In the shadows cast by whatever pain we've caused, by john sweet

Poetry, chapbook, 32 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

John Sweet comes from the post-punk school of contemporary poetry. He ignores trends, he ignores schools of thought, he remains true to his original intent – truth before beauty. His influences are periphery; they hover in the background and in the middle distance, and they are not writers. They are the Surrealist painters, the Dadaists, the Abstractionists. They are the musicians and bands who walked away from their careers after struggling in obscurity, and they are the ones who continue despite this struggle.

In the shadows cast by whatever pain we’ve caused is a distillation of these ideas and concepts. It continues to hone the past while pointing to the future of Sweet’s writing. It mixes the autobiographical, the biographical and the existential, then adds a healthy dose of static from the contemporary world, all in the a straightforward voice. It doesn’t prophecy the death of esoteric writing, but it makes a strong argument for it. Truth before beauty.

John Sweet sends greetings from the rural wastelands of upstate NY. He is a firm believer in writing as catharsis, and an opponent of all organized religions and political ideologies. His previous collections include HEATHEN TONGUE (2018 Kendra Steiner Editions) and NO ONE STARVES IN A NATION OF CORPSES (2020 Analog Submission Press).