#26 - Sancho the Bailiff (1954) This poem was inspired by Sansho the Bailiff, a 1954 Japanese period fi@leannemodenpoet directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. This fi@leannemodenpoet 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 fi@leannemodenpoet instead…  #26 – Stories told in monochrome  A story told in black and white may seemarchaic. I assure you that it’s not. It’s history. It’s certain, like a dream;the tones are sharper, and the patterns pop. The shadows take a darker kind of hue – both literal and in symbolic sense.Without the colours, there’s nothing to dobut focus on the plot. It’s more intense, the gravitas seeps through the monochromeand bathes the retinas in sombre tones.The black and white is stark as written poems;as stark as dampened earth and pallid bones.  As serious as colour fi@leannemodenpoet can be,these black and white constraints set stories free.  @leannemodenpoet  Image via IMDB

The latest sonnet: #26 - Sancho the Bailiff (1954) #28sonnetslater #28sonnetslater #LeanneModen #SanchotheBailiff

#22 - Spirited Away (2001) This poem was inspired by Spirited Away (2001) which was one of my favourite fi@leannemodenpoets when I was in school. It’s a Japanese animated fantasy fi@leannemodenpoet 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 – Namelessan answerless non-riddle My name is in the swaying of the e@leannemodenpoets,the humming birds, all gathering at dusk. A solitary sound, a darkened rea@leannemodenpoet;my name’s the pecan, shielded by the husk. A moniker, inscribed upon my chest,my name’s the word the finches know by heart. My name is lightning, my name is suppressed,a flicker, flaming brightly through the dark.  A lost lament, my name is happenstance,a floating orchid, swirling in the swell, my name resides in roses, when they dance;my name’s the chemical that splits the cell. If you can name me, I’ll be yours to keep.My name is in the earth. It’s buried deep.  @leannemodenpoet  Image via IMDB

The latest sonnet: #22 - Spirited Away (2001) #28sonnetslater #28sonnetslater #LeanneModen #SpiritedAway

#18 - Close Up (1990) This poem was inspired by Close Up (1990), an Iranian fi@leannemodenpoet written, directed and edited by Abbas Kiarostami. The fi@leannemodenpoet recounts the true story of a man who pretends to be a famous Iranian fi@leannemodenpoet director. Does he do this to defraud people out of their money? Or to escape his own life? Or just because he loves cinema so much? You’ll have to watch the fi@leannemodenpoet to find out. Close Up includes real footage from the man’s trial, as well as reconstructed scenes, featuring all the people who were involved. Con artists are very fashionable at the moment, and I’ve also just finished reading House of Leaves, so the poem gets a bit labyrinth-y, a bit minotaur-y here and there too.   #14 – Walking backwards into air  A man can be accused of minor flaws:of indiscretion when his temper flares,of walking backwards, slow, into the air,of leaving all his guts upon the floor.On sultry nights, a cold frustration flares: I cannot stand myself a moment more!I am the maze; I am the minotaur.Identities ephemeral as air.One person ends, another one begins,with prospects now as wide and blue as sky,an echo of the pure and the profane. And, when that life’s coherence starts to thin,an alter-ego lands, a subtle lie,and suddenly the world is new again! @leannemodenpoet  Image via Wikipedia

The latest sonnet: #18 - Close Up (1990) #28sonnetslater #28sonnetslater #CloseUp #LeanneModen #sonnet

#14 - Chungking Express (1994) This poem was inspired by Chungking Express (1994), a Hong Kong comedy-drama written and directed by Wong Kar-wai. It’s an anthology fi@leannemodenpoet, featuring two interlocking stories about love, proximity and non-traditional expressions of intimacy. The perfect fi@leannemodenpoet to write about on Valentine’s Day!  #14 – In the bar that you loved, I always a@leannemodenpoetost see you  your floral perfume lingers like a kissyour menthol cigarettes reduced to smokewe’re always never meeting here like this you are a conjuring produced from hope proximity is such a fickle frienduniting us in space but not in timeI write my name on napkins to pretendthat I am yours and that you might be mine but we were destined to be passing shipsthough once I thought I saw you by the doorI caught a fading smile around your lipsa smile I’d seen a thousand times before an apparition bathed in pink neonyour perfume lingers longer now you’ve gone @leannemodenpoet  Image via Wikipedia

