An #Otwituary for actor #SamNeill Range is the rarest craft, to know doctor and devil, father, husband, monster, and be everything of each, to take us to places where we won’t need eyes to see.

Una Otwituary del futbolista #AntonioRattín El temperamento es una expresión propia, emblema del club o nación, y la furia de un hombre es la «cultura del aguante» de otro. El juego exige una cosa: La pasión, cómo lo juegas y cómo te juega a ti.

An #Otwituary for Argentine footballer #AntonioRattín Temperament is an expression of its own, emblem of club or nation, and one man’s fury is another man’s cultura del aguante. The game demands one thing: La pasión, how you play it, and how it plays you.

An #Otwituary for newsreader #DermotMurnaghan We interrupt this programme for a news bulletin; not news in itself, but news of the news, neither war nor nor murder sweetened by commercials, but the story of a real story.

An #Otwituary for pilot and astronaut #WallyFunk I have been a disciple of the sky, set out my own flight plan, seen my own shadow over the earth, slipped the surly bonds of men and shown the face of a woman.

An #Otwituary for singer #BonnieTyler On the wind is a shredded voice, someone else’s heartaches sung like an old razor. Sometimes it burns slowly, sometimes it’s an insatiable fire. We know every word, despite ourselves and every now and then, we sing too.

An #Otwituary for Ian Kennedy Martin, creator of TV’s #TheSweeney Write me a seedy London: nail-hard blaggers staked out by cops in Jags, sleazy briefs and easy housewives, trouserless pimps, and a dubious double act; not comedy, but still funny.

In all the excitement of the World Cup and Wimbledon don’t forget #LeTour. Celebrate the greatest race in sport with a copy of Tour de Vers, a poetic tribute from a selection of wonderful poets. £6 including postage. Message me for a copy…Allez! Allez!

#DoubleDactyl of the week is nothing if not topical.

After a brief hiatus to accommodate the Site Curator's indolence, we return with a new #DoubleDactyl of the Week. We hope to keep going until No. 200, by which time we will probably have run out of gravy... This week is another masterpiece from Alice Meynell.

Poetry Scotland 112 is open for business. See the link below for info. When you email us, remember: - To include your postal address - To include titles of poems - Up to 3 poems in a single Word document We're excited to see your poems - send away! poetryscotland.com/submissions/...

An #Otwituary for #VillagePeople frontman #VictorWillis Maybe heaven is just a street corner where young men can be who they are, where discos open but never close, where traffic stops to watch you dance. It’s just up the street; follow the noise, hang out with all the girls, all the boys.

An #Otwituary for actor #MichaelByrne Drink to leading men if you must; I will hang around the stage door for the slender men in overcoats, divested of the uniform of dreams - mournful spy, owlish Nazi, rascal. So many entrances, and then gone.

An #Otwituary for actor #PenelopeKeith Some roles are cast to chart the fall of the English; pitched somewhere between hunt ball and sweet suburbia, starch and tiaras and Fortnum hampers, and oh, how we fell for it, and still do.

The latest transmission from #ProjectAbeona has just been picked up by the Tien Shan Astronomical Observatory in Kazakhstan. This one comes from Technician Ava Blake and has been forwarded by Aimee Norton projectabeonapoetry.substack.com/p/transmissi...

Still not got your copy of 'The Four-Year Itch' yet? How no? 13 poems charting Scotland's history in the FIFA World Cup, from Stephen Watt and Andy Jackson. Here as a taster is Stephen's 'Schoolin Gallusness', celebrating France 1998. www.andyjacksonpoet.co.uk/purchase

An #Otwituary for Teddie, the last of the original girl group The #BeverleySisters Lord help the mister who remembers you from those glimpses of green fields and song, who fell so heavily for such homespun glamour, the same in rain and sun.

An #Otwituary for investigative journalist #RogerCook A rumpled poem doorstepped me at 6am. It dogged me from my car into my portakabin, brandishing a microphone like a stiletto, shouting Why are you conning your readers? Are you a crook? Are you a poet?

An #Otwituary for #Labour grandee #RoyHattersley To have principles is to believe that there is strength in doubt, that no single way is ever pure, that people are rarely deceived by promises of gold, or a cure. Speak softly; let the weak shout.

An #Otwituary for artist #DavidHockney Maybe this is the art I seek: a simple canvas, clean lines and summer clothes, colours mixed from joy, the best of my days deep as a swimming pool from which I never resurface.

#FIFA2026 kicks-off in [checks watch] just over 2 hours. It's a relief, therefore, that these have just arrived! They're selling fast, so if you'd like a copy, don't miss a sitter - order now for just £6! www.andyjacksonpoet.co.uk/purchase

re you ready for the FIFA World Cup? Not without a copy of The Four-Year Itch - 13 funny, sad, silly, proud poems from Stephen Watt and Andy Jackson, exploring Scotland's football odyssey through World Cup history from 1950-2066. Just £6 inc postage www.andyjacksonpoet.co.uk/purchase

An #Otwituary for actor #AnthonyHead How exciting life was back then; grand passions over dull coffee, the turn of a spoon like the turn of a card. Act out this charade, this advert for love; no bitterness, everything sweet and sugared.

