When you feel desperate and hopeless try to write a poem. It doesn’t have to be good, because you’ll try it again until one line is alive enough to keep you alive.

Happy New Year to all! Let’s hope for the best for 2026, here is a hopeful poem from Beast.

A photo of me wearing one of my hats, late twenties, by Ron Serlin.

Today is my 72nd birthday! I made it so far, a miracle! Spent the morning at Perranporth Beach, with a wild wind and sea – elemental.

On Saturday 20 December I’ll be 72, it was a year spent doing lots of readings for Beast, 9th collection @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social Also lots of teaching & mentoring.Now working on 10th collection. I love this review by @mabjones.bsky.social in Buzz magazine which totally gets the spirit of Beast

🕰️ With the year coming to an end, we asked a selection of our contributors to give us their favourite poetry books and pamphlets of 2025. Next is Pascale Petit's pick: That Broke into Shining Crystals by Richard Scott (Faber). Thank you, Pascale!

Beast is only £10 reduced from £12.99 – might make a Christmas present? www.amazon.co.uk/Beast-Pascal...

It’s so encouraging that Beast is on the Bloodaxe bestsellers list, 5th for now but for three months it was 3rd! After the blockbusters Benjamin Zephaniah & Staying Alive, which I was very shocked to see. Have now been overtaken by the stupendous Versus Versus & Mahmoud Darwish & in glorious company

Delighted to be a tutor for this exciting new course from @outspokenpress.bsky.social

January - Grief with @no1emily.bsky.social & @pascalepetit.bsky.social February - Parents with @carolinebirduk.bsky.social & Jack Underwood March: Eros with @kimaddonizio.bsky.social & Oluwaseun Olayiwola April: Resistance with Joelle Taylor & @aanaxagorou.bsky.social

I’ll be reading with the amazing Fiona Benson at Push the Boat Out, Edinburgh, 11am on Sunday 23rd November, this weekend. pushtheboatout.org/events/the-m...

Butterflies of the Peruvian Amazon: bluemarks, heliconia, eighty eight, a doctor (large blue) and day flying Urania moths (green ones)

We're delighted to offer a warm programme of comforting events as the air turns colder — from the art of #sourdough #baking and the #healing #wisdom of #animals to gatherings of #poetry, #food and shared #creativity. We invite you to join us here in #Hartland > conta.cc/3J9jUIF

Poets reading @ptbopoetry.bsky.social in Edinburgh 22-23 Nove include @pascalepetit.bsky.social, @marjorielotfi.bsky.social, @jesstraynor.bsky.social, plus an online event with Vidyan Ravinthiran & Arundhathi Subramaniam. There's special event for @rachaelboast.bsky.social's Versus Versus anthology.

Next Friday, @pascalepetit.bsky.social will be reading her poetry at The Resurgence Centre in Hartford, Devon alongside author Jay Griffiths. Tickets available here: www.tickettailor.com/events/there... @resurgencetrust.bsky.social

My next in-person event is in Devon for @resurgencetrust.bsky.social with the incredible Jay Griffiths! 7pm on 14 November at Resurgence Centre in Hartland

Beastly sample www.jellybooks.com/cloud_reader...

Beast is six months old today! Published 24 April. Thank you to @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social my dream publisher, and to everyone who reviewed & interviewed, stocked it and the many launch event organisers who welcomed my 9th collection. More events to come! Special thanks to all the readers!

Animals and healing Friday 14 November, 7—8.30pm GMT The Resurgence Centre, Hartland An evening with poet @pascalepetit.bsky.social and author @jay-griffiths.bsky.social exploring how animals can help us heal Buy a ticket > www.tickettailor.com/events/there... #Animals #Healing #Poetry #Writing

My next reading from Beast @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social is for Tsaá with Roma @romalynante3.bsky.social with the incredible Sarah Howe and Fiona Benson, on Zoom, it’s free but RSVP necessary to join us on 30 October 6pm - 7:15pm. Everyone welcome! www.romalynante.com/event-detail...

On #worldmentalhealthday a thank you to whatever poetry is and what it has done to heal my mental health, hoping poetry heals yours

Photo of me aged 23 modelling one of my hats, taken by dear friend and painter Nicholas Addison, in my bedsit at Muswell Hill just by Ally Pally. Almost 50 years ago! Well, almost 49 years ago. I remember that day so well.

What I’ve been doing this week at Totleigh @arvonfoundation.bsky.social ! The launch week of 2 year Arvon Advanced Writing Programme, Thanks to Zain Rishi for group photo! Non fiction tutor William Atkins, fiction tutor Rachel Seiffert and I’m looking after the five poets.

You have to write for the love, because the publishing process and response can be upsetting, and the accolades so few (especially for poetry) yet there are collections I love that received little attention. But that creative rush is very special – no one can take it away

This afternoon we start with poetry and readings in the church from award winning poets Pascale Petit and Katrina Naomi #northcornwallbookfestival

In @pascalepetit.bsky.social's final, fourth, poem, What Eagle Saw, Petit turns her focus skyward. The eagle hovers above the neonatal ward, her vision both forensic and mythic, maternal and ecological. @rsliterature.bsky.social aftershockpoetry.substack.com/p/what-eagle...

