Apocrypha
Poems
Apocrypha: Poems
Apocrypha is a collection of poems in the scriptural tradition—the Judeo-Christian tradition in particular—that question what it means to be spiritual in the twenty-first century. Some re-evaluate ancient teachings, some revise ancient stories, some tell new stories in a new way.
All imagine a living canon that changes with the times, and that can be rewritten as we accumulate new knowledge and a better understanding of each other.
Offering: Poems
Offering is a collection inspired by the practices of Eastern spirituality and philosophy. These poems—some published previously, most appearing here for the first time—present an alternative path to peace for a world at war with nature and a society at war with itself. At the same time, Offering is a deeply-felt, intensely-personal statement of hope and faith by an American writer living in the mire.
All proceeds from the sale of Offering will be donated to Silkroad. Visit silkroad.org for more information.
John Tessitore’s Podcast: Be True
In each episode, John reads a poem he has published, then explores its inspirations, history, and themes.
Available on Substack, Apple Podcasts YouTube and Spotify.
Also Pandora and Stitcher.
About
John Tessitore grew up on Long Island and is a long-time resident of Massachusetts. He has been a newspaper reporter, a magazine writer, and a biographer. He has taught British and American history and literature at colleges around Boston and has directed national policy studies on education, civil justice, and cultural policy. He is the executive director of a national language education association and runs his own strategic communications business. His poems have appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies. His chapbooks, I Sit At This Desk and Dream: Notes from a Sunday Morning on Instagram (2021), We Are Becoming Unbound (2022), All the Lonely American Roads (2022), Parchment: A Prayer Quintet (2022), Body Songs (2023), For a minute there, it seemed like something was happening (2023), Sometimes I Still Pray (2023), My City of Yesterday (2023), Self-Expression After the Revolution (2024), The Dark Ways Mysterious (2024), Terminal D (2024), Apocrypha (2025), Offering (2025), his longer collection The Americans (2023), and his novella Jigsaw Men (2023) are available in print and for Kindle. His poetry podcast, Be True, is available on all major podcast platforms.
From Eyes Stricken is a long poem–part poetic treatise, part political manifesto, part personal statement, part literary dialogue–written in response to this embattled American moment. It is intended as a call-to-action. Download the pdf. now. All proceeds will be donated to the American Library Association campaign against censorship, Unite Against Book Bans.
Recent poems appearing elsewhere:
“Smoke from Canada” in Issue 3 of Reverie
“I Hear You” in Dogwood Alchemy, Issue 2
“Secatogue” and “Salvador Mundi” in The Paradox, 6/8/25
“Testimony” in Canary Number 69, Spring 2025
“Hospital Time” in The Marrow Issue 4
“International Relations” in Rawhead, Issue 1
and “An Evening with M. Poe” in the special issue Bloody Bones
“No Sudden Movements” in Wild Roof Issue 27
“Enter,” “Paris,” and “Hurt” in Delicate Emissions Poetry Zine, Volume 3, November 2024
All the lonely American roads
no longer matter to me.
I have outlived the necessity
of my faith, once abiding,
in the long, straight drive
of easy discoveries…
Heel: A Life
Free Download
A modern folk tale. A celebrity tell-all.
A story of villainy. A life told in reverse.
Heel is a poem about someone you may know, but never like this…
Terminal D
Stuck in an airport, waiting among strangers, missing connections, nursing a weak drink and a tired mind that has too much time to think…It’s just another day in Terminal D, a stream-of-consciousness poem about the self persistent, the self unshakable, the paradox of one, “to be particular and also limitless.”
The Dark Ways Mysterious
The Dark Ways Mysterious examines the energies—creative, erotic, Promethean—that define what it means to be human, as well as what is dangerous and forbidden. A pastiche of voices and styles spanning the history of art and literature—from Genesis and Sappho to Robert Johnson and Nabokov—it is a poem of pieces that explores “the forbidden creativity/ of the fallen man! the pride/ and science of discovery!”
With appreciation to visual artist Bill Travis for use of the gorgeous cover image.
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