John Allison

John Allison (born 1950) is a New Zealand/Australian poet, musician, and anthroposophist.

Life
Allison was born in New Zealand and taught at the Christchurch Waldorf Steiner School for 24 years. He now lives in the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne, Australia, working part-time as an administrator in Ghilgai Steiner School, and throughout Australia as a consultant in education, parenting, and organisational development.

Allison plays the middle eastern oud, renaissance lute, cittern and guitar; is an established poet with four published collections and many poems printed in journals worldwide; and lectures and writes on themes related to poetic imagination and observation, anthroposophy, and Waldorf education.

Allison has advocated the enhancement of methods for imaginative teaching in Waldorf education. He has spoken out against the exposure to young children of images from television, film and computer games, especially violent and sexual images, which leave them less receptive to the power of creating their own imagery. Allison in his recent writing has attempted to show how ordinary imagination can be intensified to become an organ of cognition.

Publications by John Allison
Prose
 * Walking Out of Another World, Immortal Books, Murwillumbah 2010
 * A Teacher's Book: digging deeper, Immortal Books, Murwillumbah 2008
 * A Way of Seeing: Perception, Imagination, and Poetry, Lindisfarne Books, Great Barrington 2003.
 * Living in Light Loving the Dark, Initiative Circle of the Waldorf Pedagogical Section in New Zealand 2003
 * Where Children Are: beginning to understand Waldorf Education, Initiative Circle of the Waldorf Pedagogical Section in New Zealand 2001

Poetry
 * Balance, Five Islands Press, Melbourne 2006
 * Stone Moon Dark Water, Sudden Valley Press, Christchurch 1999
 * Both Roads Taken, Sudden Valley Press, Christchurch 1997.
 * Dividing the Light, Hazard Press, Christchurch 1997.