John Olson
John Olson is the author of numerous books of poetry and prose poetry. He was the recipient of the The Stranger’s 2004 Literature Genius Award, and in 2012 was a finalist for the Washington State Arts Innovator Award. He has also published four novels and an autofiction before You Know There's Something.
YOU KNOW THERE'S SOMETHING
John Olson
We live, according to the Chinese curse, in “interesting times”. Climate change, endless war, the disappearance of a former way of life, items missing from grocery shelves, mad rushes for toilet paper, the emergence of a digital world and the creep of totalitarianism. You Know There’s Something is a reflective, monologic sounding of troubling events, but also a celebration of the many quiet and subtle pleasures available when we take the time to notice them.
“There is a crow flying through my body – a book of meditations that explores ‘Bach emanating from a blanket’, ‘God thinking in onions’, ‘[a]n apricot [that] is not a snowball’, Heisenberg, George Harrison, and, yes, crows. There is a book flying through my body, a John Olson book, which means it might be reading me, even as I read it – even as I think I may be arriving closer to the source of all things. Olson – as he has for years – effortlessly interweaves philosophy, personal experience, mystical thought and pop culture, exposing a thread that is contentedly restless. As he asks, ‘Is there intelligent life elsewhere in space? Is there a parallel universe where people walk on the ceiling and poetry is the highest paid profession? Who wrote The Book of Love, and where can I get a copy?’ Okay, you can find The Book of Love by grabbing this stunning new book by the horns but allowing it to wrestle you to the ground!”
– GEORGE KALAMARAS, former Poet Laureate of Indiana
978-1-874400-89-9 182pp 2023