The poems in Off The Road tell the story of a man who has chosen to embrace life — firmly — understanding full well that that means embracing the challenges and failures along with the successes and rewards. Because the man is Johnny Dolphin (otherwise known as John Allen), a man who has traveled around the world, fathered scientific concepts (including Biosphere 2) and artistic concepts (including Caravan of Dreams Theater), and whose friends run the gamut from the most famous thinkers of the last 60 years to folks from the most remote cultures left on the planet, the life being embraced here is as rich in scope as the poetry describing it is rich in stylistic approach.
The writing in Off The Road is straight-forward, unassuming, provocative, and playful by turns. Yet this is a poet whose intent is never to hide behind his words.
“This Dolphin seems to me a Renaissance Man… This confident voice strikes poems out of bedrock, touchstone, pierces the veil, reveals jeweled gardens, sings the song. A Sultan from The Thousand and One Nights, on hearing such a poet, would command: ‘Stuff his mouth with pearls.’” — Rosé
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Why this book matters
- Poetry spanning a decade of lived experience by John Allen — inventor of Biosphere 2, founder of Caravan of Dreams, and one of the most wide-ranging minds of his generation
- Straight-forward, unassuming, and never hiding behind its words — poetry that earns its depth through honesty rather than obscurity
- A rich portrait of a life that has touched science, ecology, art, and the most remote cultures on the planet
- Praised by Rosé as the work of a Renaissance Man whose voice “strikes poems out of bedrock”
- A rare collection that makes the full scope of a visionary life feel intimate, accessible, and deeply human