Just added to @pascalepetit.bsky.social Poetic Voice feature in The Book Bag… A micro review with the usual book bag playlist… paulwritespoems.com/2025/09/01/t...

📖 sample to peek inside and share www.jellybooks.com/cloud_reader...

Thank you, Daljit Nagra for choosing Beast as BBC Radio 4 Poetry Extra’s Book of the Month for September. Today at 7am, 12 noon & again at 6pm he reads another poem from my collection Beast, the poem is ‘Murmurations at Roughtor’, at the end of the programme www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

In Catfish, Pascale Petit’s third poem, we are taken back to the very beginning: the hospital ward, the incubator, the first wound of birth. Yet the poem refuses any clinical language. Ihttps://aftershockpoetry.substack.com/p/catfish-by-pascale-petit

aftershockpoetry.substack.com/p/catfish-by... @rsliterature.bsky.social @pascalepetit.bsky.social

September news: New books from @poetclare.bsky.social, @jesstraynor.bsky.social & @emiliejelinek.bsky.social; prize news for Matthew Caley, Kris Johnson & Niall Campbell; radio & podcasts for @pascalepetit.bsky.social & Greta Stoddart; Ruth Fainlight film premiere. mailchi.mp/263b340dbcf3...

My Hummingbird Father is one year old today! Published 15 Sept 2024. I’d like to thank everyone who made it happen, who supported my first novel & especially all the readers & reviewers. Massive thanks @chrisemery.me and Jen @saltpublishing.com and to my agent @joncurzon.bsky.social

Well that’s incredible, I wrote 24 poems in 27 days in Paris, one of which is 7 pages and one day when zi wrote 7! I’m halfway through 10th collection. Tomorrow I return with a one day general strike in Paris & tube strike in London! Hope I get home to Cornwall. wish me luck

A lovely surprise: Beast is Daljit Nagra’s Book of the Month for September for BBC Radio 4 Extra’s Poetry Extra. Yesterday he read my poem ‘The Pelts of Animals’, at the end of the programme, and later in the month he’ll read another poem from Beast. You can listen here www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

That’s ridiculous I wrote first drafts of seven poems today and I’d had a bad night and didn’t feel well. Now have one third (at least) of tenth collection!

Well here we are. September. So that means it's time to share another Poetic Voice. This month I am thrilled and amazed to be sharing the work of... A multi-prize-winning poet and genuine great of the poetry community. The excellent Pascale Petit.

So happy to feature the excellent @pascalepetit.bsky.social as part of The Book Bag: Poetic Voices monthly feature. It is a real honour 📚💼

Aramis and Simara the jaguars are still in love and she’s the boss, he follows her around. He’s 14 now, I remember him when he arrived at the Jardin des Plantes Fauverie aged 2. Vincennes Zoo enclosure not big enough but they have each other.

I’m writing my 10th collection. The title poem’s a long one in haiku form & I started it months ago but had neither time nor headspace to continue. Spent a whole yr teaching & promoting 2 new books. Excited to say I’ve now written 7 key poems in. Paris & solitude does that for me. I am so happy!

Good morning! Beast could do with more ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ratings / reviews, if you read it and enjoyed it I’d be so grateful, poetry does not get many and they really help poets sell books 📚 www.amazon.co.uk/Beast-Pascal...

The view from my tiny balcony in the attic. I’m on top 5th floor opposite main entrance to Sorbonne, Marie et Pierre Curie campus. 5 mins walk from Jardin des Plantes. I’ve bought a year pass to zoos & museums £62 which means I can walk there everyday especially in the Ménagerie. There’s no lift!

I'll be reading at #northcornwallbookfestival on Sat 27 Sept with @pascalepetit.bsky.social & running a workshop on writing from the body on Sun 28 at 10 am. Booking open now via #endelientaarts endelienta.org.uk/whats-on/ncb... #poetry #batteryrocks #danceasif #beast #poetryincornwall #festival

Almost reached Paddington, journey from Cornwall to London takes twice as long as Eurostar to Paris, my next destination! Severe weather warning there, heatwave, let’s see if I survive attic with no air con but tiny balcony

I’ll be reading from My Hummingbird Father & Beast on 27 Sept for #northcornwallbookfestival at 1pm, with @katrinanaomipoet.bsky.social do come along, bookings open. Doing a fiction workshop at 3:45 @saltpublishing.com @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social endelienta.org.uk/whats-on/ncb...

Take a look inside our 2026 Yearbooks! There's an abundance of writing and publishing guidance inside our 2026 editions, and we've published a selection of abridged articles from some of the authors and industry professionals who've contributed. Enjoy! www.writersandartists.co.uk/advice/intro...