28 Sonnets Later
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28sonnetslater.bsky.social
28 Sonnets Later
@28sonnetslater.bsky.social
Every February, four* intrepid poets set out to write 28* sonnets^ over the course of the month.

https://28sonnetslater.blogspot.com

(*sometimes more; ^one year we did villlanelles instead)
The latest sonnet: #19 - 22⅘% of 8½ #28sonnetslater #8½ #classicmovies #FayRoberts #sonnet
#19 - 22⅘% of 8½
@FayRoberts.bsky.social’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 trice: that every single character, each part’s despicable, with no redeeming slice of virtue, humour, sweet humility, affection for their friends, or even half an ounce of kindness, unless they’re to be discarded, punished, nameless, fatted calf. And worse! Fellini knows he’s got a dud! He makes the writer tell us to our face! He hopes to smear his audience with crud, to make us all complicit in this waste. I’ve failed my challenge: watch each doled-out reel. But I won’t play the voyeur for this heel. The precise moment where I tapped out If you have access to the BFI (which I won’t shortly because my free trial runs out), you can watch the 2:18 long, multilingual (but mostly Italian) movie here. Content warnings include: misogyny, xenophobia, toxic relationships, suffocation. Let us know what you thought if you’ve seen it! But please don’t try to tell me I’m a philistine for tapping out. That won’t go well.
dlvr.it
February 19, 2026 at 9:35 AM
The latest sonnet: #18 - Close Up (1990) #28sonnetslater #28sonnetslater #CloseUp #LeanneModen #sonnet
#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
dlvr.it
February 18, 2026 at 7:03 AM
#15 - Les Témoins
@FayRoberts.bsky.social’s fourth sonnet this year is inspired by Agnès Varda’s nouvelle vague observational tragedy (can you tell I’ve no idea how cinema language works?), French movie, Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), written by Agnès Varda, and starring Corinne Marchand, Antoine Bourseiller, Dorothée Blanck, and Dominique Davray She turns the cards out one by one to see the only colour in this tense affair. But please don’t make a fuss, ma belle chérie – you’ll mar this mask they need of savoir faire. We flirt with luck, and check the numbers twice; I don’t have time to list out all the signs the auteur uses in this room’s device. Ça ne fait rien – this angel’s not resigned. What hope she has is sculpted in the curve of friendship; stares define what she’ll become. Grotesqueries abound at every swerve, but c’est la vie – hold fast and chew your gum. Mais si tu n’est pas fort, la chance prévaut, car sinon l’avenir arrive… trop tôt. Still sourced via The Criterion Collection If you have access to the BFI, you can watch the 1:30 long, French language movie here. Content warnings include: medical concerns, cancer, period-typical misogyny, grotesque street theatre, racism. Let us know what you thought if you’ve seen it!
dlvr.it
February 15, 2026 at 9:31 AM
The latest sonnet: #11 - On Seeking Warmth #28sonnetslater #classicmovies #FayRoberts #SomeLikeItHot #sonnet
#11 - On Seeking Warmth
@FayRoberts.bsky.social’s third sonnet this year is inspired by Billy Wilder’s screwball/ gangster/ romantic comedy (kinda), USAmerican movie, Some Like It Hot (1959), written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond (from stories suggested by R. Thoeren and M. Logan), and starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon. She says she loves the ones who play the sax and, bitterly, she knows she’s in their thrall. But now, in sweet escape, she finds that all her wonder is encompassed in cold facts, because it’s not the instrument that lacks it’s her, existing dimly, sipping gall, anticipating some or other fall, while hope remains a glimmer in the packs. If peace is what she’s seeking, heaven knows she’ll never find it, playing with a band, and millionaires don’t drop out of the sky. So she’ll confide, and cross her fingers, grow in confidence, while all this time a man is lurking, as a perfect, single spy. - FAR Still from the movie via the New York Times If you have access to MGM+, you can watch the 2:01 long, English language movie here. Content warnings include: gang violence, Prohibition, alcoholism, and misogyny. Let us know what you thought if you’ve seen it!
dlvr.it
February 11, 2026 at 9:33 AM
The latest sonnet: #10 - Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) #28sonnetslater #28sonnetslater #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
dlvr.it
February 10, 2026 at 7:01 AM
#7 - A Ragged Train
@FayRoberts.bsky.social’s second sonnet this year is inspired by Satyajit Ray’s groundbreaking novel adaptation: Bengali movie, Pather Panchali (1955), written by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay (author of the autobiographical novel) and Satyajit Ray, and starring Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Sarbojaya Ray, Chunibala Devi, Uma Das Gupta, and Subir Banerjee. A mother’s worries never seem to end, and father’s dreams are solipsistic, vast, so what is she to do but scrape and mend, and cling to hopes betrothed to class and caste? A web of obligations resonates in sickness and in health, and dimly lit. As seasons come and go, she numbly waits, her daughter not content to fret and sit. She runs, and climbs, and perturbates, and cares, and swears that she will never be a wife. And what’s the punishment for she who dares the crime of wanting better for her life? You’ll find out, being hitched to faulty stars, what disappointing creatures poets are. Image of Karuna Bannerjee as Sarbojaya Ray from the Cinematograph review If you have access to Wikipedia, you can watch the 2:04 long, Bengali language movie here (or on Amazon Prime with very different subtitles and worse image quality). Content warnings include: poverty, death, casual family violence. Let us know what you thought if you’ve seen it!
dlvr.it
February 7, 2026 at 10:01 AM
The latest sonnet: #6 - Late Spring (1949) #28sonnetslater #28sonnetslater #LateSpring #LeanneModen #sonnet
#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
dlvr.it
February 6, 2026 at 7:04 AM
#3 - Enmeshed
@FayRoberts.bsky.social’s first sonnet this year is inspired by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid’s short, surrealist, USAmerican movie, Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), written by Maya Deren, and starring Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid: She runs and runs, but never hopes to catch the chiffon billowing, the mirrored stare. She rises, clambers, thinks she’s met her match. (But who’s to say, in this dim place, what’s fair?) It’s soft and hard, she’s bright and dark, alone? The key’s inside, and gravity’s a glitch. Acknowledge nodding roses, keys, and clones... Is this prediction? Time to flip the switch. Now tread each texture down, don’t run in place – the sea’s a sighing echo of the land... We rise to find the only speaking face; this is no accident, but was it planned? Was she possessed? What did the dream portend? And who’s the one who’s dreaming, in the end? still of the movie, from of the review on THE CINEMATOGRAPH If you have access to the Internet Archive, you can watch the 0:14 long, mostly wordless movie here. Content warnings include: implied violence, unreality, blood, nightmares. Let us know what you thought if you’ve seen it!
dlvr.it
February 3, 2026 at 8:34 AM
The latest sonnet: #2 - Beau Travail (1999) #28sonnetslater #28sonnetslater #BeauTravail #Films #LeanneModen
#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
dlvr.it
February 2, 2026 at 7:04 AM
If you'd like to remind yourself of the kind of things we've done in the past, check out 28sonnetslater.blogspot.com
28 Sonnets Later
This February four* intrepid poets set off on adventure into poetry territory. Twenty-eight* days, twenty-eight* sonnets. Let's go! (*sometimes more)
28sonnetslater.blogspot.com
January 8, 2026 at 3:31 PM
Hello, Sonnet Fans! We're gearing up for 28 Sonnets Later 2026, and we're looking for ideas for topics to write about! Any suggestions?

