Check out the edition here!

Many thanks to @thelakepoetry.bsky.social for publishing my poem 'Bone Stories'. Bone Stories (Capela dos Ossos, Evora, Portugal) After worms and soil of decay had done their cleansing best, skeletons and skulls were stacked... www.thelakepoetry.co.uk/poetry/ben-b...

I have a feeling I'm on some kind of list to be blocked. It would be nice if those maintaining the list or any of those following it would tell me their reason for blocking me. I won't hold my breath. The only reason I know, is because there's a @listifications.app that monitors.

Do you like ghost stories? How about ghost poems? substack.com/@benbruges/p...

This explains it all really…

A new poem for anyone who has had a loved one pass away.

My poem needs someone to read it! And, while you're there, subscribe to my Substack? open.substack.com/pub/benbruge...

Do you need a beta reader? open.substack.com/pub/benbruge...?

Sums it up.

Vicky Wilson is going to stand as an independent candidate in May, supported by Hastings Peoples Party, starting with a community meeting to ask - should she stand? will the attendees help get her elected? www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/who-will-s...

Did you watch Dirty Business? I can't believe how much water companies have gotten away with. They're putting profit before public health - it’s a scandal and the Government MUST take action! Sick of sewage? Add your name to the petition today: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/en...

Roundabout - a poem about addiction and generation loops open.substack.com/pub/benbruge...

Hastings Housing Rebellion have occupied a family house to prevent private company Southern Housing from selling it off to the private market. Southern acquired the house with a covenant that they had to keep it for rented affordable accommodation. Please sign c.org/c2HSYmcbcv

Why is engagement on Bluesky so low?! There are very many people following very many people, but there appears to be very little debate or exchange of ideas going on. Do you have any idea why that might be? I want to engage with a poetry audience who are up for challenging poetry. Any suggestions?

A new poem published by the delightful people at @ausauthora.bsky.social - I think of it as modern myth-making. See if it resonates with you?

FILM NIGHT - to inspire and organise! Join Hastings People's Party for a community film night or short films and discussion, with contributions from local housing activists. Wednesday 11 February / 7pm / Quaker Meeting House, 5 South Terrace, Hastings

New poem published on new Substack. Read or read and follow. I've included an audio recording as well. open.substack.com/pub/benbruge...

I just published Reading poetry medium.com/p/reading-po...

Excuse the bloody photo. You might like the poem that goes with it and the collection of poems that are available in a downloadable PDF. Enjoy! (And subscribe) From lovely people @thebrokenspine.co.uk open.substack.com/pub/benbruge...

Impeach. Convict. Remove. Now.

Give it another hour or so, and it'll be a year exactly since a WhatsApp message from my sister informed me that our father had died. Speaking of WhatsApp, here's a poem about my (largely textual) relationship with my dad, written roughly 14 months before he passed.

Happy new year.

HNY via Samuel Beckett

Are you interested in a free PDF of poetry to download? How about the latest edition of Harrow House Journal? substack.com/@benbruges/n... And also my new Substack account to follow.

It is an honor to have two new hyper vulnerable poems in the latest issue of SALAMANDER, a journal I’ve been trying to burrow into for a decade. If you need your Bell Jar fix, want to hear about my study abroad to France 20 years ago, or want a splitter explained, read these!

Walking down from the coastal path into Tenby, and came across this blue plaque. I thought I'd share.

If there was a justified humanitarian Zionist movement, it has mutated now into a monster. Perhaps ISIS began by feeding the poor. Perhaps the swastika used to mean "good luck" in Sanskrit but not today. Those who continue to describe themselves as Zionists are ignorant or guilty by association.

Attempting to start a Substack for my poetry. Please subscribe or follow. open.substack.com/pub/benbruge...

I write for my pain to breathe. #healingjourney #writing #poetry #writesky #survivor

My first poetry chapbook, "Talking to Irwin," should be published in 2026 by Kelsay Books. I will be posting about the publication date when available, where the book can be purchased, times and dates for a release event and (hopefully) readings in Louisville, Pittsburgh, and other venues.

"I see literature as activist, particularly the epic forms of literature. It’s great to have lyric poetry that explores the self and identity, but the voice you choose gives you what you see, and if your voice is private, your vision will be private." Alice Oswald in the Paris Review resonates.

Why not read it online? www.theparisreview.org/interviews/8...

Surely one of you has a subscription to the Paris Review and can shoot me a copy of this: Alice Oswald, The Art of Poetry No. 119. Please? Pretty please?

Starmer’s government is letting the hunger strikers die.

Make the mag - print, fold, read.

Excited to share that two new poems of mine are now published in @darkwinterlitmag.bsky.social! Read them both here: www.darkwinterlit.com/post/a-fores...

Over the moon that my poem “Two Headless Snowmen” is in @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social's Winter Anthology! ❄️ Grateful to @matthewmcsmith.bsky.social for my first-ever Pushcart Prize nomination! 🏆

Tomorrow: #PoemsAbout #Money The pressure to perform in pounds. Write the things we buy to feel wanted. Post from Friday. Tag it. Use Alt Text. Prompts: shorturl.at/0Xm7A

I suppose the shortest day / longest night is a thing, a slight end of a dip towards 'getting colder and darker' and the start of 'getting longer and warmer', albeit in the UK we then go through a period of more wet and cold, but ignoring that.

Great concise advice from @dodgingtherain.bsky.social 's Neil Slevin dodgingtherain.com/2016/12/01/_...

'A Tissue of Lies' portrays a speaker grappling with hypervigilance from past trauma, juxtaposed against global fragility exposed by Gaza's conflict. An exploration of life's fragility, the personal and the global. Published in Mobius Magazine. mobiusmagazine.com/poetry/tissu...

Visibility that makes a difference: For £3/month, promote your open calls, workshops, and competitions—while supporting our £5000 #BrokenSpineAward Fundraiser.

The wonders at @thebrokenspine.co.uk have released their Autumn 25 anthology, including a poem of mine - 'A Goring of Butchers' about a life-in-the-day of a younger self who worked in a well-known supermarket. The anthology is available as a free PDF download thebrokenspine.co.uk/product/sele...

Dear Israel, Yes, YOU are the baddies. Love, the entire world.

Once every 20 years or so, the director-general of the BBC is forced to resign for being insufficiently rightwing. Alastair Milne in 1987. Greg Dyke in 2004. Tim Davie in 2025. The great irony is that the BBC was in all cases profoundly biased towards established power. But just not biased enough …

Monday’s got off to a great start with news that Tommy Robinson is suing Nigel Farage 🤣😂👌🏼 This is definitely a case of “may it be brutal, painful, drawn out, eye wateringly expensive and neither man win” 🍿🍿🍺😄

Grifter.

I expect nothing less from the BBC. It has been a conduit for the Israeli propaganda machine since its compromised Panorama reporting of Corbyn's supposed "antisemitic" Labour. Nothing will change until Robbie Gibb, his editorial plants & wider leadership are excised from it. Starmer's govt too.