For #fragmentsfriday and @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social @matthewmcsmith.bsky.social:

My latest book is Permanence, written with Stephen Paul Wren, a surreal dive into the world of microplastics. @betarish.bsky.social said: 'a series of striking reflections on plastic, how it has shifted from wonder substance to menace.' Published by Atomic Bohemian. DM me for a signed copy.

February is flying by! Time for another Last Saturday cornucopia of poetry! With guests Alan Humm, @corinnaboard.bsky.social @samszanto.bsky.social @missyerem.bsky.social @carmellapoetry.bsky.social and @moiragauthor.bsky.social (tbc) Online and free! 7.00pm on Saturday 28 Feb. tinyurl.com/y5mhz2bz

Gordon Brown is not a man without faults (and goodness knows the media made it their job to make sure we knew all about them), but he IS a living rebuke to the corrosive idea that all politicians are the same and all corrupt.

‘this is poetry as bright and fleeting as embers’ 🔥 Our Black Bough book of the month is Louise Longson’s ‘The How in the World’ - Hedgehog poetry. Reviewed by @victoriaspires.bsky.social @louisepoetical.bsky.social @hedgehogpress.co.uk www.blackboughpoetry.com/book-reviews...

⚡️⚡️⚡️ Just arrived!PERMANENCE A poetry collaboration on plastics and microplastics from chemist Stephen Paul Wren & historical plastics collector Lesley Curwen @elcurwen.bsky.social published by @ Atomic Bohemian⚡️ 👏👏👏

The UK version of “Project 2025” by the Reform party includes a British ICE, a concentration camp for 24,000 people, mass surveillance and withdrawing from refugee, anti-torture and anti-trafficking conventions. It’s on their website. That’s how comfortable fascists are in the UK today.

What would be really useful is if the good folks at @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social War Studies dept put on a series of rapid public lectures towards the end of this term, under the heading 'What the f--- is going on?' They'd sell out.

Light is abundant in Lesley Curwen's 'Valentia Light', offering both protection from and disguising the dangers of an anticipated storm. @elcurwen.bsky.social Watch it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/lesley-curwe... #FilmPoem #InkSweatAndTears

When I Met Jane Austen: each day this week 11.45 & 13.45 @BBCRadio4 250 years after the birth of #JaneAusten, ten writers & thinkers discuss her work, wit & influence - incl @realbaddiel.bsky.social & @valmcdermid.bsky.social in conversation with Paula Byrne www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Beginning life here with three new poems in Ambient Receiver www.ambientreceiver.org/rebecca-goss

Our hardback Christmas and Winter anthology adorning the Christmas tree. Packed with festive, poetic gems! www.blackboughpoetry.com/news

Copies of Permanence have arrived! Thanks to co-author Stephen Paul Wren, publisher Atomic Bohemian, and to @betarish.bsky.social and Greta Stoddart for their kind words. Come to our online launch on Thursday! www.eventbrite.com/e/state-of-t...

A starter pack of Journalists on BlueSky featuring @zamirarahim.bsky.social @elcurwen.bsky.social @rosannamcglone.bsky.social and many more. Please follow and repost if you can

Thrilled to be hosting the imminent take-off of @elcurwen.bsky.social & Stephen Paul Wren's collaboration, plus a few poems from my new one and very special guests @jirobb.bsky.social @paulwritespoems.bsky.social and @annasaund.bsky.social 29 Nov at 7.00pm eventbrite.co.uk/e/last-satur... Join us!

This was such a lovely surprise!Thank you to @catherineredford.bsky.social & @tarawheeler.bsky.social for this vote of confidence 🤩

Wow! This feels like it was an AGE ago ... when in fact, it's been less than a year since this appeared. My thanks, still, to @matthewmcsmith.bsky.social, @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social, and my former BBC journalist interviewer @elcurwen.bsky.social. 🙏🏼

Never buy leasehold (if you can avoid it) part 94 bit.ly/4qG8soL “escalating charges, poor service quality, opaque fees and a lack of communication” MB these are failings, not alleged failings.

It's not a grassroots working class movement. "Wherever we looked for prominent flaggers and leaders of this movement, we found people smugglers and sex doll salesmen, people with dubious criminal pasts and people willing to put in a good word for Adolf Hitler." manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...

⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️ So excited for tomorrow’s Dublin launch @eatthestorms.com Issue V when we will celebrate with some of our wonderful contributors whose stunning work makes this issue so special. It’s been amazing to be subeditor to our phenomenal EIC Damien B Donnelly. Time to Shine Stormers!⭐️🍾 🥂 ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️

Sounds like @bbcradio 4 has been speeded up on the Sunday programme debate on the Church of England! Surely no one speaks that fast? OMG!!

Thanks to Damien @eatthestorms.com and @rhonagreene.bsky.social for making me a Stormer for Issue V.

President Macron: “We were very naive to leave our public space to social media networks controlled by US or Chinese companies that don’t share our interests and not interested in survival of our democracies.” www.youtube.com/watch?v=MggN...

