This February four* intrepid poets set off on adventure into poetry territory. Twenty-eight* days, twenty-eight* sonnets. Let's go! (*sometimes more)
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(Russell J Turner) This year we are using films from the Sight and Sound 2022 list as prompts Seventh up from me is Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers (1966 - #46), concentrating on the women and children involved in the conflict, particularly Little Omar and Hassiba Ben Bouali You slip into a status and a smile You map the maze that men may slowly learn You host the home, the monument and…
Fay Roberts’s final sonnet this year is inspired by Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s romantic, mythic, surreal creation, the Thai movie Sud Pralad (2004) , written by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and starring Banlop Lomnoi, Sakda Kaewbuadee, and Huai Dessom I do not want to watch this film tonight. Don’t get me wrong: I want to see the thing, to get engaged with strangers’ layered plights, suspend…
This poem was inspired by Sansho the Bailiff, a 1954 Japanese period film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. This film is about two aristocratic children who are sold into slavery in seventeenth century Japan. That felt like too big a topic for me to tackle in 14 lines, so I got distracted by the style of the film instead… #26 – Stories told in monochrome A story told in black and white may seem…
#19 - Apocalypse Now (1979) I love the smell of napalm in the morning! If someone tells me that’s their favourite line, I’ll likely take that as a useful warning, and think: This dufus ain’t no friend of mine! cuz if you think that Kilgore is your idol, it’s fair to say you’ve missed the movie’s theme. which makes me think All Yanks are homicidal! with Wagner-flavoured national fever dre a ms .…
(Russell J Turner) This year we are using films from the Sight and Sound 2022 list as prompts Sixth up from me is Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017 - #100), a curtal sonnet taking inspiration and its title from a Swahili refrain used in the soundtrack Listen to the elders as the stories begin, drinking brews of mesmerism ‒ a sunken place manifests affected care and narcissism. Monuments to second…
Fay Roberts’s penultimate sonnet this year is inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s epic, surreal sci-fi classic, the USAmerican movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) , written by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, and starring Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, and Douglas Rain. In pain, this late, I don’t know if I’ll last; I tried to read the book when I was wee. (my television’s not…
This poem was inspired by Spirited Away (2001) which was one of my favourite films when I was in school. It’s a Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki. A big part of the story revolves around the main character losing her name. Names and naming are a really common theme in stories and folklore, so that was what I focused on for my sonnet. #22 – Nameless…
#44 Killer of Sheep (1978) I am the shepherd – probably the best you’ve ever seen. Popular with sheep – the sheep, they love me. Last guy, he just messed up everything. I fixed it: one clean sweep. You seen the markets? Wool is up a bunch – we’re looking at a boom that never ends! Triumphal mutton will be served at lunch and also lamb (for just my closest friends). Another savvy deal: dinners,…
(Russell J Turner) This year we are using films from the Sight and Sound 2022 list as prompts Fifth up from me is Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Fear Eats the Soul (1974 - #52), heavily informed by my own experience of love across an age divide For you are so much younger yet possessed with wisdom way beyond my scatterbrain ‒ we meet in bars, we shelter from the rain, cocooned from animosity and jest.…
Fay Roberts’s fifth sonnet this year is inspired by Federico Fellini’s metatextual bit of sophistry, the Italian movie, 8½ (1963) , written by Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi, and starring Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée, and Claudia Cardinale. The first 31:30 made a strong impression… Of all the tropes that I despise in art it’s this one that can bore me in a…
