The poet John Campion has almost 30 years of teaching experience. He is the founder of the Ecotropic movement--derived from the roots, "Eco" (hearth, economy, ecology) and "Tropic" (to turn towards, heliotropic, psychotropic). As a philosophy, Ecotropics holds that for human culture to be healthy, it must exist as in an ecological niche, and thereby, relate appropriately with all the fields of forces of nature. His poetry, art, music, philosophy, and criticism reflect ecotropic values.

Look at some of the headings below for more information. Also see,

http://worldatuningfork.com/
/

In addition to his poetry, Campion also works as an artist and as a collaborator with musical composers.

Art

Utilizing his poetry in art, Campion creates a form he calls Texturals. He exhibited these in the recent past in one-person show (Texturals from the Medusa--a Walking Book) at the Worth-Ryder Gallery on UC Berkeley Campus. The art on paper was hung loosely from pairs of copper rows. Patrons walked through the labyrinth, reading the texturals as they progressed.

You can see samples of these works at Artslant

http://www.artslant.com/global/artists/show/23900-john-campion

Music Collaborations and Librettos

Campion has written librettos and collaborated with two major composers: Edmund Campion and Cindy Cox. The work has been performed live and on radio and television around the  world. You can experience some audio and video samples of these works at the website for CNMAT (Center for New Music and Audio Technologies).

http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/keyword_search?filter0=John+Campion&submit=Go...

http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/keyword_search?filter0=Edmund+Campion&submit=Go...

http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/keyword_search?filter0=Cindy+Cox&submit=Go...

Major Books

Medusa
(Book length poem)
Ecotropic Works, October 2007

Squaring the Circle
(Book length poem)
Ecotropic Works, 2002

Tongue Stones
(Book length poem)
Ecotropic Works, 1995, 2001

Ecotropic Works
(Anthology of Environmental Writing)
Ecotropic Works, 2002

Where Three Roads Meet
(Poetry)
Cedarshouse Press, 1990

Sippapu the Kiva an Inverted Bat
(Poetry)
Latitudes Press, 1985

El Sueño
(Translation of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz' Poem)
Brazos Books, 1980

Recent Essays

Discovering and Composing with Logos

Contemporary Music Review (Ed. Peter Nelson

Pedagogical Practice and Curricular Infrastructure in Graduate Music Composition

(Volume 31, Part IV) August 2012

After spending a year in South America, Campion is working on the forth in a series of book-length poems mapping out an ecotropic critique of culture and a pathway ahead.

No recent courses taught.