We've already written about mushrooms, artworks, historical figures, creation (and destruction) myths, and loads of other stuff - what's next? Help us find out!
January 8, 2026 at 3:31 PM
The latest sonnet: Seven Days of Russell (full crown): (@rascalapache)

This year I used the seven days of the week as prompts for a crown of sonnets

With various words from various songs by various artists

1) Blue Monday… #28sonnetslater #ACompleteUnknown #Ariadne #BobDylan #DavidBowie
Seven Days of Russell (full crown)
(@rascalapache) This year I used the seven days of the week as prompts for a crown of sonnets With various words from various songs by various artists 1) Blue Monday ...as Monday rolls the wheel around once more, with memories just sailing…
dlvr.it
March 4, 2025 at 7:01 AM
The latest sonnet: Cardinal Signs (aka Seven Sins of Fay: Full Crown):  



(You would not believe how long this took @FayRoberts.bsky.social to put this graphic together)

Full text for the Seven Deadly Sins follows:

The… #28sonnetslater #7deadlysins #FayRoberts #sonnet #sonnetcrown
Cardinal Signs (aka Seven Sins of Fay: Full Crown)
  (You would not believe how long this took @FayRoberts.bsky.social to put this graphic together) Full text for the Seven Deadly Sins follows: The gateway to the seven stands right here. 🍎 you long to touch, but cannot quite commit to all…
dlvr.it
March 3, 2025 at 9:31 AM
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
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…
dlvr.it
March 2, 2025 at 11:05 AM
The latest sonnet: Seven Ages of Andy (full crown):  



William Mulready. image credit: V&A Museum London

1.      
Infancy

 

expectant, trepidatious, on we go:

a blooded, squalling babe, a bag of needs.

a home,… #28sonnetslater #28sonnetslater #7agesofman #7agesofman #poem
Seven Ages of Andy (full crown)
  William Mulready. image credit: V&A Museum London 1.       Infancy   expectant, trepidatious, on we go: a blooded, squalling babe, a bag of needs. a home, a crib, a blanket, frequent feeds; a family to shield us as we grow…
dlvr.it
March 1, 2025 at 9:00 AM