Weekly Newsletter - 17th March 2024
The week I look to the skies - and watched a classic.
Most of this newsletter ended up getting drafted at the same time as last week’s newsletter, as I already had a pretty good idea of everything that I’d be able to share with you all this week. The one thing that did come onto my radar in between then, however, was the 1927 sci-fi dystopia “Metropolis”, which I watched for the first time this week.
Because of the age of the film, the US copyright has elapsed, meaning there are full versions of the film in the public domain available online. The one that I watched was an enhanced, artificially coloured restoration from Moonflix, with a bespoke soundtrack from The New Pollutants.
I had no idea I was going to be struck so profoundly by the film’s themes of engineered crises, manipulation of the masses and mob mentality, amongst many others. There’s a particular scene where all those ideas carry into a moment where the workers of Metropolis get so carried away in wanting to wage a battle that they forget who it is they’re even fighting for in the first place. I won’t say any more than that, as it needs to be experienced first-hand. I carried a small trace of those ideas over into my poem “Battle or Build”, but that poem takes a slightly different direction. Metropolis goes all-in, and its phenomenal.
Safe to say, Metropolis is not leaving my mind. I’m sensing there’s a lot I could say about this film and why a nearly 100-year-old film still has so much relevance in the chaotic times we are currently living through. I plan to read the novel version of Metropolis (written by the same author as the screenplay, with lots of details that the film cut out), immerse myself more in its world and in understanding how its able to do what it does so well, then come back to you with some lessons (and perhaps some poems!) on why I feel humanity would benefit from having more people see this film.
Until then, here’s what else has been happening this week:
New Poems
This week sees the full release of “Final Gambit”, which I originally wrote in response to a series of articles by
on geoengineering.While the poem is full of chess references, the title - while still fitting with that theme - actually comes from an attacking move in Pokemon. The poem has absolutely nothing to do with Pokemon, but when the idea came to me to have this little callback to my childhood, and knowing it still worked thematically with the contents of the poem, I couldn’t resist giving it a nod. So there’s some fun trivia for you all!
Shop Updates
I’ve given the Shop on my website a pretty big overhaul this week in terms of its offerings. You’ll see that I have opted to remove the Unframed prints from sale - in my mind, it really makes sense to have them framed as opposed to anything else. If you’re someone who doesn’t need the frame, you can always remove the print from the frame and use it to put something else in. I’ve also brought down the price of the framed prints to £19.99 too, so if you’ve found some of my poems so touching that you’d like to display them somewhere physically, now’s a great chance to do so.
In keeping with the prints, there’s also a print featuring this week’s poem, “Final Gambit” in the shop too. I’m always happy with how my prints turn out, and this one I spent a lot of time on this one getting the plane trail to line up where I wanted it. Use the button below to check it out:
In addition, I’ve also created a print version of “A Letter To Tedros”. Feel free to also use the image to share the poem on social media!
Poetry From Elsewhere
This week’s poem I discovered thanks to Dr Iain McGilchrist. I found Master and His Emissary to be an excellent book, and it is still on the to-do list to work through The Matter With Things at some point. I was going back through some of the poetry readings he put online during the first COVID lockdowns in 2020, and this particular piece by Ralph Hodgson entiled “The Hammers” really jumped out to me in its commentary on the pace of life and growing lack of permanence in society in the early 20th century that still feels all too relevant now. I’ve linked the text of the poem below along with Dr McGilchrist’s own reading of the poem.
Noise of hammers once I heard Many hammers, busy hammers, Beating, shaping, night and day, Shaping, beating dust and clay To a palace; saw it reared; Saw the hammers laid away. And I listened, and I heard Hammers beating, night and day, In the palace newly reared, Beating it to dust and clay: Other hammers, muffled hammers, Silent hammers of decay.
The Hammers - by Ralph Hodgson
And Finally…
Thank you for continuing to follow my progress. If you want to support my work, there are numerous ways you can doing that, including:
Becoming a Tribe member (paid subscriber)
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It's incredibly heartwarming to know you are here and believe in the work I'm doing, and I can't wait to be able to share more with you and the rest of the world soon.
With gratitude,
Tom
Metropolis, what an amazing picture, and has never been more relevant!
Thank you Tom, and cheers for the link to the colourised version, I shall revisit it.