John W. Leys was first moved to write song lyrics after being introduced to the Beatles and Bob Dylan when he was a teenager. A chance encounter with a radioactive fountain pen turned him into a ukulele playing poet, a curse he’s had to live with for decades

The greatest influences on his poetry have been Lord Byron, Leonard Cohen, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Catullus, Erica Jong, and a chemical imbalance in his brain.

John’s first poetry collection, The Darkness of his Dreams, was published in 2019. His second book, Whispers of a One-Eyed Raven: Mythological Poetry, followed the next year. He’s also been published in anthologies from Indie Blu(e) Publishing, one of which he helped edit. He often wonders, in the third person, if anyone reads the About the Author section on websites, or if he’s just wasting his time trying to be clever.

When not writing poetry, John can usually be found playing one of his many ukuleles or feeding the crows & ravens in the park.