Stumbled on Gerard Philipe's magically sensitive reading of the passage in Le petit prince where the aviator meets the prince: www.google.com/search?clien...

All Jamie McKendrick's poetry collections include brilliant reworkings of the sonnet form. Here are my comments on "Alternative Anatomy" from his 2024 collection Drypoint: edmundprestwich.co.uk?p=2916

This week in the poetry blogs with @jntod.bsky.social @jwikeley.bsky.social @richardjnewman.bsky.social @billymills.bsky.social @mayacpopa.bsky.social @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @suefinch.bsky.social @alinaetc.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2026/04/poet...

Pincushion Protea - Nadelkissen-Proteen (Leucospermum) 📷Robert Dominy #naturephotography #nature #photography #flickr flic.kr/p/2s6tsEa

Beggars belief that Met Police is in talks with #Palantir about giving them access to highly sensitive data, when there’s already such concern over its links with ICE & Israeli military. Palantir already has UK contracts worth over £500m, incl. with NHS. We should be scrapping them not signing more

For various reasons I've had no time for writing and very little for reading over the last few months but I'd like to repost a link to my review of D. M. Black's translation of Dante's Paradiso because his version is so very much worth reading AS POETRY in itself edmundprestwich.co.uk?p=2906

We call it the glade - perhaps 6 yards by 6. O what would the world be, once bereft Of wet and wildness? let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet, Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

Thinking of The Charge of the Light Brigade and The Highwayman - both have a driving momentum in the rhythm, but in TCLB the momentum is all about the feelings, attitudes, ideas of the poet as he revolves the event in his mind, in TH it's all about the unfolding of the event itself

This week in the poetry blogs with @robmclennan.bsky.social @wendypratt.bsky.social @pearlpoet.bsky.social @kent-nj.bsky.social @cbeditions.bsky.social @kathrynanna.bsky.social @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social 1/4 www.vianegativa.us/2026/04/poet...

The way Doisneau captures the instant when that swift, awkward action makes a gracefully mirrored dancelike pattern is brilliant in itself but its human expressiveness is even more wonderful.

This week in the poetry blogs with @alinaetc.bsky.social @richardjnewman.bsky.social @pearlpoet.bsky.social @billymills.bsky.social @beckyltuch.bsky.social @mayacpopa.bsky.social @salenagodden.bsky.social @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social 1/4 www.vianegativa.us/2026/04/poet...

just a reminder that the Cambridge Launch of Galahad and the Grail is this Thursday from 6-7pm. They'll show the beautiful documentary and I'll be there to sign books www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/galahad-an...

Rereading Le Guin’s City of Illusions with immense pleasure. It’s my favourite of her Hainish novels, a beautifully written combination of spare, elegant construction and imaginative richness.

i think it's time for a few words from my favorite poet, Mary Oliver #poems #Despair #ecocide #extinction #politics

Did u know? I first saw this living wall in a shopping centre/car park in Stratford-upon-Avon approx 7 years ago....& it's still going strong to this day. It's an absolutely beautiful sight....Why can't all municipal spaces have these? If you can't plant along, plant up.... 🌿🌱🇬🇧🌱🌍

This week in the poetry blogs with @jntod.bsky.social @loriaustex.bsky.social @richardjnewman.bsky.social @billymills.bsky.social @mayacpopa.bsky.social @dominicrivron.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @suefinch.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2026/03/poet...

Rereading Le Guin’s City of Illusions with immense pleasure. It’s my favourite of her Hainish novels, a beautifully written combination of spare, elegant construction and imaginative richness.

The global food system is systemically fragile in the same way that the global financial system was before the 2008 crash. If it goes it down, we’re looking, as complex societies, at a potential termination event. This week's column. Please read it. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A billionaire can get what they want with one donation to a political party. The rest of us must fight for years to get even the most basic rights recognised. Money destroys democracy, more than any other cause. The first step towards a better world is to stop the rich buying political outcomes.

It was great to speak to Malcolm about his new Arthurian project..

I've read all Le Guin's Hainish novels in cheap paperbacks - some several times - and have just treated myself to the Library of America collection. I'd forgotten how good Rocannon's World is!

This week in the poetry blogs with @alinaetc.bsky.social @linarvitvideopoet.bsky.social @loriaustex.bsky.social @richardjnewman.bsky.social @billymills.bsky.social @kent-nj.bsky.social @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @suefinch.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2026/03/poet...

