Crown Prince Of Rabbits

The Book

Crown Prince Of Rabbits Book Cover

In Crown Prince Of Rabbits, John Paul Davis’s first full-length collection of poetry, Davis writes compellingly about the aftermath of “this American heartbreak” and the heart’s journey toward healing and wholeness. Set against the backdrop of his own history, current events, pop culture and an intimate landscape cluttered with electronic devices, Davis turns his keen eye on his own shortcomings, “every lame joke, missed connection, fumbled kiss, too-late comeback”, while raising his voice in celebration of the many blessings inside suffering and loneliness. Davis maps a trail through both divorce’s deeply personal grief and the invasive and atomizing politics in an incresingly-divided America. Taking refuge in music and private tiny moments of the spirit, Davis approaches his subject with curiosity, wonder and openness in the face of sorrow and alienation, celebrating risk and the chance for love to heal love’s own wounds. “Rise up, dead man, / there is heartbreak & there’s music. So dance.”

Published by Great Weather For Media, Crown Prince Of Rabbits will be available for sale December 1, 2016. (Check out the book’s page on Great Weather For Media’s site.)

Poems In The Book

Want a taste of Crown Prince Of Rabbits? Check out some of the poems from the book in the literary journals where they first appeared:

  1. "American Funeral" published in Word Riot
  2. "Advice To A Young Writer" published in FreezeRay Poetry
  3. "Emperor Of Drones" published in Radius
  4. "Love Song With Drones & Wiretaps" published in Radius
  5. "John Woolman's 21st Century Blues" published in Radius
  6. "Bicycling Home At Dusk I Closed My Eyes & Let Go & Saw The Rabbits" published in Four Way Review
  7. "The Blank Yorke" published in Jet Fuel Review
  8. "A Geology" published in Wherewithal
  9. "Winter Compline" published in Denver Syntax
  10. "Ode To The Bite Mark You Left On My Right Shoulder" published in The Legendary
  11. "Outside Of Poetry" published in The Legendary
  12. "10-9" published in Drunk In A Midnight Choir
  13. "The Legislature Unanimously Voted My Beard State Beard" published in Drunk In A Midnight Choir
  14. "Year Of The Game Face" published in Drunk In A Midnight Choir
  15. "Toasts To David Byrne" published in The Museum Of Americana
  16. "Beard" published in The Journal
  17. "Passwords" published in deComp
  18. "Self-Portrait As A Husband" published in Bat City Review
  19. "Lazy Eye" published in Sentinel Quarterly
  20. "Exit, Pursued By A Bear" published in Sentinel Quarterly
  21. "My Father's Record Player" published in Beech Street Review

Bio

Photo by Jeffrey Kay

John Paul Davis is a poet, musician and programmer. His work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Four Way Review, RATTLE, MUZZLE, Word Riot, deComp, and Again I Wait For This To Pull Apart. His first collection of poetry, Crown Prince Of Rabbits, was published by Great Weather For Media in December. You can find out more about him at http://www.johnpauldavis.org.

Praise

What a gift it is to read poems that tell the truth without self-congratulation. That confess not for aggrandizement, but to allow each of us reading our own transcendence, our own transformation. Reading this book, I’m lifted out of my little existence and find myself, as the poet writes, “following something I have never seen / from city to silver city.”

– Marty McConnell - author of “Wine for a Shotgun”

John Paul Davis takes us from loss back into love, and through the pleasures and discomforts particular to our age. Throughout these poems, the voice maintains a subtle gravitas. Even in extremes of feeling, these poems are measured and worked over like polished gems. Not simply moving, these poems provide a lesson in making experience into art.

– Corinna Bain - author of “Debridement”

Goethe claimed, “By seeking and blundering, we learn.” Crown Prince of Rabbits is an elegant chronicle of exactly this equation. In poems imbued with wisdom, celebration, shame, discovery, humor, and music, we witness one man’s passage through the difficult, glorious, and sometimes ignoble act of change. These deftly crafted stories give attention to the complexity of being alive: from self-destruction to accountability to evolution to—at its most earnest—emotional intimacy. Here, Davis explores the thrum and folly of his own humanity with such precision, urgency, and honesty, I am left asking, What greater endeavor than to face oneself fully and come away more whole?

– Jeanann Verlee - author of “Racing Hummingbirds” and “Said the Manic to the Muse”

With Crown Prince of Rabbits, Davis confronts the grief of divorce, what it means to be a father long distance, and the way poverty can make one feel unworthy—all in the shadow of an unforgiving and increasingly invasive America. The true gift of these poems is in their vision beyond, the grace of rehabilitating the self, not necessarily as whole but as capable of loving and being loved. These poems sing the self in all its weight and hair and musk, in all its holy wonders.

– Stevie Edwards - author of "Humanly" and "Good Grief"

Reading John Paul Davis’s powerful Crown Prince of Rabbits is a reminder of the things that matter most in good poetry. In line after line, Davis’s surprising language pops off the page like beats off wax. But to focus just on the sounds in these poems is to miss the elegance of Davis’s narratives, the outrange behind his poems of protest. This is a poet who recognizes that the ear is the pathway to the heart but the truth is the real center—and he gives us his truths time and time again..

– Adrian Matejka - author of "The Big Smoke"

Buy

You can now order Crown Prince Of Rabbits from IndieBound.

Purchase through the Espresso Book Machine

Order in person or online through your favorite bookstore such as Greenlight.

You can buy the recordings at Bandcamp.

If you have ordered the book online and would like a download code for the recordings, send a screen grab of your transaction receipt to: crownprinceofrabbits at johnpauldavis dot org.