About John Siddique
John Siddique is a writer, photographer, and sacred teacher. He writes autofiction, essay, poetry, and fiction, and treats photography as central to his art and witness. He is the author of nine books, including Signposts of The Spiritual Journey, SO (Collected New Poems 2011–21), and the widely loved children’s collection Don’t Wear It on Your Head. His work has been featured in Time, The Tablet, Granta, The Guardian, Poetry Review, The Rialto, and on BBC Radio 3 and 4.
His meditation work reaches far beyond the page. He has created the online courses Self-Acceptance Through Authenticity and Magical Moments with over 36,000 students, and his meditations have been downloaded over four million times. The work, in every form, is an invitation into an ongoing adventure of presence, truth, and the ordinary human heart.
Praise for his poetry includes The Times of India, which calls him “Rebellious by nature, pure at heart”. Novelist and New York Times correspondent Bina Shah has described him as “One of the best poets of our generation”. The Spectator calls Siddique “A stellar British poet”. John holds an MA in Literature and Creative Writing from Manchester Metropolitan University and is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Leicester. He is the former Canterbury Poet Laureate and was Poet in Residence at California State University, LA, for the British Council.
John is the Project Coordinator for the Royal Literary Fund and WritersMosaic in the North of England, where he leads literary events, commissions, and initiatives that redefine the mainstream in British literature. He is dedicated to strengthening the literary network in the region, supporting the RLF’s work and Fellows, and creating new opportunities and support systems for some of the UK’s most exceptional writers.
His work moves between the page, the camera, and the practice.
If you are interested in the sacred aspect of John’s work go here.
Bibliography
Signposts of The Spiritual Journey (Watkins 2021)
‘SO’ - Selected New Poems 2011-21 (Crocus 2022)
Full Blood (Salt 2011)
Don’t Wear It On Your Head (Salt 2010)
Recital - An Almanac (Salt 2009)
Poems From A Northern Soul (Crocus 2006)
Four Fathers (Route 2006)
The Prize - (The Rialto 2005)
The Devil’s Lunchbox (Mongrel/Crocus 1996)
HUMAN WORK :
AN OUTSIDER ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Our lives take us on so many paths. I could have been a physicist, a gardener, or a monk; each of these possibilities was real at one time. Instead, the sacred and the arts of literature and photography chose me as their own, as if it was always meant that my life would be intertwined with theirs.
I could have happily followed the typical role of my arts: making, lecturing, and writing history and criticism of others in a mainly hermetic world. But the revolutionary act of bearing witness to life has shown me what a challenging yet beautiful world full of possibility we live in. The simple meeting of life with one’s authentic gaze is the greatest act of humanity and dignity there is; yet this makes one the outsider. To find a way every day to continue doing this, to keep allowing the space of ‘what is’ to shine through the teachings, writings, photographs, and so on, is my way, through the vehicle of this very particular human life, to envision and create a world that is breathed and shaped by the soul of what truly is. Most people call this God, presence, or awareness. God is not the name of God; I tend to call it The Light That is Throughout, or The Light of True Self. I just live with and act from the isness.
There are times when I get caught and drown in the politics of the world. There are so many things I have seen and experienced in my own life, and in the very towns and countries I have lived in and travelled through; there are things that are much worse than death. It is not true that words can never hurt us. Human dignity can be destroyed with a single word, neighbour can be turned against neighbour, and war can shout its name in the guise of being for peace and righteousness. In this whirling mess of emotion and division, the only thing that can restore us is the light within ourselves; this is where art is at its most valuable, not in argument or sentimentality, but in truth, dreams, expression, and storytelling. Just as words can destroy our mortal life as readily as the gun, so it is that a true line written down can unlock a life that has not dared to breathe for years. It can bring empathy and dignity through the simple sharing of stories, through the mediums of light, shadow and colour seen with awareness; through black ink on paper, or when spoken aloud in a room in front of an audience. It can give life to those who have never had a chance at one, and it can lift us, though we may not even know how much we need this medicine.
Authenticity, bearing witness, and taking action are more important than ever. We are always riding at the front edge of time, and there will always be those who desire that these are the worst of times. The meditator, the yogi, the artist, the dreamer, the worker, and the scientist are all necessary. Ask yourself: what real contributions do media, banking, or politics make as they stand at this time? How do they help with understanding, evolution, and the true path of the human spirit? I, for one, will continue as the outsider to transgress and illuminate by travelling these roads with love, as best I can, through this being; erasing through presence the false borders that have been drawn on the map in order to divide us. For there are no borders, and there is no war between ordinary people when we truly see with our spirit that there is no separation.
With love,
John Siddique
