John Burroughs, a.k.a. Jesus Crisis, is a Buddho-Taoist poet, pacifist, photographer, musician, bibliophile, and philosopher in Elyria, Ohio. Involved in the vibrant Cleveland poetry scene and founder of the burgeoning Crisis Chronicles Press and Online Library, he was born in Richwood, West Virginia, raised in Elyria, and at one point spent eleven years in prison for a crime he did not commit. While there, he was involved a series of musical theater productions as script and song writer, actor, musical director and more. His works were performed by convicts as a community service for outside audiences. He tutored his fellow inmates in English and mathematics and created and taught courses in meditation, basic biblical Hebrew and Greek, music theory and conflict resolution. JC also spent nearly 20 years of his adult life in higher (and lower?) education at Lorain County Community College, the University of South Carolina, Ohio University and a couple of seminaries. He eventually earned the dubious distinction of being a number one blogger on MySpace in 2007 before declaring his independence at www.crisischronicles.com.

JC is the author of ten musical plays and three poetry chapbooks. Identity Crises (2009, by Douglas Manson, Jesus Crisis and Bree) from Green Panda Press is currently out of print. Bloggerel (2008) and 6/9: Improvisations in Dependence (2009) are available for $5 each from Crisis Chronicles Press; 420 Cleveland Street; Elyria, Ohio 44035.

John has read and/or performed as a featured poet at Mac's Backs (Cleveland Heights, OH), the 806 Wine and Martini Bar (Cleveland, OH), Jim's Coffeehouse (Elyria, OH), the Collingwood Arts Center (Toledo, OH), Pumpkin Hollow Antiques and Cafe (Bellville, OH), the Beat Cafe (Warren, MI), Mint Jam '09 (St. John's MI), the Last Wordsmith Book Shoppe (North East, PA), Visible Voice Books (Cleveland), the Morgan Conservatory (Cleveland), The Lit (Cleveland), New Beginnings Cafe (Marion, OH), Dunkin' Donuts (Brunswick, OH), Phoenix Coffee (South Euclid, OH), the 2010 Ohio Poetry Association picnic (Marion, OH), the Nia Coffeehouse at Karamu House (Cleveland), IngenuityFest 2010 (Cleveland), Octavofest (Cleveland), the Lee Road Phoenix (Cleveland Heights), Barnes & Noble (Westlake, Ohio), and the Cherry River Festival (Richwoood, WV). Podcasts of some of his early spoken word performances are available through The Poet's Haven (episodes 6 & 8). He co-founded the first ever Snoetry "Winter Wordfest," held 16 January 2010 at The Last Wordsmith in North East, PA.  He also co-founded and co-hosts (with Dianne Borsenik) the Lix and Kix Poetry Extravaganza, currently held on the 3rd Wednesday of each month (7 pm) at Bela Dubby Art Gallery & Beer Cafe (13321 Madison Ave.) in Lakewood, Ohio.  John founded Poets of Lorain County and will host a reading on their behalf in 2011 (on the third Thursday of each month) at the Avon Lake Public Library.  For a fairly complete listing of his upcoming events, visit the Crisis Chronicles home page.

John's work was first published in Kaleidoscope in 1983. Since then, his work has appeared in more places than he can remember, including Images, The Conch-Us Times, Inner Voices 6, the Prisoner-to-Prisoner daily devotional, Tomorrow Never Knows, Cleveland's Scene magazine, Polarity, The Cartier Street Review, Rounding the Stone, Joy's Poetry Blog, Crater Cleveland Erie: a Poets' inDirectory, Admit2, Rounding of the Stone, a handful of stones, Hit and Run, the NEO poets Field Guide, CP Journal #5, Mnemosyne, Troubadour 21, the deep cleveland junkmail oracle, Le Pink-Elephant Press' 2nd annual bookmark series, the Hessler Street Fair 2009 Poetry Anthology, Writer's Digest's Red Heart: Black Heart collection, Broken Teeth, Kuca od stakla, Eviscerator Heaven, the Hessler Street Fair 2010 Poetry Anthology, the Other Voices International anthology, Rusty Truck, Ship of Fools, November 3rd Club, the Heights Observer the Green Panda Press anthology Water Me Well, S.A. Griffin's Poetry Bomb project and several issues of The City Poetry.  He has been a featured guest on internet radio shows including Sunday Brunch Invasion, maintains a fairly comprehensive Cleveland Poetry Calendar, and is a regular contributor to Cleveland Poetics - The Blog.

More of JC's work is forthcoming in the Muddy River Review, Erbacce, Worldwide Hippoetry 2010, Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel, "Walt's Corner" in the Long Islander, the Pudding House anthology What We Knew Before We Knew, and the Angels with Broken Wings anthology.

[updated 9/27/2010]


* * *

Consider this selection from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet:

"Is not religion all deeds and all reflection,

And that which is neither deeds nor reflection, but a wonder and a surprise ever springing in the soul, even while the hands hew the stone or tend the loom?

Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupations?

Who can spread his hours before him, saying, 'This is for God and this is for myself;
This for my soul, and this other for my body?'

All your hours are wings that beat through space from self to self."