His work appeared in Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books, Poetry (Chicago), The Scotsman, The Guardian, Financial Times, Wascana Review, Ploughshares, Candlestick Press and Magma to name but a few.

His work is included in many anthologies such as the Faber Book of Twentieth Century Scottish Poetry (Faber and Faber 1992), Last Words: New Poetry for the New Century (Picador, 1999), New British Poetry (Grey Wolf Press, 2004), Contemporary poetry and contemporary science (Oxford University Press, 2006), 100 Favourite Scottish Poems (Luath Press, 2006), 100 Favourite Scottish Love Poems (Luath Press, 2008), Being Human (Bloodaxe, 2011), Forward Book of Poetry 2016 (Faber & Faber, 2015) and Off the Shelf (Picador Poetry, 2018).

The American photographer Sally Mann used an excerpt from John's poem Landscape with Flying Man for the title of her 2018 International Exhibition A Thousand Crossings.

John's Selected Poems was published by Picador Poetry in October 2020.

The Fife Arms Hotel in Braemar invited a Poetry commission to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III in May 2023.