www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s... ...'what is this verb?' Fabulous!

🔴 NEW - Why you should leave X Here’s the sad truth: Twitter no longer exists. X is something else entirely. It’s a megaphone for extremism, controlled by a deranged oligarch. 📝 latest Substack 👇🏻

The title of John White's #ekphrastic poem deceives. Is it about office life? Or just life? 'We floated, avatars of the open plan, by night rehearsing in the snooker dens each with a cue trained over a pack of Bensons like an extension of him, holding a heron ... ' afterpoetry.com/poem/sep-07-...

Postscript by Seamus Heaney who died twelve years ago today

This week's column. The details will make you gasp and rage. This massive desecration of nature is almost unbelievable, but it is happening in the UK right now. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Extract from 'No one wants what I want' by @troycabida.bsky.social , published in Issue Seven. Read the full poem here: andotherpoems.com/2025/08/04/n... #poetry #poems #poemoftheday

Extract from 'Way of Going' by @johncraigwhite.bsky.social , published in Issue Seven. Read the full poem here: andotherpoems.com/2025/08/04/w... #poetry #poem #poemoftheday

Issue Seven is now live! We are so excited to share this brilliant issue with you all. Thank you to all the poets who submitted. Read the full issue here: andotherpoems.com/issue-seven/ #poetry #poems

Some really good stuff in the latest edition of Acumen (112), including this one from my old colleague from Oxford Stanza 2 and Poetryworthhearing - Kathleen McPhilemy.

I'm grateful that @atriumpoetry.bsky.social have accepted one of my poems, due to be published in December. I always enjoy reading Atrium poems as they appear through the year. Thanks for big the support to poetry offered by @clairewalkerpoetry.bsky.social and @hollyannepoet.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j... Every so often Carol Rumen, for her weekly Guardian column, comes up with a poem that blows my mind. She's done it again this week ...

My copy of Issue 35 of Under the Radar just popped through my letterbox, and there it is, in print, to lift the spirit. And among such good company!

Really pleased to get one of my own pieces into this edition, a poem about the day my mother died. Many thanks to the team at Under the Radar.

Under the Radar Issue 35 is printing as I type, so line up your 'hot off the press' copy now: ninearchespress.com/shop#!/Under... A digital copy straight to your inbox is also available. Or consider taking out a subscription? Thanks to all our contributors, reviewers and readers.

I have just listened to a Marvel Comic cut-out, Pete Hegseth, declare that no other country on Planet Earth could have conducted that military operation yesterday. What other planet might he have in mind? I think we should be told.

I've just discovered the joys of the Merlin app (birdsong identifier) ... that's my Saturday morning taken care of! The sky here is filled with magpies, rooks and red kites, but there's all these other little creatures chirping away all around us, a right parliament of them.

I don't know how likely this unfolding is, but everyone should read it and decide for themselves. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. medium.com/@aletheisthe...

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... ... an interesting article, this. Though he doesn't mention it, I can't help thinking it's author must also have read Les Murray's great poem, 'The Quality of Sprawl'.

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c... This is a great listen - the author of 'Being a Beast' (Charles Foster) turning his attention to human society, and how/when we got it wrong. The answer: a very long time ago!

Am I alone in finding it nrar-impossible to concentrate on poetry, with the growing threat of WW3 bulldozing on? We're in late 1930s territory now. How do we respond, and stay relevant?

Brutal.

Digging through some of my former scribblings last night, I found a completed attempt at an old Welsh verse form with the most prescriptive / insane syllable count: each stanza went 1-3-9-5-7. It also rhymed, of course: aabbx. Does anyone know what the form is called, or was I just a little mad?

President Macron humiliated Donald Trump on live television. He shut him up and fact checked him mid sentence. Trump sat there and smiled. #StandWithUkraine

www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48459/... Things are marching again - a timely poem, this ...

Yorkshire Times Poem of the Week: 'Return to Newport' by Paul Henry @serenbooks.bsky.social yorkshiretimes.co.uk/article/Poem...

www.theguardian.com/environment/... I may be unworldly but I find this article shocking.

BBC One - Michael Longley - Where Poems Come From search.app/PtwvJzHapJdW... I've watched this charming programme twice since his death last week, the second time because I wanted my partner to see it. Another Longley fan gained, needless to say.

Musk ‘salutes’ his fans whilst parading Tesla’s through a 1930’s German town

The great Michael Longely has died. We have lost a poet of immense stature. This recent BBC doc will give you a flavour of how he made made words sing: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Farewell, Michael Longley. One if the true greats.

We can all do this today as a minimum I think. I’d left mine dormant but have deactivated now - would be great to see X lose hundreds of thousands of users this week

So X is the new swastika after all.

Great night yesterday in Steeple Aston's pub for my pamphlet launch. Thanks to all who came.

Coming up soon in North Oxon. something to blow away the January Blues. All welcome.

For New Year, here's typically lightly-worn wisdom from one of the greatest poets of any age (Elizabeth Bishop) on the point of art, writing etc. ...This.

Are you stuck in that dead zone between Xmas and New Year, wondering what life's all about? Why not pick up a classic, like this one, a madcap yarn both gently philosophical and VERY funny. Its author grew up in the same street as my father's father, in Strabane. (I wrote a poem about that once.)

Extraordinary @theipaper piece: Ofwat has fined water companies a total of...£2 since 2021 for breaching regulations. “Failure to regulate has contributed to catastrophic underinvestment in our sewage infrastructure & destruction of our rivers." (Nick Measham) Damn right. inews.co.uk/news/water-c...

Happy Solstice everyone. 3 poems for you today: the 1st my own & one each from @johncraigwhite.bsky.social and Stephen Keeler. Yes it's the 1st day of The 12 Days of Christmas feature from Ink, Sweat and Tears. Thanks @helenivory.bsky.social & Kate & Zhara for putting this together & including mine

Delighted 'Ink Sweat & Tears' has chosen my poem Misper for its '12 Days of Christmas'. Thanks @helenivory.bsky.social & congrats also to @abigailottley.bsky.social, @ruthaylett.bsky.social, @paulmcgrane.bsky.social, @hannahl1n.bsky.social, @katenoakes.bsky.social & @johncraigwhite.bsky.social. Yay!

Coming next month, to beat the January Blues ...

Choose 20 books that have influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. Day 3/20 #BookSky

‪‬Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #Books #BookSky #BookChallenge

Hello, if you like #RSThomas then you might be interested in following this Bluesky account @RSThomaspoet, also facebook.com/groups/RSThomas/ - share his poems, quotes, events, info, Q+A, etc. - and there’s a Society you can join… rsthomaspoetry.co.uk/rs-thomas-me-eldridge-society/ please re-post?

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #Books #BookSky 💙📚 #BookChallenge

Here's a poem from last night (by Harry Man) that really made me smile. Apologies to any Ed Sheeran fans out there...

Just back from a great evening at the Oxford Poetry Library with readings from Carrie Etter, Harry Man, Claire Crowther & Jenny Lewis. Packed house despite the gale outside. Reading Harry's book on the bus home.

Just back from a great evening at the Oxford Poetry Library with readings from Carrie Etter, Harry Man, Claire Crowther & Jenny Lewis. Packed house despite the gale outside. Reading Harry's book on the bus home.

poetryschool.com/t-s-eliot-wr... I always find these TS Eliot Prize Writer's Notes from the Poetry School interesting. Here, Rachel Mann says: 'I usually find the poem behind the "seeming poem" in the editing.' Quite.