E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

Eyewear's Film Critic James A. George On The Latest CIA Thriller From America... Kathryn Bigelow ’s Zero Dark Thirty is American award fodder that’s bold enough to raise some serious issues (namely, the use of torture) and has thus been bashed for it in the news. As with every year around the film award seasons, a conspiracy of controversy comes into existence in order to deter awards going to certain films and such – the theory that this film glorifies torture is completely unfounded. While the film may win many an award, the only award it deserves is for best actress, perhaps. Maya likes eyewear Zero Dark Thirty tells the grand story of the decade long search for Osama Bin Laden while retaining a human element. The only other American film to balance real-life large scale politics and this human element is the classic All The President’s Men – which dealt with the uncovering of the Watergate scandal while successfully developing its characters throughout the...

Kirsten Irving

Helen Mort; Photo credit Andrew Marshall

Jessica Mayhew reviews Charms against Lightning by James Arthur   James Arthur is quoted on the cover of this collection as saying, ‘I love writing about places, but only places where I don’t belong,’ and this sense of dislocation permeates the entire collection. ‘Charms Against Lightning’ rhythmically catalogues fears: Against lupus and lawsuits, lying stranded between nations, against secrets and frostbite, the burring of trains that never arrive   (‘Charms Against Lightning’) The delayed syntax lurches towards fears that never come true, until the lightning finally cracks: ...the shutters swing, and clack their yellow teeth; the deep sky welters and the windows quiver (‘Charms Against Lightning’) Here, the root of the unease materialises and shatters, leaning towards the Romantic Sublime. The lack of final punctuation means that it flows straight into rest of the collection, just with a slight pause like the ...

The 3001st post! The Melita Hume Poetry Prize is an award of £1,000 and a publishing deal with Eyewear Publishing! It is FREE to enter and aims to support and celebrate young writers. Competition opens on the 13th February 2013! an award of £1,000 and a publishing deal with Eyewear Publishing Ltd., for the best first full collection of a young poet writing in the English language, 35 years of age or under . The aim of this prize is to support younger emerging writers during difficult economic times. This is open to any one of the requisite age, of any nationality, resident in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is free to enter. Melita Hume was a book collector, and compiler of poems and information abo ut many authors, who lived most of her life in St. Lambert and the Eastern Townships. 2013 competition The Judge in 2013 is Jon Stone, poet, editor and publisher, born in 1983. Stone is one of the best young British poets now writing...

This is Eyewear 's 3000th post. I welcome comments and poems celebrating the number 3000.

Eyewear is very glad to feature a poem today from James Franco 's new chapbook, a UK exclusive. James Franco, American Poet BLUE BEING by James Franco There is a surface That we all make together And the wild man Seems to pop through Like a line dancer out of step And others start complaining That he doesn’t know the moves And he’s stepping on everyone’s toes. There was a man named Mike Who called my father five times a day. You’d hear each burdened voice of the family Shout across the house, Daaad, it’s Mike. At dinner my father often explained That Mike saw demons. They spoke to him, He thought they were real. I pictured a flaming blue being Entering the dingy room, And sitting by Mike On the gray sheeted bed. 'Blue Being' is from James Franco's chapbook, Strongest of the Litter , and appears courtesy of Hollyridge Press . ...