The latest sonnet: #14 - Chungking Express (1994) #28sonnetslater #28sonnetslater #ChungkingExpress1994 #LeanneModen

#10 - Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) This poem was inspired by Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) directed and written by Céline Sciamma. This is the first one on my list that I’ve actually seen, and it was a joy to use the themes of the fi@leannemodenpoet as a jumping off point for a poem. However, in thinking about a lady under water, I was also drawing on a short fi@leannemodenpoet called The Deepest Dance by André Musgrove and Ariadna Hafez, and the last book I read, Private Rites by Julia Armfield.  Content note: Poem contains references to drowning.  #10 – Portrait of a Lady Under Water The day is shaking loose around its joins: the storm is breaking, making for the shore.As raindrops fall like fractious, freezing coins,all warnings lost in tempest’s surge and soar.  My footing slips, I stumble from the quay;the ocean swells around me, like a spell.My burning lungs a painful augury of life and death in perfect parallel. The world a blue and bruising monochromesubmerged between the surface and the deep,I feel at once tenacious and alone, I feel the overwhe@leannemodenpoeting urge for sleep. And, though the lights around are growing dim,I gather all my courage, and I swim. @leannemodenpoet  Image via Unsplash

The latest sonnet: #10 - Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) #28sonnetslater #28sonnetslater #LeanneModen

#6 - Late Spring (1949) This poem was inspired by the fi@leannemodenpoet Late Spring (1949). It was by directed by Yasujirō Ozu, and was produced in Japan during the American occupation after the Second World War. I was especially interested in the aspects of the fi@leannemodenpoet that were censored (mentions of American bombing and occupation, and the Japanese traditions that do not align with American values specifically) and how the Ozu skirted these rules to make something that still resonates with Japanese culture at this time and place. You can read more about that on Wikipedia here, if you like.   #6 – Tiny Acts of Rebellion   I cannot write of city ruins here,our script is flipped; the harrowing erased.The absence curves, like question marks in space:the gauzy veil of history hangs sheer.  I cannot tell of occupation now:it lies, like rubble, hidden from the lens.And I’m reduced to shaking, making sense of censorship and all it won’t allow. But, in the mise-en-scène, you’ll see it clear:the English words, the Coca-Cola sign.On celluloid, the darkened shadows shine,the bleakness in the staging, rendered here.  A portent, camouflaged for us to find;rebellion as subtle as a sign. @leannemodenpoet Image from Late spring (1949) from Wikipedia

The latest sonnet: #6 - Late Spring (1949) #28sonnetslater #28sonnetslater #LateSpring #LeanneModen #sonnet

#2 - Beau Travail (1999) This poem was inspired by the 1999 French film Beau Travail, which was directed by Claire Denis. The film is set in the former French colony of Djibouti, and the main characters are all French Foreign Legion soldiers. I haven’t seen the movie (yet) but as I was reading the plot description online, I was struck by the themes of power, cruelty and disorientation in the story. These were the things that were swirling around in my mind when I wrote this poem.  It’s also my first time playing with an unrhymed lines in a sonnet – sacrilege!  #2 - Good Work  In this expansive openness, we menare gods, and just like gods, we seek to cause destruction of our fellow deities;a desert of our twisting spite and shame.  This heat incites each man to lose his way – his empathy a glittering mirage.This heat incites each god to dissipate –and we are left as devils on the sand.  The work is always harder than it seems,and gods and men are harder, still, to bid.The desert swallows all, no compromise;it swallows, spits, and saves us from ourselves.  We wanted to believe we did some good;the wreckage, lying silent, seeping blood.  LM Poster Image via Wikipedia

The latest sonnet: #2 - Beau Travail (1999) #28sonnetslater #28sonnetslater #BeauTravail #Films #LeanneModen

