An innovator of Performance Poetry, John Giorno elevated Spoken Word to a high Art Form. One of the influential figures of 20th Centrury poetry, John Giorno's career spans forty years. John Giorno's work: written, performed, recorded and presented, has changed the way the world views poetry.

In 1965, the idea occurred to me that a poet can connect to an audience using all the entertainments of ordinary life: watching television, listening to albums, radio, and the telephone.
John Giorno

John Giorno raises questions to an almost unbearable pitch, to a scream of surprised recognition. His litanies from the underworld of the mind reverberate in your head and ventriloqize your own thoughts.
William Burroughs

Giorno Poetry Systems innovated the use of technology in poetry, working with electronic and multi-media, creating new venues, and connecting poetry with new audiences.

In 1968, John Giorno created Dial-A-Poem, and innovated the use of the telephone for mass communications. Dial-A-Poem was the first time the telephone was used to communicate mass audiences. Dial-A-Poem's enormous success, receiving millions of calls, gave rise to a Dial-A-something industry, from Dial-A-Joke, to phone sex, to 900 numbers. Dial-A-Poem ushered in a new era in tele-communcations.

BOOKS OF POEMS
Great Demon Kings & Jane Bowles' Pussy, to be published in 2003.
You Got To Burn To Shine, Serpent's Tail Press, New York/London, 1994.
Per Risplendere Devi Bruciare, City Lights Italia, Florence, 1998.
Du Musst Brennen Um Zu Strahlen, Stop Over Press, Berlin, 1992.
Grasping At Emptiness, Kulchur Foundation, New York, 1985.
Suicide Sutra, Christian Bourgois Editions, Paris, 1980.
Shit, Piss, Blood, Pus, & Brains, The Painted Bride Press, Philadelphia, 1977.
Cancer In My Left Ball, Something Else Press, New York, 1973.
CUM, Adventures In Poetry, New York, 1971.
Cunt, Marz Verlag, Dharmstadt, 1970.
Balling Buddha, Kulchur Press, New York, 1970.
Johnny Guitar, Angel Hair Books, New York, 1969.
Poems By John Giorno, Mother Press, New York, 1967.
The American Book Of The Dead, 1964.

John Giorno created Dial-A-Poem in 1968. Millions of people called and listened to poetry. Dial-A-Poem was the first time that the telephone was used to communicate to large audiences, beginning a new era in tele-communications. Dial-A-Poem discovered that the telephone coupled with publicity enables one to communicate instantly to a large numbers of people. The technology developed spectacularly, and now you can communicate with one million people on one line at one time.