Tag Archives: childhood

Nocturne Variations (Screenplay)

Posted on August 26, 2025 by John Biscello

I am happy to share that my full-length screenplay, Nocturne Variations (based on my novel of the same name), has been published in the new issue of Open: A Journal of Arts & Letters, as part of their screenwiting series. … Continue reading →

Posted in Artwork, Audio, Books, Cinema, photography, Poetry, Press, Prose, Publications, Theater, Uncategorized | Tagged childhood, los angeles, mystery, nocturne variations, Publication, puppetry, runaway, screenplay, screenwriting | Leave a comment

Mister Rogers Rolls Over In His Grave

Posted on August 2, 2025 by John Biscello

Posted in Books, Cinema, photography, Poetry, Press, Prose, Publications, Uncategorized | Tagged barbarians at the gate, big bird, childhood, compassion, cpb, elmo, funding cuts, literacy, npr, pbs, Poetry, public education, reading rainbow, sesame street | Leave a comment

Brooklyn Spleen

Posted on November 21, 2024 by John Biscello

We didn’t talk about it, but we knew we’d never amount to anything, no matter what we did. No matter how celebrated the accomplishment, no matter how big the fiction and the audience buying it, nothing could ever fill those … Continue reading →

Posted in photography, Poetry, Prose, Publications | Tagged Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, childhood, friends, kids, neighborhood, Poetry, Prose, story, streets, train station | 3 Comments

Scarecrow

Posted on November 13, 2024 by John Biscello

You got to ask yourself: Do you want to fuck Judy Garland? Or do you want to become her? I wasn’t prepared for this line of questioning. I was eleven at the time. Or twelve. I think, eleven. My mother’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Prose | Tagged black and white, Books, childhood, dorothy gale, fiction, film, judy garland, kansas, movies, musical, over the rainbow, Prose, reviews, scarecrow, story, technicolor, wizard of oz | Leave a comment

Cause of Light

Posted on February 4, 2024 by John Biscello

She stood at a distance, imagining her daughter there, playing. She saw how her daughter lit up with glee when she was near the sea, or scampering along the shoreline, collecting shells, poking holes in the mud with a stick, … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Prose | Tagged childhood, Dancing, grief, light and shadow, mother and duahgter, past present future, poem, Prose, purge, release, sea, shoreline blues | 1 Comment

Return to Sender

Posted on January 8, 2024 by John Biscello

Write an affectionate letter to six-year-old you who imagined you as the sort of person who would one day write an affectionate letter to six-year-old you. In advance preparation for what you might one day say to yourself, the envelope … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Prose | Tagged childhood, correspondence, eternity, letter, musing, poem, Prose | Leave a comment

Bedside Manner

Posted on January 6, 2024 by John Biscello

Next time you are hurt or affronted by someone else’s actions, imagine the person as a sleeping child and, a) smother the child in its sleep, b) wake the child up and ask them to go to another room, c) … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Prose | Tagged bed, bedroom, childhood, musing, perception, poem, Prose | 1 Comment

Round and Round

Posted on December 30, 2023 by John Biscello

Send out invitations to people you know, informing them you have rented out a yellow school bus for the purposes of taking a trip. The admission for the trip is, as follows: Before boarding the bus, each person is to … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Prose | Tagged bus, childhood, dreams, musing, poem, Prose, round and round, trip, wheels on the bus, words | Leave a comment

No Man’s Brooklyn

Posted on December 20, 2022 by John Biscello

New edition of my fourth novel coming soon. From the valentine boneyards of working-class Brooklyn, comes a tale of first love, lost innocence, tragedy, and healing. Daniel Trovato, having left his native Bensonhurst years ago to start a new life … Continue reading →

Posted in Artwork, Books, photography, Prose, Publications | Tagged Brooklyn, childhood, coming of age, first love, ghost story, New York, novel, Prose, urban | Leave a comment

The Village

Posted on November 23, 2022 by John Biscello

Posted in Artwork, Audio, Poetry, Prose | Tagged Audio, childhood, echoes, excerpt, horror, Poetry, Prose, voice | 4 Comments