31 Dec: On the cusp of a New Year, nature carries its promise. These winter buds hold next season’s life, hope wrapped tightly within, waiting for the light to return. As midnight nears, we celebrate new beginnings already stirring beneath the earth and in the trees. #NewYearsEve

This week in the poetry blogs w/ @suefinch.bsky.social @kimmoorepoet.bsky.social @billymills.bsky.social @kent-nj.bsky.social @kmahonpoet.bsky.social @marianchristie.bsky.social @edmundprestwich.bsky.social @shotscarecrow.bsky.social @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social 1/4 www.vianegativa.us/2025/12/poet...

My review for The High Window of D M Black's translation of Dante's Paradiso, which brilliantly renders the Italian into English poetry: edmundprestwich.co.uk?p=2906 With thanks to David Cooke and thehighwindowpress.com/the-high-win....

Back in the park

Our neighbours’ towering lime after the tree surgeons have been at it. I guess it was already here when these streets were fields.

This week in the poetry blogs with @shotscarecrow.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @emmalee1.bsky.social @wendypratt.bsky.social @richardjnewman.bsky.social @kent-nj.bsky.social @cbeditions.bsky.social @beckyltuch.bsky.social @shawnalemay.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/12/poet...

A commitment to express the inexpressible from @alinaetc.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @shawnalemay.bsky.social @annettemakino.bsky.social @myheadtheforest.bsky.social @pi-and-anne.bsky.social @vanopticon.bsky.social @jamesmcconachie1.bsky.social 2/4 www.vianegativa.us/2025/11/poet...

Halloween week in the poetry blogs with thetenderbetween.bsky.social @renee-emerson.bsky.social aempoet.bsky.social pfanderson.bsky.social webbish6.bsky.social thepoetslizard.bsky.social kristybowen.bsky.social matthewepaul.bsky.social matriches.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/11/poet...

This week in the poetry blogs with @kathrynanna.bsky.social @matthewepaul.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @emmalee1.bsky.social @wendypratt.bsky.social @billymills.bsky.social @kent-nj.bsky.social @salenagodden.bsky.social @shotscarecrow.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/10/poet...

If only this were @teamlabouruk.bsky.social …

On Rhythm & Poetry —Ellen Bryant Voigt 💕 #poetry #poem #poetrytheory

These 2026 Calendars are now available to pre-order. The link to my website is in my bio on my profile page. Lots of lovely Christmas cards to browse through too! #SmallBusiness #flowers #photography

#BlueSkyArtShow #Inside #DailyMono

This week in the poetry blogs w/ @matriches.bsky.social @rmhaines.bsky.social @shawnalemay.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @mcrucefix.bsky.social @kimmoorepoet.bsky.social @billymills.bsky.social @beckyltuch.bsky.social @shotscarecrow.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/10/poet...

A Columbus Day edition of the digest with @myheadtheforest.bsky.social @pi-and-anne.bsky.social @writtenbyallison.bsky.social @vanopticon.bsky.social @jamesmcconachie1.bsky.social @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social @velveteenrabbi.bsky.social @garybarwin.bsky.social 2/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/10/poet...

Interesting times as always this week in the poetry blogs with @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @wendypratt.bsky.social @jwikeley.bsky.social @kimmoorepoet.bsky.social @richardjnewman.bsky.social @edmundprestwich.bsky.social @salenagodden.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/10/poet...

A few thoughts on Tolkien's Lament for Boromir and its setting by Clamavi De Profundis, brief reference to metre followed by broader impressions: edmundprestwich.co.uk?p=2900

Hey sonnet geeks, heads up. Excellent piece here by Paul Muldoon. thelondonmagazine.org/essay-scanty...

An imagined history of the Green Man, anti-capitalist work poetry, the dactylic hexameter line & more with @robinhoughton.bsky.social @richfergusonpoet.bsky.social @lesleymwheeler.bsky.social @webbish6.bsky.social @aempoet.bsky.social 3/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/09/poet...

This week in the poetry blogs with @emmalee1.bsky.social @jamesmcconachie1.bsky.social @vanopticon.bsky.social @johnglenday.bsky.social @pi-and-anne.bsky.social @clareshawpoet.bsky.social @alinaetc.bsky.social @suefinch.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/09/poet...

The perfect poem, the extremes of poetry, and more with @victoriamoul.bsky.social @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @edmundprestwich.bsky.social @kent-nj.bsky.social @thepoetslizard.bsky.social @mcrucefix.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @shawnalemay.bsky.social 2/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/09/poet...

I've always enjoyed the poems in Tolkien's Ring books and found several very moving but the Clamavi De Profundis group sets and sings them in a way that gives their emotional content new depth: the voices and music are beautiful but it's their sensitive feeling for the words that really makes them.

I've loved the opening of Bunting's Briggflatts since uni but Don Share's annotated edition gives new delight, eg this note by BB himself: "In spring, the bull does, in fact, if he's with the cows, dance on the tips of his toes, as part of the business of showing off, showing that he's protecting

Brief reflections on Michelene Wandor's Ergo from Arc Publications, as in issue 71 of The North: edmundprestwich.co.uk?p=2896

Tomas Transtromer's 'Romanesque Arches' - profoundly moving in Robin Fulton's translation for Transtromer's New Collected Poems by @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social. Read it aloud - in Fulton's words each phrase becomes a vividly charged moment in an arc of evolving experience.

This week in the poetry blogs with @victoriamoul.bsky.social @matriches.bsky.social @shawnalemay.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @emmalee1.bsky.social @jwikeley.bsky.social @richardjnewman.bsky.social @billymills.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/09/poet...

Today is Arvo Pärt's 90th bday. My favorite living composer. I'm over the moon that my church choir is scheduled to sing The Deer's Cry in the spring. His De Profundis blows me away every time I listen. I am grateful for the life & music of Arvo Pärt! www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQtW...

Superb poet.

This week in the poetry blogs w/ @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @emmalee1.bsky.social @kimmoorepoet.bsky.social @richardjnewman.bsky.social @kent-nj.bsky.social @cbeditions.bsky.social @shotscarecrow.bsky.social @jillpearlman.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/09/poet...

And the glass houses in the Botanic Garden are enchanting even on our casual viewing.

College lawns were very dry on this year's visit to Oxford but the flower beds in Balliol were particularly lovely in the subtlety of their colour combinations.

From ‘Collected Poems’ (1981) —Alistair Te Ariki Campbell #PoetryAotearoa #poetry #haiku

This week in the poetry blogs with @alinaetc.bsky.social @theferocity.bsky.social @richfergusonpoet.bsky.social @clareshawpoet.bsky.social @pfanderson.bsky.social @pearlpoet.bsky.social @lauragraceweldon.bsky.social @renee-emerson.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/09/poet...

Poets on death, the color blue, the father of concrete poetry, and more @oyoguhito.bsky.social @jwikeley.bsky.social @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @jntod.bsky.social @edmundprestwich.bsky.social @billymills.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social 2/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/09/poet...

My brief review of Imtiaz Dharker's beautiful Shadow Reader in The North 71: edmundprestwich.co.uk?p=2890

Interesting background to a chapter I’ve always been fond of.

A mind full of scorpions, the whisper between things & more w/ @edmundprestwich.bsky.social @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @suefinch.bsky.social @jntod.bsky.social @niallpoetry.bsky.social @webbish6.bsky.social @garybarwin.bsky.social @jasoncrane.org 2/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/08/poet...

Thank you, Dave.

From ‘Sheet Music: Poems 1967-1982’ —Bill Manhire #PoetryAotearoa #poetry #poems

My quick response to Sasha Dugdale's brilliant The Strongbox in The North 71: edmundprestwich.co.uk?p=2885

Llandudno mornings

Walking on the Great Orme

This week in the poetry blogs with @velveteenrabbi.bsky.social @garybarwin.bsky.social @jwikeley.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @shotscarecrow.bsky.social @carolee.bsky.social @thepoetslizard.bsky.social @clareshawpoet.bsky.social @aempoet.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/08/poet...

This week in the poetry blogs w/ @beckyltuch.bsky.social @saudaminideo.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @wendypratt.bsky.social @kimmoorepoet.bsky.social @billymills.bsky.social @matthewepaul.bsky.social @kathrynanna.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/08/poet...

This week in the poetry blogs w/ @aempoet.bsky.social @kristybowen.bsky.social @saudaminideo.bsky.social @kathrynanna.bsky.social @velveteenrabbi.bsky.social @salenagodden.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @jillpearlman.bsky.social @mariapopova.bsky.social 1/2 www.vianegativa.us/2025/07/poet...

Apropos of reading a frustrating rant about a book by a friend of mine (don't try to guess!), I was just remembering CS Lewis' work on how to criticize. Here's the not-as-famed-as-it-should-be quote:

This week in the poetry blogs w/ @jillpearlman.bsky.social @kristybowen.bsky.social @thepoetslizard.bsky.social @andotheritems.bsky.social @kathleenjamie.bsky.social @katiemanningpoet.bsky.social @matthewepaul.bsky.social @hanvanderhart.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/07/poet...

Such a powerful book! I haven't had a chance to sample the readings yet.

People can’t find food in #Gaza to feed their families. The current distribution of food by the Israeli-American system does not work. UNRWA proved it can provide food safely and at scale. The Israeli Authorities are blocking us from doing our job. Lift the siege.

Difficult to conceive of a more ill-judged decision then the one the Home Office took here. It is an affront to free speech of a kind which is really indistinguishable from what you'd see in a police state.