Cartwheels on the Sky Featuring Poet John Allen Cann

<p>Recorded in October 2022, this Cartwheels on the Sky with Blake More features Anchor Bay Poet John Allen Cann discussing Cann’s poetry and how it expresses itself in his life and community. Topics include being in the moment, finding one’s voice, inspiration and lots of lots of poetry.</p> <p>Born in Santa Monica, John Allen Cann eagerly acknowledges his first grand enthusiasm began with the arrival of the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles. &nbsp;Along with playing shortstop came a fascination with the stats &amp; brief bios on the back &nbsp;of baseball cards; he considers this the inception of all following passions of study—at times he just wants to turn the world over &amp; see what’s on the other side. The radio by his blue bed entranced him with songs, their lyrics knocked about his head as the figure of the poet gathered a strange, numinous nobility.</p> <p>Sports in high school was joined by an involvement with the theater; soon he arrived at Cornell University during its years of student unrest, &amp; where he received his B.A. in Theater Arts. &nbsp;His time in the east proved California the best place for him. &nbsp;As wordsmithing overtook acting, he earned an M.A. in Creative Writing at San Francisco State, landing in Santa Barbara afterwards, where Mudborn Press published his first book, <em>Lemurian Rhapsodies</em>. &nbsp;Here he hosted a poetry show, <em>The Unseen Rose</em>, at KCSB, began Aetheric Press, as well as working with kids &amp; poetry, his livelihood for the next three decades. &nbsp;His <em>Dinosaurism – An Illuminated Manifesto</em>, &amp; <em>Lunch – An Omnimodal Experience</em>, were both performed before his departure to Sacramento in Orwell’s fateful year, 1984.</p> <p>In the state’s capitol, he married artist-teacher, Robyn Cota, a true blessing, followed by another, the birth of their son, Dylan. Family camping on the north coast evolved into the good fortune of securing a parcel in Anchor Bay in 2002; building ensued at a modest pace. John Allen began teaching English at Cos