This week in the poetry blogs with @wendypratt.bsky.social @kimmoorepoet.bsky.social @billymills.bsky.social @kent-nj.bsky.social @angelatopping.bsky.social @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @alinaetc.bsky.social @clareshawpoet.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2026/03/poet...

I’m happy for a squirrel to eat SOME of the bird food I put out but how do I stop such acrobatic thieves grabbing it ALL (I thought that long string would beat them)?

Do you love to write about your garden or perhaps you're interested in writing for gardening magazines? We'll cover a range of styles on this friendly, supportive workshop, incl. creative non-fiction & memoir. Plus writing sessions in the beautiful @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social. tinyurl.com/3wmpuz6d

Gift from my son - the timing’s ironic but my wanting to read it comes from my lifelong love of Mary Renault’s Grecian novels and a recent return to Bunting’s Briggflatts.

What effect do the dreadful events of the last few years have on what people write and how they feel about their writing?

I Had Hope When Violence Was Ceas't

 Dawnlight freezes against the east-wire. The guards cough 'raus! 'raus! We flinch and grin, Our flesh oozing towards its last outrage. That which is taken from me is not mine.
 Geoffrey Hill

This week in the poetry blogs with @alinaetc.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @emmalee1.bsky.social @wendypratt.bsky.social @billymills.bsky.social @kent-nj.bsky.social @beckyltuch.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @suefinch.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2026/02/poet...

This week in the poetry blogs with @victoriamoul.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @emmalee1.bsky.social @jwikeley.bsky.social @kimmoorepoet.bsky.social @billymills.bsky.social @beckyltuch.bsky.social @kathrynanna.bsky.social @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2026/02/poet...

Will the winter never be over, Will the dark days never go? Must the buttercup and the clover Be always hid under the snow? Ah, lend me your little ear, love! Hark! 'tis a beautiful thing; The weariest month of the year, love, Is shortest and nearest to spring. Adeline Whitney

This week in the poetry blogs with @alinaetc.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @emmalee1.bsky.social @wendypratt.bsky.social @pearlpoet.bsky.social @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @suefinch.bsky.social @myheadtheforest.bsky.social 1/2 www.vianegativa.us/2026/02/poet...

The early-flowering spring iris is a February birth flower, named for Iris, the radiant Greek goddess of the rainbow and messenger between heaven and earth. Long linked with brighter days and good news, the iris symbolises courage, faith, wisdom and valour in folklore tradition.

I really like this from the preface to Helen Vendler’s Inhabit the Poem’: The intrinsic drama of lyric poetry is constituted by the constant volatility of consciousness as well as by its occasional stabilization.’

Bravo Poland! I would have hoped to see an EU-wide initiative of this kind, but if it exists I am not aware of it.

Boccaccio Boccaccino - Gypsy Girl 1504-5 (Uffizi Gallery)

Maud' was the poem Tennyson always recited - in full. His wife sometimes left the room, quietly. Who could blame Emily? But, amongst the ranting, the poem kept its wild heart from Tennyson's youth: 'O that 'twere possible'.

This week in the poetry blogs with @victoriamoul.bsky.social @emmalee1.bsky.social @jwikeley.bsky.social @pearlpoet.bsky.social @billymills.bsky.social @kent-nj.bsky.social @salenagodden.bsky.social @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @linarvitvideopoet.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2026/01/poet...

From ‘The Sunday Poem: ‘Mineral’ by Kathleen Jamie’ Where is our kingfisher? Unseen nearby, a reed bends beneath her scintilla of weight. The fisher-bird sees through surfaces. The river is planes of light. Illustration by Chris Riddell observer.co.uk/culture/book... #poetry

Libraries are transformative. In fact, Farnham Library saved me. Kept me afloat when I was being bullied at South Farnham Middle School in the 1980s. This poem from Whatever You Do, Just Don't is my homage to it...

This week in the poetry blogs w/ @wendypratt.bsky.social @kimmoorepoet.bsky.social @richardjnewman.bsky.social @pearlpoet.bsky.social @edmundprestwich.bsky.social @kathrynanna.bsky.social @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @shawnalemay.bsky.social @aempoet.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2026/01/poet...

Some thoughts on a phrase in Shelley's Ode to the West Wind: edmundprestwich.co.uk?p=2911

The first poetry blog digest of 2026 with @lauragraceweldon.bsky.social @kristybowen.bsky.social @grimalkingerry.bsky.social @matthewepaul.bsky.social @kerstenak.bsky.social @shawnalemay.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @pearlpoet.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2026/01/poet...

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...