I’m excited about every book The Digital Press publishes but some books are especially exciting. John Poff’s Out of My Life and Two Visions (2026) is especially exciting.
The book defies simple description. It is part poetry, part memoir, part a collection of essays, and part a mystical meditation on the character of the universe. It’s one of those books that you have to read to understand and appreciate.
Here’s the blurb:
Out of My Life and Two Visions is a journey from baseball to the depths of the soul. John Poff’s poetic memoir blooms from a tradition of Americana that finds meaning in minor league baseball stadiums, an encounter with a nightingale, and Kototama prayer. Poff ‘s lyrical language weaves together humor, mysticism, road stories, and memories into a poignant exploration of our place in the universe.
John Poff’s New Poetic Memoir Blends Baseball with a Deeper Message
There are few things more American than baseball and poetry.
John Poff’s debut collection, Out of My Life and Two Visions brings the two together in a searching memoir that finds meaning in minor league baseball stadiums, dimly lt bars, lonely highways, and cozy kitchens. Poff played seven years as a professional ball player, including major league stints with the Milwaukee Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies. His essays have appeared in a number of baseball periodicals and his poetry, most recently, in North Dakota Quarterly.
The book of poetic essays centers on two visions that transformed how Poff thought about his (and our) place in the world. They help organize a life defined as much by baseball as his career as an English teacher, Kototama prayer, acupuncture, and a sustained encounter with Native American communities and their spirituality.
The book leads off with Poff’s most famous essay “Donnie Moore: A Racial Memoir.” In this incisive essay, Poff turns his encounter with the tragic figure of Donnie Moore while playing minor league baseball into a poignant and uncensored meditation on race in America. The heart of the line-up goes deeper weaving together humor, mysticism, road stories, and memories into a poignant exploration of our place in the universe.
Paul Worley, who wrote the introduction to this book notes: “Many people will pick up this book because it’s a fine addition to the canon of baseball literature. It is certainly that but to be clear it is not just or only baseball literature.”
Poff connects these seemingly disparate threads by observing: “Whether playing ball or practicing acupuncture or teaching or hiking to the top of Thunder Butte, there is a world not necessarily in conflict with rational thought but outside of it, at least to some degree. And my idea is these other capacities should lead the way, so to speak, more often than we allow.”
Paul Worley sums up Poff’s work like this: “John Poff is an incredibly talented literary writer in voice, vocabulary, and craft. In my view, as a visionary, John carries on the proud literary tradition of writers like Blake and Ginsberg, those who dare to see the world as it is, as it REALLY is, and as it COULD be if we simply had the courage.”
William Caraher, the publisher at The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota and the editor of North Dakota Quarterly adds: “It is a privilege to publish John’s work, both with The Digital Press and with NDQ. His willingness to take the time to visit with the students in the Practicum in Writing, Editing, and Publishing class who helped to copy edit and design the book, made this project both professional and personal.”
Like all books published by The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota, Out of My Life and Two Visions is published as a low-cost paperback and a free open access digital download. For more on the book go here: https://thedigitalpress.org/out-of-my-life-and-two-visions/
The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota 