When I saw the theme for this week I thought all my poems are about locked doors! The #poemsabout #lockeddoors gives me the perfect opportunity to reshare my poem "Host", which was published by @viridinelit.bsky.social in its summer issue on Identity @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk

You can read the longlisted piece here (and give it a ❤️ if you fancy!) I even dug up one of my all-time fav digital collages for the occasion (from my currently on hiatus project @NotNormalDesign over on Insta)...! write.walklistencreate.org/wr_writing/t...

Well this is pretty darn cool, Eloise takes 3rd place for the Bath Flash Fiction Award! 😍 I wrote the first draft the day after staying up until 5am-ish UK time watching the US election results roll in, so big shout out to existential dread for inspiring this one 🙌😅 Congrats to the other winners!!

A dazzling love poem from Paul Brookes today. @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social

I am delighted that my #poem Devon Gothic is longlisted for the @walklistencreate.org WRITE ABOUT WALKING IN THE DARK competition. My huge thanks go to WLC & competition judges @marcellenewbold.bsky.social & Damaris West. You can read the poem in the link below 👇 #poetsonbluesky #poetrycommunity

So excited to be longlisted for @walklistencreate.org #Walking #InTheDark competition & in great company with: @sarahraybould.bsky.social @alicestainer.bsky.social @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social @jenratcliffe.bsky.social @elizafevwrites.bsky.social @pdevonald.bsky.social @lauratheis.bsky.social

Dear #poetsonbluesky today I have something really exciting to share with you: The beautiful cover for my @theemmapress.bsky.social children's debut 'Poems from a Witch’s Pocket' designed by the incredibly talented Kate Foster...Pre-orders are open now! theemmapress.com/shop/childre...

Good work sells good work. #CraftOverClout Forget the prize circuits — publish boldly & let real readers do the talking. @katiejenkinspoet.bsky.social's #Trilogy #WifeWidowWitch is proof that integrity & impact will succeed.

You know the door. It doesn’t creak—it clenches. It holds what shouldn’t be let out. Or in. This week: write the barricades. The silences. The don’t-go-there moments. Prompt opens Friday. Tag #PoemsAbout #LockedDoors. Use Alt Text. Inbox prompts? Sign up: shorturl.at/0Xm7A

Dear #PoemsAbout #PromptCombo and poetry friends - you normally see my adult poetry on Bluesky. If you would like to find out more about my children’s stuff, please check this out! 😊 #kidlituk #kidlit #writingforchildren Thanks @littlethoughtspress.com #interview

Reminder: #PoemsAbout #Blood drops Friday. Write into inheritance, rituals, betrayal, transfusion, kinship. Don't post early. Use Alt Text. Tag us or miss out. For deep-dive prompts in your inbox every Saturday: shorturl.at/0Xm7A

As I'm in prose mode right now (stealing a march on my 50k words drafted in November) here's one of mine from #TheEkphrasticReview for @victoriaspires.bsky.social and #PromptCombo #DreamLogic

Hey #promptcombo crew 👋🏼 Thanks to @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social for hosting last week. This week's prompt is #DreamLogic. Tag me & use the #. Replies will be a little sporadic initially, but I know the community will be out in force, supporting each other as ever ☺️

#lifttothesky @artbyseranya.bsky.social For her relentless community support and positivity! Follow her for cool poetry and for her prompt #retroartprompt

A compact #PoemsAbout #BurnfortheCamera today. Will catch up this evening and over the weekend looking forward to seeing interpretations. Here is ‘Lens Work’ A great prompt @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk

RESOURCES / Play as Disruption, Fighting as Intimacy open.substack.com/pub/shotscar... Thank you @shotscarecrow.bsky.social Jon Stone for exploring my poem 'The Crab Man' n your fantastic Substack 'Stray Bulletin' 🦀

#PoemsAbout #BurnForTheCamera starts Friday. Write into overexposure. Lights too hot. Love as theatre. Fame’s funeral. Draft now. Share from Friday. Tag your post. Use Alt Text. Sign up for prompts: shorturl.at/0Xm7A

Textile Street Art Exhibition open.substack.com/pub/eliotnor...

Super excited that this year, after many years of entering without success to @bridportprize.bsky.social , I had 2 of my submitted poems longlisted and 1 of them shortlisted! 🤩 Whoop!! Can't wait to read the winning & highly commended poems, CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL 🚀 bridportprize.org.uk/results/

Bridport Prize starter pack @bridportprize.bsky.social with winners & shortlisted writers including @kitdewaal.com @dreenawriting.co.uk @marcellenewbold.bsky.social @esloudon.bsky.social Please follow & repost the pack & tell me if you want to be included #booksky #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity

Seconding this #lifttotheaky for @marcellenewbold.bsky.social who is just fantastically supportive across multiple platforms & writing amazing poems that really resonate with me, promoting other writers, editing multiple pubs, judging comps & spreading creativity & fab writerliness!! (new word)🤩

@afterpoetry.com’s focus on ekphrastic poetry deserves a #lifttothesky from the #poetrycommunity Submissions open!

I wholly forgot #LiftToTheSky last week! I meant to and now do raise up the learned and irrepressible @zoomburst.substack.com, capo of the long-running Sixty Odd Poets, who did a fab gig at the Colony Room, downstairs at Ziggy Green, Saturday before last. A joy to behold! 🙏❤️ @thebrokenspine.co.uk

Today for #LiftToTheSky we should give a boost to our lovely wee indie presses who are often run by solo enthusiasts wanting to give a voice to lesser known poets. They put in a lot of hard graft to curate anthologies, run social media accounts and workshops and support poets in untold ways. 1/2

Morning @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk In 2016, Scientists at Liverpool Uni worked out that the genetic mutation that led to the peppered moth having black wings, took place in a 10yr window around 1819. Darwin was born in 1809. #PoemsAbout #breakthemould #naturalselection #poetry

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Tendon is now accepting poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and visual art engaging with the politics and poetics of care. For more information, see tendonmag.submittable.com/submit

📚 @wasafirimag.bsky.social x Tagore’s Salon Join us for Writing Through Pain: On Labour and Literature with writers Dur e Aziz Amna & Farah Ali Oct 15 | 7PM | Brick Lane Bookshop A conversation on illness, survival, and the work of writing. 🎟️ bricklanebookshop.org/product/tago...

Send in yer poems!

Our current pamphlet is a joy to read! The economy of language is beautifully precise. Michael Greavy won the most recent Magma Open Pamphlet Competition with the simply gorgeous 'The Man who Made Up Trees'. Get your hands on a copy! magmapoetry.com/publications...

#LiftToTheSky I’d like you to know that this wonderful community of poemsabout and The Broken Spine have been an incredible source of motivation for me in my writing journey and am ever so thankful to you. Your energy and dedication in making this space vibrant is truly appreciated. I… 1/2

A(nother) #Lifttothesky today for the wonderful Carolyn Thomas @carolynthomas.bsky.social for her beautiful poetry and her incredible support for me and all those in the poetry community. With love and thanks 💙

Thanks for tearing it up on last week’s #PoemsAbout. This Friday we shift: #BreakTheMould. Think refusal, escape, iconoclast energy. Start posting Friday—early drops get buried. Use Alt Text. Tag #PoemsAbout to be seen. Sign up for deeper prompts: shorturl.at/0Xm7A

My husband, Robert Guzikowski, has aphasia. These poems are from his book, Unwordly, published by UnCollected Press. #PoemsAbout#ImperfectMe

Late post for #PoemsAbout #ImperfectMe @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk From my book, Lift the Mask, and the piece its title was taken from (this is a photo of the page from the paperback)

Here’s 6am Sunblessed my #PoemsAbout #imperfect. Thanks @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk Have a perfect day! #poetry

For #PoemsAbout #ImperfectMe Posting my effort now but madly busy so will try to catch up with everyone’s work later - the ones I have seen are great 😊 @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk

Morning all, I'm going to be looking through posts later today for #poemsabout & #imperfectme This has taken me back to an old project, 'Flora Speaks' where I created the character Flora to say things I struggle to. Basically she is badass! Thank you 🙏 @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk

#PoemsAbout #ImperfectMe @thebrokenspine.co.uk I will put a reel in the comments.

📣 Fabulous resources below from @poetrysociety.org.uk including a really lovely one on the theme of PLAY by Jon Stone @shotscarecrow.bsky.social 📣

Hello @poetrysociety.org.uk … thank you for posting this! It was a lovely surprise to see The Crab Man out there on NPD! I am writing under my real name now Eleanor Holmes but still @eliot_north on X I wonder who do I speak to about trying to share the Filmpoem I made with Alastair Cook on Socials?

Thank you @poetrysociety.org.uk and Jonathan Edwards for commending ‘You find a fox skull’ in the 2025 Stanza competition! Congratulations to the winner, runners-up and other commended poets! 🙏🏻❤️

🖋️ Enter our Walking “In the Dark” competition! Stories or poems ≤250 words. Winners: writers-in-residence, € cash prize, artwork, limited chapbook. Shortlisted: published & showcase reading. Deadline📅 20 Oct | 💻 wlc.zone/dark

Brian Patten’s ‘Love Poems’ was one of the first poetry collections I bought. His words carry such a gift of connection, seconding this #lifttothesky

Congratulations are also in order for our runners-up, Nairn Kennedy and Jack Houston, as well as our commended poets, Corinna Board, Lucy Heuschen, Katharina Goda, Sam Phipps, Leah Larwood, Will Kemp, Suzanna Fitzpatrick, C.I. Marshall, Di Slaney, and Jacquie Shanahan!

Big thanks for last week’s fierce drops on #PoemsAbout. Next up: #ImperfectMe — bruised reflections, warped mirrors, un-Photoshopped truths. The new theme starts this Friday. Sign up for prompts: shorturl.at/0Xm7A#PoemsAbout.#ImperfectMese Alt Text. Tag #PoemsAbout or get lost in the feed.

Huge shout out to @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social for bringing together such an incredible group of women. I was honoured and humbled to be among them 🙏✨🙌

Here is Formed - my #PoemsAbout #mannequin Thanks @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk Happy Friday! #poetry

#PoemsAbout #Mannequin @thebrokenspine.co.uk #supportlocalbusiness I will put a reel in the comments.

As one window shuts (@iambapoet.com), another opens – and this one's for the whole of October. If you have an 'after' or #ekphrastic poem that's looking for a home, that home could be @afterpoetry.com. So go on. Send it in. afterpoetry.com/submit