An #Otwituary for graphic novelist and film-maker #MarjaneSatrapi I have mislaid the eyes I wore when I was ten; eyes that would widen at the sight of death and revolution, that would fill at the sight of another person’s pain. Let me read, and see again.

#DoubleDactyl of the Week is black and white and Red all over...from Penny Campbell

Transmission 48 from #ProjectAbeona is a 22nd century rejection of advances in a complex future from the imagination of Sultana Raza. projectabeonapoetry.substack.com/p/transmissi...

An #Otwituary for jazz giant #SonnyRollins Every day’s a great day in Harlem, but not today; the brownstones are blue and cool kids improvise solos from fragments of madness. The Colossuem is full of noises, but the Colossus has fallen.

An #Otwituary for travel journalist #JudithChalmers I saw a ghost by the pool today, like an exotic distant aunt, Chanel sunglasses and sarong, tan lines and blow wave, leafing through Condé Nast, wishing she was here.

An #Otwituary for #Blakes7 actor #MichaelKeating Hail to the thief, master of a craven art, surviving on cowardice and repartee, too afraid to play the hero, too smart to play the fool. No lock you cannot pick, no plot you cannot unlock.

An Otwituary for #DrHook singer #DennisLocorriere I called the Seventies hotline for some country-disco vibes. Was that you that answered? I hung up, and called again; all I heard was the operator saying 40 cents more for the next three minutes…

Transmission 47 from #ProjectAbeona comes from M Frost and focuses on the fragile ecosystem of long-distance spaceflight. projectabeonapoetry.substack.com/p/transmissi...

An #Otwituary for actor and TV presenter #AlanRothwell  I come from the haunted generation, spliced from short films, memories too fragile now to ever screen again. A kindly man spools the final reel, lighting the darkness of every frame.

Well it’s a marvellous night for a… #DoubleDactyl of the Week, from somebody or other.

And so ,the final posting in our #OneDrop series celebrating all things #reggae. Number 25 is a final nod to Bob Marley from Jeff Dawson, plus we go back to the first stirrings of the Jamaican sound in the UK - Millie Small's 1964 smash My Boy Lollipop. onedroppoetry.substack.com/p/one-drop-t...

We're very near the end of the #OneDropPoetry series - No.24 is the penultimate posting. We celebrate a mixed bag of ska, dance styles and #reggae sauciness from Max Romeo, plus a poem from the great Stephen Watt. onedroppoetry.substack.com/p/one-drop-t...

#DoubleDactyl of the Week just keeps Rowling along…courtesy of Andrew Singer

#6 in the Art #SonnetChain (curated by Sophie Herxheimer and Nancy Campbell) is now live. The latest posting is a treat for the eyes and the soul from Chrissy Williams. newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2026/05/02/a...

And here’s a sample… youtu.be/y-5UN7UBlk8?...

I have a new book of poetry out - Disco Biscuits! It’s been 5 years in the making…I hope you’ll buy a copy from: www.bluediode.co.uk/product-page...

Day 1 of the Budding Writers workshop programme was a great success! 30 people enjoyed a mindful and relaxing writing workshop led with wisdom and compassion by Sukhema. There's still time to join the fun - sign up here for the remaining 19 workshops! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/budding-wr...?

Transmission 46 from #ProjectAbeona comes from F.J. Bergmann, expertly channeling the dreams of a sleeping passenger on the longest of journeys. projectabeonapoetry.substack.com

Budding Writers from Lapidus Scotland starts on Friday- 20 one-hour writing workshops in 20 days, starting 9am on May 1st with a session from Sukhema, followed by Elaine Konopka, John Glenday and more. One small payment gets you into all 20 workshops! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/budding-wr...?

An #Otwituary for 1970s singer #KathyDooley I saw you on Top of the Pops, reeling from the suffocation of grinding Cabaret nights, your lipstick-smudged teeth and hen-night choreography, your 'can’t believe I’m here' smile. Many were called, yes, but few were ever so chosen.

We've got a little behind ourselves here at #DoubleDactyl Towers - here are the previous two for your delectation - from Christopher Reid and Sharon Larkin

One Drop Poetry is a poetic celebration of reggae music, style and culture. No.23 features the reggae we heard on our radio back in the gilded age of the 1970s. #BobMarley and #JohnnyNash take centre stage, with a poem from the great Geoffrey Philp. onedroppoetry.substack.com/p/one-drop-t...

An #Otwituary for movie designer #DeanTavoularis There are some places in the past that only the movies can take us to, designing, dressing and detailing the darkness at the heart of America, through time and tone and narrative.

An #Otwituary for musician #AlanOsmond I did not choose the Seventies, and yet it poured its light into me, offering an Elysium in bell-bottoms, promising summer without autumn, a place where all the rivers are lazy and people, like horses, are crazy.

An #Otwituary for zoologist #DesmondMorris He writes of homo finalis, last of the apes, up on its hind legs yet stooping under the weight of its own intellect. He writes the story of a curious species, not knowing that the last page will be written by someone else.

An #Otwituary for DJ and music lover #AndyKershaw Today I heard a song I didn’t know I needed; born at the frontier of music and ethnography. Bring me real music from an unreal world, from Rwanda to Rochdale, these curiosities of sound, the pleasures of the unlikely groove.