This might be the most 'successful' thing I've ever shared on here. I'd almost got used to feeling largely ignored on social media since the destruction of Twitter and the scattering of its poetry diaspora to the four (digital) winds. But apparently, there IS still life and community online. ❤️

When I launched my first online poetry journal @iamb.uk in February 2020, I included myself among its initial 20 poets. I've so far resisted the temptation to feature my own work in my second journal @afterpoetry.com. That changes tomorrow, with the publication of this tribute to poet Kathryn Bevis.

The hill I returned to wasn't the hill I remembered. I had no explanation until one late April morning changed how I understood both kinds of loss. What can ecological recovery teach about personal healing? The answer surprised me. #nature #healing

I went to read a different post in @adamcairnspoet.bsky.social's Substack this morning, after @victoriaspires.bsky.social said it made her want to revisit everything she's written. That post was indeed a thought-provoking read. But THIS one, sitting half a scroll below it, is what made me subscribe.

Walked alone today. Not lonely—entirely present. Slowing down reshapes my world. #NaturePoetry #Birdsong

Home isn't found—it's made in quiet rituals of return: unpacking, lighting a lamp, familiar songs, making meals or calls. Not a destination but a practice. #home #belonging

Dwelling and not dwelling www.beyondsolitude.com/p/dwelling-a...

Hereford station going wild today. Lovely wild flowers between the tracks #amtravelling #herefordshire #wildflowers

Woke up to skylarks filling the sky—like last night’s rain unlatched the heavens. Pure morning magic. 🌧️🕊️✨ #MorningMagic

Moss, sparkling mountain stream, a little sunlight. Perfection #wales #BannauBrycheiniog

Out on the hills over the weekend. I'm not sure anything is better for clearing the mind. #walking #hills #wales

I have stopped trying to "explain" nature. Now I just sit with the "heart-break in the heart of things" until the ordinary objects begin to speak for themselves. 🍂 #poetry #writing

A poem to enjoy — Ivor Gurney, “Cotswold Ways” — Gurney is the third of the Dymock-adjacent poets I have featured this spring, after Edward Thomas and Wilfrid Gibson, and the most painfully gifted of them. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/ArKqf #poets #poetry

The hours I gave to the job, to the one before that — there was nothing left in the tank for the unscheduled pint, the evening phone call that goes somewhere. Read the full article: The friendship problem ▸ https://lttr.ai/ArKp4 #friendship

This is not something I say with regret exactly — it made possible many of the best years of my life — but it is something I understand now as a structural choice, not just a fact of love. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/ArKp8 #friendship

New post - 3 things I liked, learnt or enjoyed this week Whats’s your dpecial place? #poetry #poetrycommunity open.substack.com/pub/poetrywo...

New post today on my Substack Beyond Solitude open.substack.com/pub/poetrywo...

Blossom in the orchards today. Makes the world anew

My latest post. Men find it difficult to make new friends later in life. Why? #BeyondSolitude #friendship open.substack.com/pub/poetrywo...

Thomas, the poet, wrestling with the consequential decision he has to make. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AhgJV #BeyondSolitude #3rdAct

When my friend, the poet Lynette Thorstensen, invited me to join a conversation with a small group of fellow dreamers, I had no idea where the conversation would lead. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/Ag7zV #BeyondSolitude #3rdAct

From micromanaging days to overthinking nights, the illusion of control drains our joy. What’s left when you put down the reins? Space for serendipity. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/Ae64C #BeyondSolitude #PowerOfSayingYes #loneliness

Frost was sure the prose Thomas was writing had poetry within it. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AgcYU #BeyondSolitude #3rdAct

Control offers the illusion of safety, but only acceptance delivers real peace. What if you experimented with letting go—not as a sign of defeat, but as an act of trust? Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/Ae64B #BeyondSolitude #PowerOfSayingYes #loneliness

We often need containment; the snowy field is one field within a vast universe of snow. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AgZlX #BeyondSolitude #writing #poetry

I stood up and there, towering fifty feet above me was The Great Man. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AgLL6 #BeyondSolitude #poetry #PhilipLarkin