We’re pleased to share a new piece of writing by the Quay Words Summer 2025 writer-in-residence Kirsteen McNish. Here's ‘There are tides everywhere.’ quaywords.org.uk/there-are-ti...

My colleague @thejohnsimpson.bsky.social has done a terrific deep dive into the financial links between US tech billionaires and Tommy Robinson Well worth a read observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Thank you @catherineredford.bsky.social for reading my pamphlet 'Rescue Lines', a poetic meditation on finding and losing a sister. 🙏 @hedgehogpress.co.uk Signed copies still available by DM.

Thanks to @zoebrigley.bsky.social for interviewing me about my poem 'A night on the river Yealm' for @modronmagazine.bsky.social. modronmagazine.com/2025/04/06/t...

Thank you @matthewmcsmith.bsky.social @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social for reading my book 'Sticky with Miles' about damage done by global trade for @sealeychallenge.bsky.social. DM me for a signed copy. @dreich.bsky.social

For ##PoemsAbout #chandeliers, a poem that riffs on that image. For @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk and the ##poetsofbluesky community.

Tomorrow! www.tickettailor.com/events/sdhep... Come and join us, it will be an evening filled with poetry and love. #PoetrySky #Fundraiser

I recommend this novel by Briony Collins. Read my blog here: www.lesleycurwenpoet.com/ambergris-a-...

📣 Our #SilverBranch series feature poet for August 2025 ☀️ 📣 Sue Finch @suefinch.bsky.social 🖊️ 💎 ‘I will howl for its dark future’ 🦇 Full feature: blackboughpoetry.com/sue-finch-augu…#poetryr#writingcommunityty

A great BBC Upload shout out for the launch of my new poetry collection ‘Why I Wear My Past to Work’ at The Bridge Inn, Bristol (28th Sept). With mention of Bob Walton, Helen Sheppard, @tomsastry.bsky.social & the rest of the top line up. You can hear a poem too: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Fiction from Japan, a #memoir of adolescence & essays on New York life in today’s A Good Read 3pm @BBCRadio4 The barrister & writer @robrinder.bsky.social & author @junodawson.bsky.social talk #books with @harriettsg.bsky.social Producer Sally Heaven #fiction www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Have really enjoyed being part of Jack Caradoc's THE CANDYMAN'S TRUMPET @dreich.bsky.social 🎺 An eclectic, thought-provoking, culturally relevant magazine.🖤 Here's my poem- GETTING PIERCED! A reflection on the 90's & my memories of Camden Lock. #Camden #PoemsAboutPiercings #90s #CamdenTown #Poems

Bridport Prize starter pack @bridportprize.bsky.social with winners & shortlisted writers including @kitdewaal.com @dreenawriting.co.uk @marcellenewbold.bsky.social @esloudon.bsky.social Please follow & repost the pack & tell me if you want to be included #booksky #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity

This @bbcradio.bsky.social#SundayFeature on artist and writer Edward Gorey is brilliant - give it a listen. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Zadie Smith & Colm Tóibín join @harriettsg.bsky.social for today’s A Good Read 3pm @BBCRadio4 A devoted father in Colombia, a modern-day picaresque through London, and a languid summer romance. Produced by Eliza Lomas #books #fiction #memoir www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Bit late - school holidays! - but was thrilled to be able to read a sonnet from 'Crippled' at the @foundationswift.bsky.social reading today. Fantastic readers and great discussion afterwards, ably chaired by @degna.bsky.social and @elcurwen.bsky.social www.redsquirrelpress.com/product-page...

Thank you to @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social for re sharing my #SilverBranch poems.

Hello @thebrokenspine.co.uk and host @alanparrywriter.co.uk for another week of thematic writing, with #PoemsAbout #Glamour. I tried to channel my inner Marc Bolan, but the Paris fashion houses won. #PoetsOnBluesky #PoetryCommunity

Thank you for reading and sharing today's poem - Body-swap by @elcurwen.bsky.social

'Swags as soft as were-fur'. Love this line.

For #PoemsAbout #glamour, a small poem about dangerous colours. @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk

George Sandifer Smith, Perry Gasteiger, @rfredekenter.bsky.social @petitecreature1.bsky.social @barney-ashton.bsky.social @eatthestorms.com @brionycollins.bsky.social Jen Feroze, @markantonyowen.com @poetbex.bsky.social Romina Ramos @jamesmcconachie1.bsky.social @elcurwen.bsky.social Robert Edge

⚡ In 48 hours, the #PIL system opens to the world If you care about: ✔️ Poetry ✔️ Indie presses ✔️ Breaking paywalls Be ready. June 30 = launch day #PromoteIndieLit #PoetsOfBlueSky #BookRelease #BlogTour

If you have an hour or so to spare tomorrow, come and join me and some wonderful poets 7pm, online Zoom and free - a great and inspiring way to spend some of the Last Saturday of the month! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/last-satur...