Candlesnuff fungus, rising up like a ghostly apparition from the rainforest floor and waving its limbs. A saprotrophic species, it helps break down deadwood. It's also bioluminescent, emitting a faint green light by night.

So delighted to have this little poem appear in @ampoetryreview.bsky.social, alongside a handful of others! Much gratitude to the editors!

✨COVER REVEAL✨ Here it is, the cover for Dear World, Issue 15! Featuring this stunning work by printmaker, Molly Lemon “They tried to bury us but they didn’t know we were seeds” feels so apt for this issue and we can’t wait to share its 30 new poems with you on Saturday! 🧡✨🌱

📣 NEW BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT📣 We are delighted to announce the acquisition of THE WAY THE WATER HELD ME by @catherineredford.bsky.social, a heart-wrenching debut about young widowhood THE WAY THE WATER HELD ME is available to pre-order now Publishing March 2026 ~ Pre-order here: buff.ly/i1HAi3Y

Hear me read the following poem plus two others at the launch of this wonderful Crooked Spire Press anthology in the Unitarian Church, Doncaster, this Saturday from 13.00pm onwards:

The building in which I teach recently had to change all the lights to LED ones, which are too bright for my eyes, so I've been teaching in semi-gloom. Today an uplighter was installed, so now everyone is super-jealous of my cosily lit tutorial space 😅💡🤩

This was such a lovely evening. Great company, varied and accomplished poetry and just the right length. Do support @paulwritespoems.bsky.social if/when he holds another session.

Mark it down: Dec 20th @ 20.00 — #PoemsAbout #OpenMic + #ChristmasParty returns! Poets, readers, friends — one final night to lift your words before the year ends. 🎤✨ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1967176915...

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

Well, this is fun! Fine company to keep @pdevonald.bsky.social @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social @eleanorholmes.bsky.social @sarahraybould.bsky.social Well done all!

Please review my collection on Amazon or Goodreads if you have been lovely enough to buy it. It really helps. www.goodreads.com/book/show/21... In the Shadow of Gods amzn.eu/d/gRaCt0j

So the UN agrees it’s genocide. Time to give this another airing. We are all complicit I fear.

After a year and a half of trying, I finally got an acceptance from a poetry journal I’ve been aiming for — and on my twentieth submission, they took not one, not two, but three poems! Never give up! #persistence #poetry

On the lighter end of my poetic output today, but I have a soft spot for this poem & am so gratified that @clairewalkerpoetry.bsky.social & @hollyannepoet.bsky.social saw something in it. Have a read & let me know what you think 🥰 #poetsofbluesky

We're delighted that @niallpoetry.bsky.social and Vidyan Ravinthiran have been shortlisted for the @forwardprizes.bsky.social Prize for Best Collection for their third collections The Island in the Sound and #Avidyā. Many congratulations both! #ForwardPrizes www.bloodaxebooks.com/news?article...

I so enjoyed @cheltpoetfest.bsky.social reading tonight with guests the luminous @johnglenday.bsky.social & deceptively light @jonathandavidson.bsky.social. A wonderfully resonant pairing, supported by fine mic maestros. Heartfelt thanks as ever @annasaund.bsky.social & @zoebrooks.bsky.social 😍

Can’t make it this time I’m afraid.

JOIN US and book your free ticket NOW for Louise Machen's online launch of 'I Am Not Light' on Saturday 12th July, 6pm, with special guests. Unmissable! @louloumach.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/louise-mac...

Want your book visible with our platforms the week #PIL launches? Submit on the 30th. Circa 20 platforms will be watching. Be on their radar — not lost in the scroll. #PromoteIndieLit #BookRelease #PoetsOfBlueSky

Next Saturday is Last Saturday! What a treat it will be to be with these poets and hear them read their amazing poems! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/last-satur... - online Zoom and free!

‘When the teacher read out ‘Ode to a Nightingale’, I think I was sixteen then, I instantly knew I wanted to be a poet…’ the wonderful @pascalepetit.bsky.social . Samuel West reading #Keats = a brilliant half hour of #poetry #PoetryPlease www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Yesterday morning I was teaching Radcliffe's The Romance of the Forest, & as I travelled in on the bus I did a quick Gaelic lesson on Duolingo. What did I have to translate? (never had this sentence before): 'They were hidden in an ancient abbey' 😱 Spooky, eh???

