Alastair Cook’s Filmpoem of My Poem “Fallow Field”

Detail from Alastair Cook’s filmpoem of “Fallow Field.”

My friend the Scottish filmmaker and photographer, Alastair Cook, has created many beautiful filmpoems — 34 to be exact — his latest features the title poem of my collection, “Fallow Field.”

My reading of the poem comes from Kelly Writer’s House at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, recorded on September 22, 2008.

As with his filmpoem of another of my poems from this collection, “Naming,” Alastair’s vision of my poem is impressionistic rather than literal.

There’s a great synergy between my words and the flow and textures of his film, especially the way the woman’s hair mimics the rye grass waving in the wind and how the occasional flash of her lips seem to kiss goodbye what the subject of my poem never could.

You can watch Alastair’s filmpoem here:

Filmpoem 34/ Fallow Field from Alastair Cook on Vimeo.

And you can read the poem here or in my new book of poems, which you can purchase here.