"The Sadbook Collections 2" by Sara Barkat

I’ve been following Sadbook on Substack by Sara Barkat for quite a while now. At first, I thought the character might be intended for a younger generation. And Sadbook certainly has that appeal – a kind of updated Charlie Brown. (I don’t want to imply that Sadbook is a male; gender isn’t specified and really doesn’t matter.) And it can be a little odd or slightly offbeat, causing you to turn your head and say “What?”  

But then I read Barkat’s The Sadbook Collections 2, essentially all of the Sadbook cartoons from 2024 (the first volume covers 2023). And it was then that it hit me: Sadbook is a poet. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Thursday Readings

 

“Upon my Son Samuel His Going for England,” poem by Anne Bradstreet – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

A Review of Homage to Soren Kierkegaard, edited by Dana Gioia and Mary Grace Mangano – Matthew King at New Verse Review.

 

Questions that arise from a poem – Padraig O Tuama at Poetry Unbound.

 

An Appreciation of Ted Kooser – Judith Harris at Literary Matters.

 

Moonwalk – poem by Jerry Barrett at Gerald the Writer.

Great Poetry as Seen by Comic Artist Julian Peters

Comic artist Julian Peters is inspired by great poetry, and for a specific reason. Poetry, he writes, shares common characteristics with comics – the notion of rhythm, repetition of visual elements, and the use of juxtaposition, to mention three. That’s what poetry and comics have in common, but Peters wanted to go beyond what he saw as obvious.

It was the love of beauty, the beauty inherent in great poetry, that led him to visualize what that poetry might look like in comic art. And so, he set out to “translate great poems into the visual language of comics.” The result is Poems to See By: A Comic Artist Interprets Great Poetry. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.