‘ … We are all here for the same reasons, aching toward what we desire most: a drunken gaze, shaking the winter from our hair, remembering a mother’s taco shells and refusing to wipe away the grease.’ Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AfByF #NineByOne #BeyondSolitude

I think it erected what Billy Collins calls an anti-poetry deflector shield that came on line whenever I was presented with a long poem. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/Af54L #BeyondSolitude #poetry #PhilipLarkin

The tracks in the field were a mess however, and with a heavy fall of snow, perhaps over the next week or weeks, the direction in which they led might be lost. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AfByE #BeyondSolitude #writing #poetry

Present at Anjali’s death, she movingly describes the deep friendship they developed, and the grace she felt attending Anjali’s passing. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AfBx5 #NineByOne #BeyondSolitude

Even the best-laid plans can unravel in an instant. The control illusion convinces us we’re at the wheel, yet life often drives itself. The magic happens when you trade control for curiosity, worry for wonder. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/Ae64A #BeyondSolitude #PowerOfSayingYes #loneliness

A poem to enjoy - Eulogy for the Cantina on Chapel St. that’s transformed into another bank by Kinsale DrakePoetry doesn’t have to be complicated. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AfBx2 #NineByOne #BeyondSolitude

Perhaps Larkin’s greatest gift was looking unflinchingly at whatever was there. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AfrTC #BeyondSolitude #poetry #PhilipLarkin

An article that made me think - In my later years I want to embrace valour - Sheila Hancock - What a marvellous article this is. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/Ae63d #NéosDelta #3rdAct

Meeting Larkin - Why meeting your heroes might not be what you expect ▸ https://lttr.ai/AfqZ7 #BeyondSolitude #poetry #PhilipLarkin

Where I found hope this week - We’ve been thinking about love all wrongSuleika Jaooud writes about what illness taught her about true friendship. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AfBxx #NineByOne #BeyondSolitude

She talks about ‘the radical power of seeing, understanding, and showing up for another human.’ She says the lesson she took was learning to ‘Be fully present, listen, give of yourself to another human.’ Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AfBxu #NineByOne #BeyondSolitude

While living in Gloucestershire in 1914, Frost frequently took long walks with Thomas through the countryside. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AfBxs #BeyondSolitude #3rdAct

Frost intended ‘The Road Not Taken’ to be read as a playful dig at Thomas. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AfBxq #BeyondSolitude #3rdAct

Nine by One: https://lttr.ai/AfBxp #NineByOne #BeyondSolitude

Something happy - Sir David Attenborough is 99 When I shared this article with a friend, they shot back a quick ‘Oh no!’ assuming he had died. Read the full article: Nine by One ▸ https://lttr.ai/AfByD #NineByOne #BeyondSolitude

It was during these long walks that Frost encouraged Thomas to consider himself a poet. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AfBxl #BeyondSolitude #3rdAct

The other direction, the path Thomas chose, buttressed by the abstract notion of duty, rose from another ideal. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AfBxk #BeyondSolitude #3rdAct

The road not taken by Thomas led to America, and the freedom to write as Frost did, while the path he chose led to his death. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AfBxi #BeyondSolitude #3rdAct

Thomas eventually signed up in 1915, and was killed shortly after arriving in France on 9th April 1917 at Arras when a shell passed through his body. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AfBxh #BeyondSolitude #3rdAct

When Frost sent Thomas his poem, Thomas missed the ironic prod aimed his way, and read the poem as most do, as a lyrical, naturally symbolic poem. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AfBxg #BeyondSolitude #3rdAct

Why writing poetry can save a life Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AfByC #BeyondSolitude #writing #poetry

Striving for total control is like building a house on sand. Foundational security is a myth—so why not invest in flexibility instead? It’s all about how you interpret the script. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/Ae639 #BeyondSolitude #PowerOfSayingYes #loneliness

In his 1916 poem ‘As the Team's Head Brass’ written in iambic pentameter (Shakespeares’ metre), Thomas depicts a narrator observing a farmer ploughing his fields using horses. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AfBxe #BeyondSolitude #3rdAct

Cherry blossom is one of life’s fleeting pleasures, here and gone. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AfBxd #NéosDelta #3rdAct