A Map of Sorts

Jon West-Bey, Chairman, American Poetry Museum, says:
This is another important collection of poems from an eclectic artist that has been 30 years in the making. The work is a groundbreaking slice of reality that provides opportunities for the reader to find his/her own reality. In the tradition of great free verse poetry, this collection explores the curiosity, angst, and moods of the journey to find one's artistic voice. I think of each poem as paintings in writing, providing striking imagery, dark humor, and vivid emotion. At its core, this book is about seeking connections and establishing a case for the freedom of artistic voice through inner exploration. I look forward to future volumes that bring forth more of this brilliant artist's experience.

Kelly Gartman says:
These poems continuously arrive at the page like an unending stream of raucous gatecrashers, demanding attention. They pull you away from that boring conversation with a badly drunk middle-aged analyst in a golf shirt, grab you about the waist with sweaty hands, deep throat your tongue and then whisk you away in a gypsy cab to a Christmas light-strung collapsing dive across town, promising magical, dirty adventures in a heavily wine-soaked whisper. These poems deliver. From the casual cruelty in 'fossil onlooker' to the vibrant erotic romanticism of 'savannah', they come at you holding nothing back. John's poems leave one breathless. They're painful in a delicious, too-familiar way, beautifully idyllic at times, and shamelessly, unapologetically raw in their honesty. They lay bare the lyrical truth of experience, presenting a rich and variegated tapestry of the guts of life. Lawson's ear is intuitively musical. The poems depict the real. They leave no room for doubt; there exists no fluff for buffer. What "real" means to the poet, the poem and the audience is up to the meet, where all three intersect, and it is differently nuanced at each junction. These lines won't hold your hand and sing false promises of reassurance, and for that you should be grateful.
One of the marks of a good poet is the ability to reveal the sublime in just a few lines, and Lawson does that here, over and over again, page by page.

Cathy Galvin, poet and founder of UK literary organization, The Word Factory, says:
An incendiary collection from a singular poet in the tradition of the revolutionary Romantics with reverence for the human soul and a visionary loathing of all that seeks to destroy our sanctity. His is a pilgrim's path, a truthful journey into the lives of the dispossessed, capturing the cry of our times: a lyric, epic, representation of a dangerous contemporary landscape.

Ann Gray, poet, on Lawson's first collection, NOW, says:
An extraordinary collection of belting poems. Lawson is a watcher, a watcher who needs and hopes to tell the truth.