Scowl

Jay Sizemore's incendiary poem SCOWL was released to intense controversy on 8/24/2015. Published by the now rebooted Revolution John Magazine, an online journal, the poem was immediately met with a backlash of criticism and condemnation in a brutal display of unmitigated irony. SCOWL was written to showcase the hypocrisy of "call-out culture" and "mob shaming" that had become a prevalent staple of new-wave feminism and social media activism. The provocative nature of the work garnered the exact type of response it set out to critique, proving the thesis of the work. As a result, Revolution John was intimidated through ruthless online bullying until its editor decided to permanently delete all web content. The poem is printed here for the first time, along with several other poems that had been showcased in Revolution John Magazine, many of which are themed around freedom of expression.

Poet Heath Brougher says, "This book is a True expression of freedom of speech. It's sad that we live in a society that censors free speech like we do, but this book reminds us that we need to wake up before it's 1984. The embers of pure unadulterated Freedom live within the pages of this book. This book is an extremely imortant book. It is a must read for anyone who is against censorship. "

Poet Dustin Pickering says, "...draws comparisons between the terrorist attacks on Charlie Hebdo, Puritanical forms of shame-and-blame, and other varieties of censorship to the current trend of social media activism. This is a fine work of social criticism..."