Where I'm Going, by C. John Graham

Poetry, chapbook, 48 pages, from Bottlecap Features. Where I’m Going responds to uncertainties of mortality and loss with hints of spiritual survival as it confronts complexity in relationships, the conundrum of aging, and threats of ecological erosion and pandemic. Traversing a diverse landscape, we meander through geology, archaeology, aviation, the emptiness of space, the Garden of Eden, and Nepalese family life. Poems attempt to name while acknowledging the futility of doing so and assert that answers may lie in the emptiness of space, the human pulse, or a glacial rivulet. The immutable law of gravity is invoked to frame the frailty of the human condition with compassion, to expose the falsity of myths, and give tribute to a departed poet. Where I’m Going packages its issues neatly into the sestina form while inviting readers to open a door to resolution. Not without humor, it comically personifies Death Valley sediments and a drought-struck desert city and closes in the company of a carefree airhead humming a Deadhead tune. "The poems in C. John Graham's chapbook bring us into the drama of a mind ferociously alive, at times at odds with 'the body's inchoate assurances.' They are restless and probing, as if uncovering the next idea or image might 'spur an uncogitated impulse / to breach the blood-brain // barrier' and sate the poet. The poems are controlled, pressurized systems of charged particles, capacious as they are in imagination, frame of reference, and musical variation. In their deeply felt intelligence, Graham's poems 'will clip your mind apart' or 'nick // or scratch / that barnacle itch marking / the sharpest part / of your unsurfaced / heart.'" —Justin Wymer, Assistant Professor of Poetry and Creative Writing at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and author of Deed "The scope of the poems in C. John Graham's collection are varied and far-reaching, ranging from the top of the Eiffel Tower to the flight of Phoenix snowbirds to the cosmos beyond Earth's orbit. However, through these travels, Graham returns us to the ground under our feet, on this 'unmapped, / empyrean continent / sprung up from under an age of ice' (from 'Unarticulated'). Where I’m Going is as much an exploration of the inner landscape as it is of the outer." —Aaron Lelito, Editor in Chief of Wild Roof Journal C. John Graham’s poetry has appeared in The Laurel Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, Blue Mesa Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Taos Journal of Poetry and Art, and the anthology Off Channel, among other publications. He received the New Mexico Discovery Award in Poetry in 2009. Graham lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico and, before retirement, worked at a rocket engine manufacturer and a particle accelerator facility. He now volunteers as a search and rescue pilot and continues a lifelong spiritual inquiry.