Extraordinary to open up the summer issue of Sight and Sound magazine and find this article on page 30. I was pleased to find out recently the international film magazine, run out of the BFI, would have a feature on my latest collection ‘Come and See the Songs of Strange Days : poems on films’ but the way it turned out, written by David Spittle, is exceptional. It’s obviously really positive that editor Kieron Corless asked someone familiar with my work to write the article, and David has been extremely generous. A couple of my poems from the book are also featured, a pair of what i call my ‘screenshot’ poems. I found my copy in a big Tesco, which was funny, so it’s available all over, but also online https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/magazine/summer-2021-issue
Published : 3 poems on films on Anthropocene
Very likely the last burst of poems to be published in a journal from my 9th collection, out recently in April 2021, Come and See the Songs of Strange Days : Poems on Films, with Broken Sleep press.
Published by Anthropocene, edited by Charlie Baylis, this selection features an asemic poem celebrating John Milius’s surfer classic Big Wednesday, Bela Tarr’s adaptation of Satantango and Andrew Kotting’s This Filthy Earth.
https://www.anthropocenepoetry.org/post/3-poems-by-sj-fowler-1
A note on : an interview with David Spittle
oo i don’t half go on… the person encouraging me here, a friend and peer, david spittle, an expert no less in cinema and poetry, interviewed me for the specific purpose of helping me share context and knowledge on my new book COME AND SEE THE SONGS OF STRANGE DAYS : POEMS ON FILMS www.stevenjfowler.com/comeandsee
however we talked not just on that but on many things, and my history of publishing particularly, drawing back to my book fights, from ten long years ago. if you’ve a spare hour, well parts may entertain
A note on: launching Come and See the Songs of Strange Days...
Needs must and to launch a book in the times of the lockdown one must digital. The monthly broken sleep online readings, hosted by press editor aaron kent, was a fine place to share some of my poems on films in order to launch my new collection which can be snaffled up here https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page/sj-fowler-come-and-see-the-songs-of-strange-days
I like to perform but i think what is entertaining in person can be smug down the camera hole lens. Not that smugness is often avoided with me goings on, but it seemed fairy lights did the right trick and people seemed to enjoy. Judge for yourself
Published : Come and See the Songs of Strange Days - Poems on Films
My 9th collection is released today from Broken Sleep Books. They have done a grand job creating a beautiful book with an especially ambitious text, as it brings literary poetry together with visual, photographic, asemic, sound, conceptual poetries. Each poem is on a film. The book is purchaseable at https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page/sj-fowler-come-and-see-the-songs-of-strange-days
and much more on it at www.stevenjfowler.com/comeandsee
From the publisher "To say that SJ Fowler’s Come and See the Songs of Strange Days is a poetic encyclopaedia of film would be right but falls short of describing its true nature. From an authorship marked by poetic skill and genius insanity, this book covers a range of avantgarde methodology without parallel in the British literary tradition. At times aberrant, at times playful, it overlaps cinema and language, combining lyricism with abstract visual commentary, and thriving on that which defies description. The films include American blockbusters and European arthouse, obscure documentary and all-time classics. It is a book that offers much, whether or not you like film, and whether or not you like poetry."
Poems from the book can be found at the following journals, if you're the kind that likes to sample before buying:
Berfrois DOGTOOTH, MARGIN CALL, GUMMO www.berfrois.com/2021/02/margin-call-gummo-and-dogtooth-by-sj-fowler
Hotel THE FALLS, DROWNING BY NUMBERS, PROSPERO’S BOOKS https://partisanhotel.co.uk/Fowler-for-Greenaway
Eurolitkrant - MAN BITES DOG
https://eurolitkrant.com/OneBook.aspx?Id=81
'I love the conceit of the project; the meandering and collagic mindscape, induced by the various prose and textual formats, encourages a desire to keep on reading. Here lies an unfathomable interconnectivity, parts always competing for a place in some unfinished scene.' - Andrew Kötting
Published : 3 cinema poems on m58
Taken from my new book COME AND SEE THE SONGS OF STRANGE DAYS : POEMS ON FILMS, available for pre-order https://brokensleepbooks.com/product-page/sj-fowler-come-and-see-the-songs-of-strange-days… 3 new poems up on Andrew Taylor's brilliant M58 - You The Living, The Abyss, Ordet https://m58.co.uk
I’m especially happy with the Abyss poem, made from collaged screen shots from the director’s cut of the film and You, the Living, using screenshots from the film itself, with the subtitle repurposed as poetry.
