONE ART ~ Leave a comment

Wake Up Time

On a Sunday, my little son
shakes me into consciousness, says,
the sky is awake
and the house is awake

and I imagine the house
being awoken by the sky
in the same blustery manner
that I was awoken
this morning

but quickly concede
that the house is probably the culprit
most mornings, urging
and goading the sky, before it is ready —

bedroom, bathroom,
then kitchen lights,
all flickering on before dawn.

*

Twenty Years of Education Culminating
in a Good Job

As I sit watching the hours tick
at a good job, a secure job,
a health-benefits-
pension-vacation-time-
sick-day-job, I think
about my pre-school graduation
and how the whole class
was asked to say
what they wanted to be
when they grew up
and how it felt like
there were only so many options
(firefighter, doctor,
farmer, teacher,
athlete, scientist)
and then one girl said
proudly (as the teacher cringed)
that she wanted
to be a dolphin. I think
about her often
and really hope she became one.

*

Father Time Walk’s into Kelly’s Korner at 1:45am

The bartender, Denise, who works Wednesday
nights and Saturday mornings
rings the bell. Shouts, “LAST CALL!”
The bouncer nods, “Made it just in time, sir.”
“I know,” says Father and orders a Guinness.

The manager who looks like Ben Stiller
but still doesn’t laugh the 10th time I tell him
settles my tab out of a pile of crumpled 1’s and 5’s
offers me the ride I always decline.
The regulars all stumbled home hours ago:

The Australian exchange student
obsessed with Arlo Guthrie and gin
who sings City Of New Orleans with me
over pitchers of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

The Baldwin who picks up college girls,
takes them back to their dorms,
tucks them into bed
after his own daughter disowned him.

The breast-cancer survivor we cheers’d
to two years who’ll be back at 7am
for a Bloody Mary and pork roll sandwich
after third shift at Saint Peter’s.

Time smirks. Toys his beard. Adjusts his Stetson.
Plays Billie-Joe Shaver’s Live Forever
on the jukebox. I ask Denise for another beer.
Father looks over from his stool, foam
coating his mustache, and says, “It’s time, son.”
He gets up, pulls a dart out of thick air,
throws a double bull as he passes the board.
I know he’s right. I slip out the back
and take to the chilly streets— where Time roams wild.

*

John Wojtowicz grew up working on his family’s azalea and rhododendron nursery in the backwoods of what Ginsberg dubbed “nowhere Zen New Jersey.” Currently, he pays the bills as a licensed clinical social worker and adjunct professor. He has been featured on Rowan University’s Writer’s Roundtable on 89.7 WGLS-FM and several of his poems were chosen to be exhibited in Princeton University’s 2021 Unique Minds: Creative Voices art show at the Lewis Center for the Arts. His debut coffee-table-style chapbook Roadside Attractions: a poetic guide to American Oddities was published in 2022. John serves as the Local Lyrics contributor for The Mad Poets Society Blog. He lives with his wife and two children in Upper Deerfield, NJ. Check him out on the web at: www.johnwojtowicz.com