Seven Colours of Leanne 1. Red Sky At Night The prism splits a humble beam of light, and colours manifest like sorcery.The streak of scarlet, clotting, bold and bright,as potent as the raging, wine-dark sea.  Our past, in ochre, painted at Lascaux; or cartoon-hearted oaths to…

The latest sonnet: Seven Colours of Leanne: 1. Red Sky At Night
The prism splits a humble beam of light, and colours manifest like sorcery.The streak of scarlet, clotting, bold and bright,as potent as the raging, wine-dark sea. 
Our… #28sonnetslater #28sonnetslater #Colours #LeanneModen #Spectrum

#26 - VIOLET Thinking about light, rainbows, visual perception, and the ultra-violet patches of colour on flowers that human eyes cannot see.  The Unseen Despite the darkness, we must learn to sing – a purpling of air, to sooth the dreadthat effervesces in our…

The latest sonnet: #26 - VIOLET: Thinking about light, rainbows, visual perception, and the ultra-violet patches of colour on flowers that human eyes cannot see. 

The Unseen
Despite the darkness, we must learn to sing – a purpling… #28sonnetslater #28sonnetslater #Colours #LeanneModen #Spectrum

#22 - INDIGO Indigo Tunnel is an abandoned railway tunnel in Allegany County, Maryland, in the USA. It probably isn’t haunted. But what if it was?   CONTENT NOTE: MENTION OF VOMIT.  The Ghosts of Indigo Tunnel  Reminding us they’ve been here all along,the spectres…

The latest sonnet: #22 - INDIGO: Indigo Tunnel is an abandoned railway tunnel in Allegany County, Maryland, in the USA. It probably isn’t haunted. But what if it was?  
CONTENT NOTE: MENTION OF VOMIT. 



The Ghosts of Indigo Tunnel… #28sonnetslater #28sonnetslater #Colours #Indigo #LeanneModen

#18 - BLUE  An ode to the sky, because I couldn't think of anything else to write about for the colour blue. And I painted myself into a bit of a corner with the last line from my previous poem... Radio Telescope we cannot teach the sky herself to sing, but if we…

The latest sonnet: #18 - BLUE:  An ode to the sky, because I couldn't think of anything else to write about for the colour blue. And I painted myself into a bit of a corner with the last line from my previous poem...

Radio Telescope
we… #28sonnetslater #28sonnetslater #Blue #Colours #LeanneModen

#14 - GREEN  Another one that came out of following where the rhyme led me... Overgrown  A symbol of fertility and growthis fine, if that’s the way you want to live.This garden’s only fit to harbour ghosts;a climbing vine to strangle infants with.  A haunting is a…

The latest sonnet: #14 - GREEN:  Another one that came out of following where the rhyme led me...
Overgrown 
A symbol of fertility and growthis fine, if that’s the way you want to live.This garden’s only fit to harbour ghosts;a climbing… #28sonnetslater #28sonnetslater #Colours #Green #LeanneModen

#10 - YELLOW The King in Yellow is a collection of short stories by Robert W. Chambers, published in 1895. The title takes its name from a fictional play, referenced in the first four short stories of the book. According to the author, anyone who reads the play will…

The latest sonnet: #10 - YELLOW: The King in Yellow is a collection of short stories by Robert W. Chambers, published in 1895. The title takes its name from a fictional play, referenced in the first four short stories of the book.… #28sonnetslater #28sonnetslater #Colours #LeanneModen #Madness

#6 - ORANGE An orange poem. This really came out of nowhere... Fen Vixen  She takes the idle viewer unawaresand sets the woods alight with memories.Her spark ignites the grass, the thicket flares; a flash of amber, darting through the trees.  Her tail, a plume of…

The latest sonnet: #6 - ORANGE: An orange poem. This really came out of nowhere...
Fen Vixen 
She takes the idle viewer unawaresand sets the woods alight with memories.Her spark ignites the grass, the thicket flares; a flash of amber, darting… #28sonnetslater #28sonnetslater #LeanneModen #Spectrum