Poetry
Read John's selected poems here and refer to the bibliography for a full listing of John's work.
- Poems from the Sangamon
- Rivers into Islands
- Selected Poems
- A Box of Sandalwood
- Begging an Amnesty
- The Chinkapin Oak
- Prayer Against Famine and Other Irish Poems
- Walking in Snow
Read Confluence
"The poet has named his country, his people, and now he names the stars. The morality of John Knoepfle's naming is that it not only rectifies, it also heals. Readers in need of such balm would do well to look long at John Knoepfle's poetry." —Anne C. Bromley
Read Church of Rose of Lima, Cincinnati
Read A Box of Sandalwood
Read after gray days
Read when the wound speaks
Read voices at breakfast #2
Read a little song for a sugar cube
"The variety of new subjects here, often midwestern, is only equaled by the sensitivity and tenderness with which Knoepfle utters them. Man and woman, memory and child, town and counselor, he more than ever sings of threads that unite our lives." —Ted Haddin
Read lines for my mother
"In this moving book of poems, John Knoepfle transforms a search for his Irish roots into a meditation on human suffering and survival. The whole book is a prayer against famine and the gratuitous cruelty inflilcted on the innocent, both the Irish of the last century, and the Central Americans of today." —Kathleen Norris
Read walking in snow
"Whatever the journey has been, whatever it will be, whether we sit on a bench with old men or make footprints where there are none, John Knoepfle's own steady hands have drawn us a map that we are fortunate to have." —from "A Meditation of the Passage of Time: John Knoepfle's New Book of Poetry," by Carol Manley
Poem of the Month
- December 2014:
random thoughts - December 2012:
winter miracle - November 2012:
veterans day - October 2012:
conjugal secret - September 2012:
a difficult morning
"I would consider John Knoepfle one of those classic poets of place. His attachment to the
midwest is a genuine attachment; it is the place that he inhabits, rather than writes
about, and that is what makes the poems so lovely. I think it has to do with his sense of
relationship of place to person to word."
—Brooke Bergen
About John
John Knoepfle is the author of over 20 books of poetry as well as several prose pieces. He is Professor Emeritus of Literature at the University of Illinois- Springfield. His awards include fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts as well as the Mark Twain Award for Contributions to Midwestern Literature. Click here to read
...more about John
Order a book
For information on contacting John, or to order a book, click here.