I Swallow
i swallow
poem by Caleb Parkin
Dadaist bike ride, swallowing flies and being part of the world’s ecosystem.
Poet: Caleb Parkin
Director, editor and selection of footage (2019) and music: Sarah Tremlett
Music: ‘Isaac the Syrian’ courtesy The Anchorites
Footage: ‘How the Fires of our Body are Fed’ Maurice Ricker, 1926 – Prelinger Archives; Yevgen Rychko, Erstudio5 – pond5.com; Miguel A. Padrinan – Pexels.com; Oleh Slepchenko – istockphoto.com. All under Creative Commons licence.
I first encountered i swallow when Caleb Parkin (Bristol City Poet 2020-22) sent it to me to make a poetry film. That was in July 2019. Working on other things, time elapsed, but in November 2019 I found the perfect footage for the film – ‘How the Fires of our Body are Fed’. I was finishing a large reference work on poetry film The Poetics of Poetry Film (Intellect Books) and so only finished the film in July 2020. But then the film came together pretty quickly! I love Caleb’s visceral, visually evocative language that concerns itself with deep issues – crises within society and our ecosystem. I also echo the idea of turning the spotlight on insects and other forms of what have been termed ‘lesser life’ beyond the human. I was also very lucky to find the unique sound of the ‘postmodern’ band The Anchorites and will definitely work with them again.
POEMFILM
2020
Premiere:
Lyrical Visions, Titirangi, Auckland, New Zealand, 9 December, 2020
liberatedwords.com/2020/11/22/i-swallow-and-lyrical-visions-new-zealand/
October 2021
The Midwest Video Poetry Festival, USA
ABSURDAH, Sheerness, UK, 2021
Festival Fotogenia, 2021