I played my creative writing students a recording of Yeats reading The Lake Isle of Innisfree this morning, & one of them said he sounded like a ghost from The Christmas Carol 🤣😍

After reading at an outside poetry event & then waiting for the bus, I am actually COLD 🥶& it's quite delicious! ❄️⛄💙

Have realised that even in this heat, I'm incapable of travelling about without 54 cardigans 'just in case' 🙄😂

I really like this poem and would like to use it for a poetry class, obviously acknowledging the poet! Can someone recognise this? If so, please dm me? The Last Light It did not fall with thunder,/ but with silence #Isthisyours

We're open for submissions! We'll be welcoming work in all forms, in English and Irish, for Issue 13 until 30 June ✨️ Full submissions guidelines at channelmag.org/submissions/

Next week’s host of TopTweetTuesday on Twitter - Paul Short, poet and blogger at The Book Bag @paulwritespoems.bsky.social 👉 paulwritespoems.com/category/the... #poetry #poetrycommunity #writing #poetic #poetryprompt

Next Tuesday’s challenge on TopTweetTuesday on Twitter. There’s level 1 and 2 there. 🖊️ 💎

Pressure on Israel needed to stop ‘horrors’ in Gaza, Labour MP www.channel4.com/news/pressur...

These are Khaled and Mahmoud. They urgently need your help. Their dad, Mohammed is trying to raise enough money to buy two tents and a bag of flour. Can we make that happen tonight? Please donate and share: chuffed.org/project/1302...

I'm someone who's quite easily pleased. Today, despite body malaise, all it took for me to feel a million dollars was 2 secondhand Nike running tops from eBay (total 11 quid) 😂 Pretty in pastel! (Trying to do daily gentle strength workouts when body permits because it seems to help with pain)

SEE: Gboyega Odubanjo’s poem ‘Genesis’ on the London Underground. There will be readings of his poetry at Covent Garden Station on 11 June. More to follow. @poetrysociety.bsky.social @poemsonthetube.bsky.social poetrysociety.org.uk/product-cate...

The #JhalakPrize25 Awards are this evening and we have just enough time to feature the late shortlisted poet Gboyega Odubanjo's #Adam @faberbooks.bsky.social. This is especially poignant for us. Gboyega worked with IS&T on 'Runaways London' as a poet and as an editor on 'Uprising & Resistance'.

In 'Homeland,' Rachael Clyne / @rachaelclyne.bsky.social asks us to consider the ties between land, people, and memory—what is lost, what remains, and what might return. Read now! inksweatandtears.co.uk/rachael-clyn... #InkSweatandTears #Submission #PoetryCommunity

Oh smart jacket how did humanity get so far in dumb mute clothes? How did we philosophize without the output of our socks? Design ships without a shoutout from a shirt? And now, will my overcoat override me?

We are open! We have received beautiful poems so far, send more! And your art, and essay proposals. Submissions read by myself, @victoriaspires.bsky.social, @vikkicwrites.bsky.social and our EIC @bornonadarkmoon.bsky.social

😂

New blog post for all the anxious poets who want to be heard, but also sometimes want to hide in a corner with a book and a nice cat. natalieholborow.com/2025/06/03/f...

Read Hedge School by Pat Boran today. Lots of highlights I could call out, particularly enjoy this one, ‘Billy, Billy’ for the sounds as much as the subject - almost forces you to read it aloud to enjoy the play of it on the tongue. Well worth a read. His 8th full collection.

Irreplaceable habitats are on the line. This is the reality if an unamended Part 3 of the Bill passes. It must not.

Hi #Poets! We're open for submissions at @atriumpoetry.bsky.social during the first week of June - if you have poems looking to make their way out into the world, @hollyannepoet.bsky.social and I would love to consider your work. Full submission guidelines are available on our website:

All are welcome. Please use hashtags #promptcombo and #spectating and tag @rfsmith.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/rfsm...

A very interesting #PromptCombo theme from @rfsmith.bsky.social #Spectating The #poems so far, available in the thread below or by using the hashtags above, have touched on the unsettling voyeurism at the heart of so much creation. You’ve all week to post your own responses #poetrycommunity #booksky

Two weeks away. 24 hours. Are you planning to send something in for Issue 19 of Stanchion Magazine?

The new set of Poems on the Underground is here! Did you know you can get your hands on Poems on the Underground posters via The Poetry Society? Head to our online shop to get yours: poetrysociety.org.uk/product-category/poems-on-the-underground/

#PromptCombo Many thanks to @dragonslayerma.bsky.social for her wonderful last week. This week’ prompt is #spectating or hanging around watching. My finger wags. @dragonslayerma.bsky.social @drnaturegirl.debbiemross.co.uk @hool415.bsky.social @victoriaspires.bsky.social @paulbrookes.bsky.social

#LiftToTheSky I is for @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social, Paul Brookes, for his unflagging devotion to his craft, to editing, to hosting #PromptCombo, as well as for the support & encouragement he has shown towards neophyte poets like myself.

What does the cover rose mean?🌷 Explore poems and the creation of This Is How I Fight by @rosiegarlandwriter.bsky.social at our #blog ninearchespress.blogspot.com/2025/05/in-c... Pre-order this June book of 'resistance and defiance' now ninearchespress.com/publications...