



the problem with other people



is that one must leave before the other
and one always gets there first. words
left in my notes app when I was too eager
and soon: hoax, lonely drum, I'm
only typing this to look wanted,
but you and I once discovered
we had arrived on opposite ends
of the same damned train, and when
the day became a grey-blue smolder
but appetite still flashed its barb
one of us said, well, why can't we
just stay? and how obvious it felt to stay,
our common history as new and bright
as a bulb. this is the decision, to know
you and keep knowing – us orbs framed
in the yellow second story window
like displaced moons who've found
the other in the same foreign orbit,
who meet and continue to meet
even after all the easy words have gone.
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no maybe the ugliest hours shouldn't host
miracles but still they go on hosting for example
this all happened while i was fumbling around
in the unnatural morning like a nocturnal
animal and you don't have to believe me
i wouldn't believe me but on the way home
the seagulls were laughing like kids
and i tipped my head to the day-moon which hung
translucent with a projection's non-reality against
a sky so blue my teeth chattered and when i lay
face down beside the brook i swore
the earth flexed against my belly a degree
of a degree of a degree of a degree of a
crucial degree
enough








dad tells the story: ohio deepwood, him and his brother
little league helmet-clad, tossing stones into the inky sky
until a bat, gravity-lashed, swoops down in their wake,
thinking the ordinary shapes horseflies or sweat bees or hawk
moths, and yes, i can imagine the thrill when the whip
of wind cracked past their necks, when the promised pain
just missed, but i still have a gnawing sort of pity for any
other creature who darts towards the first shrouded wonder
moving in the dark, who throws its whole self at hunger without
fear of breaking teeth, who hopes the wonder might keep it
alive, who doesn't know, or hasn't considered, that every frantic
shadow exists only to watch something want.








bloodsucker





Savannah Brown is an American writer and poet based in London. She’s the author of two novels (Penguin Random UK) and three poetry collections dealing with themes of existence, vulnerability and intimacy in the digital age. i-D called her 'the poet articulating your deepest existential fears'. Savannah oversees Escapril, a poetry challenge where participants are tasked with writing a poem every day in April. She also founded and runs Doomsday Press.
Savannah has acted as a judge for the National Poetry Day competition and as patron for the Foyle Young Poets Prize.
For film and TV rights: Richard Pike at C&W
For events and publicity related to my novels: Louise Dickie at Penguin Random House UK
For performances, events and publicity related to my poetry, and pretty much everything else: savbrownpoetry@gmail.com
photo by Alfredo Guzman
Poetry
Pain theory from Closer Baby Closer
THE HOTTEST GIRL IN THE WORLD!!!!! in Violet Indigo Blue, Etc., 2022
wilhelm yawp in World-Dreem, 2021
the universe may stop expanding in five billion years on Ours Poetica, 2020
enough from Sweetdark
the problem with other people from Closer Baby Closer
bloodsucker from Sweetdark
Books
Closer Baby Closer (Doomsday Press, 2023) [x]
The Things We Don't See (Penguin Random House UK, 2021)
The Truth About Keeping Secrets (Penguin Random House UK, 2019)
Events
Press
Savannah Brown: A digital love affair, Metal
“In the Curl of an Infinity”: Existential Wonder in Savannah Brown’s Sweetdark, Our Culture
The Poetry Society names Savannah Brown as patron of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2022
Lightbulb moments: Savannah Brown on writing The Things We Don’t See, Penguin UK
Exploring the Intimacy of Privacy, Savannah Brown Talks The Things We Don’t See, Social Media & More, The Luna Collective
On the Pursuit of Understanding: A Conversation with Savannah Brown, Our Culture
The poet articulating your deepest existential fears, i-D
Sci-fi, inspirations and Sweetdark: a conversation with Savannah Brown, Obscur Mag
website design © Savannah Brown 2023