A note on : A reading and why I write for Sun Seekers
Ana Seferovic has started an excellent new youtube and instagram channel called sun seekers, where she asks poets to respond to the question why they write and provide a short reading too. Below you can find my instalments in the series, reading a poem from my upcoming book Come and See the Songs of Strange Days and answering the question with a question, maybe, or with some scepticism perhaps. Ana is a brilliant poet too, do look up her work, and she’ll hopefully be part of this year’s European Poetry Festival. More on sun seekers here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmwsnHv_atKf_c4tpPoXwrQ/videos
A note on : Broken Sleep launch event
I will be doing a physical launch when possible in April, May, June, but for now Broken Sleep have set up a digital launch event series and happily I shall be reading from my book COME AND SEE THE SONGS OF STRANGE DAYS : POEMS ON FILMS on March wednesday 31st at 7.30pm, with the link here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/copy-of-broken-sleep-books-march-launch-tickets-143689443995
Published : 3 new poems on films on Berfrois
Representing the multi methodological poetry of my new collection COME AND SEE THE SONGS OF STRANGE DAYS (available for pre-order https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page/sj-fowler-come-and-see-the-songs-of-strange-days) I’m happy to say 3 unpublished poems have been shared by Berfrois, thanks to editor Callie Michail
DOGTOOTH, MARGIN CALL, GUMMO https://www.berfrois.com/2021/02/margin-call-gummo-and-dogtooth-by-sj-fowler
A note on : Come and See the Songs of Strange Days - pre order
Magic my new book COME AND SEE THE SONGS OF STRANGE DAYS : POEMS ON FILMS due next month with Broken Sleep Books is now available for pre-order. The link features 2 poems from the book (Paul Schrader’s Mishima and Roy Andersson’s Songs from the Second Floor, featured here +) https://brokensleepbooks.com/product-page/sj-fowler-come-and-see-the-songs-of-strange-days
'I love the conceit of the project; the meandering and collagic mindscape, induced by the various prose and textual formats, encourages a desire to keep on reading. Here lies an unfathomable interconnectivity, parts always competing for a place in some unfinished scene.' Andrew Kötting
Published : Beir Bua special feature - 8 art-poems from 8 books
A very energised online journal from Ireland, Beir Bua, edited by Michelle Moloney King, has generously featured my art-poetry as their special focus in their second issue. It collates one example, one art-poem, from eight of my books. It essentially draws upon what I’ve been working on, in exploring visual poetry and the handmade, and the poem brut movement, since the summer of 2017 and prior. It’s satisfying to see it represented in this way, and the issue has some really fine poets in there too, from Gregory Betts to Susan Connolly and many others new to me. Worth checking out https://beirbuajournal.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/issue-2-15.pdf
The works are taken from my books Come and See the Songs of Strange Days (Broken Sleep), due next month, then Crayon Poems (Penteract Press 2020), Aletta Ocean Alphabet Empire (Hesterglock Press 2018), The Selected Scribbling and Scrawling of SJ Fowler (2020), I fear my best work behind me (Strange Press 2017), Sticker Poems (due out later in 2021 with Trickhouse Press), Unfinished Memmoirs of a Hypcrit (Hesterglock Press 2019) and finally Bastard Poems (due out later in 2021 with Steel Incisors)
Also featured in the issue are short reviews of my books Crayon Poems, Unfinished Memmoirs of a Hypocrit and Aletta Ocean Alphabet Empire, kindly penned by the editor, who also reviews my friend and collaborator Christodoulos Makris, as well as introing the issue. https://beirbuajournal.wordpress.com/journal/issue-2/
Published : Four poems on the films of Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway’s work is hugely important to me - his austerity, his excess, his style, his unapologetic intellectual concerns, his irreverence, his obsession with language (which is poetry at times) and his exploration of writing, calligraphy and asemia. I’ve written poems about his films for the last few years, in a kind of suite or sequence, ranging in methodologies.
In my latest collection - COME AND SEE THE SONGS OF STRANGE DAYS - released in March with Broken Sleep books I have 6 poems dedicated to his works. 3 of them, plus a poem on a documentary made about him by his partner Saskia Boddeke, have been kindly published online by Partisan Hotel, edited by Dominic Jaeckle. They include a long literary poem about THE FALLS, then a hand-written documentary poem about DROWNING BY NUMBERS and an ASEMIC WATER POEM about PROSPERO’S BOOKS https://partisanhotel.co.uk/Fowler-for-Greenaway
Published : Time of the Wolf in Poem Atlas' Refraction online exhibition
Very cool to be in this online exhibition which celebrates the Streetcake Magazine writing prize, of which I’m a patron and is hosted by Poem Atlas, which is doing great things with sculpture or 3d poetry. https://www.poematlas.com/refraction
This poem-brut lo-fi concertina is a deliberately aberrant pop-up book page. It combines found material, abstract painting, stickers of three different origins, or packs, and is part of an ongoing exploration of the possibilities of collage and an experimental poetry of humour. It is taken from the book 'Come and See the Songs of Strange Days : poems on films' (Broken Sleep Books 2021)
Published : Man Bites Dog on Eurolitkrant
Very generous of Ghareeb Iskander to take a new poem of mine for publication in the Belgium based journal Eurolitkrant. https://eurolitkrant.com/OneBook.aspx?Id=81
The journal has featured some great European poets recently - Peter Zavada, Ida Borjel, George Szirtes, Kornelia Deres - and I’m particularly happy to have this poem up as it’s taken from my new collection, which is due March 2021, in two months time. It is entitled COME AND SEE THE SONGS OF STRANGE DAYS poems on films with Broken Sleep.
The film the poem is about is an intense one, but also from Belgium, so some synchonicity jiggling.