Just Meat Not God

A series of ekphrastic sonnets written through the paintings of Francis Bacon, JD Howse’s Just Meat Not God revels in filth and ecstasy. Conceived as a hauntological reading of Bacon’s extraordinary works, Howse’s debut collection explores the paintings’ relationship to sickness, sexuality, and philosophy. Writing through his own experiences of neurodivergence, dysmorphia, and chronic illness during the pandemic, Howse grounds these themes in the physicality of the human body, following Bacon’s uncompromising eye for contortions and viscera into a strange new lexicon. Imbuing the sonnet form with an energy recalling Berrigan, Mayer, or Seusse, this debut announces a startling, fresh voice in contemporary poetry.