Author Archives: John Biscello

About John Biscello

Originally from Brooklyn, NY, writer, poet, performer, and playwright, John Biscello, has lived in the high-desert grunge-wonderland of Taos, New Mexico since 2001. He is the author of four novels, Broken Land, a Brooklyn Tale, Raking the Dust, Nocturne Variations, and No Man’s Brooklyn; a collection of stories, Freeze Tag, two poetry collections, Arclight and Moonglow on Mercy Street; and a fable, The Jackdaw and the Doll, illustrated by Izumi Yokoyama. He also adapted classic fables, which were paired with the vintage illustrations of artist, Paul Bransom, for the collection: Once Upon a Time, Classic Fables Reimagined. His produced, full-length plays include: LOBSTERS ON ICE, ADAGIO FOR STRAYS, THE BEST MEDICINE, ZEITGEIST, U.S.A., and WEREWOLVES DON’T WALTZ.

Coils

Posted on September 8, 2020 by John Biscello

To caper at the edge, where the seething lyric happens, poetry with slits and fast teeth, where the hours of phenomena are boiled and reduced to a single quivering instant, an umbilical knot of light upon tenderest scraps and coils.

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged craft, devotion, John Biscello, lyrical living, poem, the writing life | Leave a comment

Ravels

Posted on September 7, 2020 by John Biscello

At the wound’s core, dark luscious ravels of text, courting, inviolate measures, the fathomless brood of Beauty’s End.

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged Beauty, craft, inspiration, John Biscello, poem, Poetry, the writing life, wound-letting | Leave a comment

Craft

Posted on September 7, 2020 by John Biscello

How a writer, cave-timing dark and solitude, annoints an ember by crafting the small hours into a flagrant torch.

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged craft, poem, the writing life | Leave a comment

Curse You, Red Baron!

Posted on September 4, 2020 by John Biscello

It was Snoopy’s way of living through Charlie Brown’s shame and ignominy, his low self-esteem. Dogs are sensitive that way. Snoopy co-opted Charlie’s gnawing desire for a heroic life, or at least to do something right, to feel right inside … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged a boy and his dog, charlie brown, flying, John Biscello, Peanuts, poem, snoopy, storytelling, the power of story, the red baron | Leave a comment

Shed

Posted on September 3, 2020 by John Biscello

It is never in your best interest to fashion yourself in a corset of old dead skin; shed, as a sibilant directive, breathes ceremony into the places where you ache, to die, and begin again.

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged ch-ch-ch-changes, John Biscello, metamorphosis, out with the old, Poetry, shedding, transformation | Leave a comment

Everybody’s Got One

Posted on September 2, 2020 by John Biscello

I was once asked to create a safe happy place to which I could go during times of distress and turbulence, and there it was, as it had always been– a wooden bench set under a streetlamp in a park … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged bench, dreaming, John Biscello, park, Poetry, serene loneliness, streetlamp, twilioght | Leave a comment

The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish

Posted on September 1, 2020 by John Biscello

(Review of Katya Apekina’s stunning debut novel, The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish. ) Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; All the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Press, Prose, Publications, Uncategorized | Tagged american gothic, debut novel, John Biscello, katya apekina, literary review, novel, Publication, riot material, the deeper the water the uglier the fish, two dollar radio | Leave a comment

The Greatest Job on Earth

Posted on August 31, 2020 by John Biscello

So much depends upon a red spiral notebook opened to a blank page, beside a pen’s barest volition to longing, within silence’s meted reign.

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged devotion, John Biscello, love of writing, poem, Poetry, The Calling, the craft, willkiam carlos williams remixed, word-pray | Leave a comment

This Word’s Life

Posted on August 31, 2020 by John Biscello

Words are wonderfully illegitimate and unhurried placeholders for psychic disturbances and vagrant quandaries. To frame it differently– Using a broken compass to navigate through a paper town on a vintage red bicycle is, in itself, immaculate. Words, in other words, … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged creative expression, John Biscello, poem, text, the craft, word is bond, words, worlds within words | Leave a comment

The Honeymooners

Posted on August 24, 2020 by John Biscello

Ralph Kramden sweats and sweats, his eyeballs bulging. Plagued by the notion that he has become a whale, no a rhinoceros, no an inoculated hippo that shows up to birthday parties uninvited. This visual grotesquerie, reflected to him through the … Continue reading →

Posted in Prose, Uncategorized | Tagged 1950s, jackie gleason, John Biscello, Prose, ralph kramden, sitcom, the honeymooners, tv remixed | Leave a comment