the apotheosis of Christmas joy is the cat killing its new toy with such an excess of cattish viciousness she has to rest 27.XII.25

How delicately a Romanesque angel uses the lightest touch of a finger to wake one of the magi, snuggled with the other 2 under their embroidered circular blanket at St Lazare, Autun, c1130 (& how beautifully the textures of pillow & blanket are represented). Season's greetings to you all!

In honour of the late Chris Rea here's me performing "Driving Home For Christmas" for the last time at The Andy Kim Christmas show in 2023 RS youtu.be/io38roENXr8?...

The Big Shop has ended many a relationship. Some collapse in the freezer aisle, some falter among the cake ingredients, or fizzle out among the condiments. But, my dearest love, this year we made it safe to the free from.

an old Christmas poem-embed to solve (III)

an old Christmas poem (II)

an old Christmas poem (I)

the tree now it’s time to relate the annual autobiography of baubles, birds, reindeers and skew-whiff fairies, kept safe in the loops of the soft white lights 24.XII.25

the sound will find a way through the gordian knot of my headphones so long as I can trick the buds to stick in my ears a story will send me to sleep 23.XII.25

Spotted in Govan. Spotter: Maura Currie

All roses and shadow, This place, and sleep Like dusk sifts down From trembling leaves. ~Sappho (tr. Guy Davenport)

Edward Gorey

A final post for the year - Books of 2025 - from contributors of Moving Mountains: Writing Nature Through Illness & Disability, along with friends & allies. #DisabilitySky #NatureWriting #BookSky open.substack.com/pub/louiseke...

My memoir essay on Stonypath, Little Sparta, in latest issue of The Little Review. thelittlereviewuk.substack.com/p/growing-up...

even more let’s agree let’s agree there are always cold spots, which is why there must always be blankets let’s agree, first they steal the land, then they build a wall, then they’re ‘surrounded by enemies’

Pantone just updated their Color Of The Year

My contribution. 'Black Birds'.

"The lives of the Palestine Action-affiliated remand prisoners now on hunger strike are at growing risk. On Friday, two reached day 48 without food. (In 1981, one IRA prisoner – 29-year-old Martin Hurson – died on the 46th day.)" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This years festive poem.

let’s agree on a seasonal arrangement of kale let’s agree joy is in C major let’s agree that, being a dweeb, she made the ‘ask me’, ‘ask me’, noise in class let’s agree that when a country can’t trust it’s rivers everything’s gone to shit let’s agree the road begins in your head

A singular page out of Henri Michaux’s _Ideograms in China_, translated by Gustaf Sobin. “No longer to imitate, but signify nature. By strokes, darts, dashes.” And: “The sign in Chinese . . . no longer in any way mimetic, has [in a hauntingly canny phrase] the grace of its own impatience.”

We set out the case for partly devolving immigration here. reidfoundation.scot/2024/11/devo...

mesostic herbarium

meaow the enlightened zen master Chōdō sat with cats, yet, no insight can make up for the fact that he beat them when they left 19.XII.25

for Christine, in a time of illness remembering the greeny jersey I praised when we met, minding the holes since, let us praise the work of darning 18.XII.25

let’s agree the new politics is fight club in a fright wig

The spectacle of Labour anxiously waiting for May is going to be quite something

for JWA God has ordained that for the duration of the carols service the heating will be on 17.XII.25

after the Many’oshu I’ve asked the hill to make snow and – right around now – the flakes should fall on you 16.XII.25

Scotland needs an institute that will look after cultural archives that are currently considered quirky, difficult or outsider.

Nazism and cocaine are a dangerous combination

facts, friends, ice is ice when drops of water hold together in the cold 15.XII.25

We are all John Sweeney.

This is the desert of the real. The Wachowskis called it. But like Bernie says, no one wants this. Folks are organizing in amazing ways.

a retrospect, after Daio Bodyscan, mindfulness, breathworks, good things let wounds rush in. What healing is, is remembering– diving & diving in the secret lochan and the feeling of the smolts nibbling my toes at Camasvrachan. 14.XII.25

A new piece on paper boats, The Gowdie Hillock, translations of Palestinian place-names into Scots. paperboats.org/2025/11/12/g...

Another point I made on Scotland Tonight on Wednesday, though given tight timeslot I didn't add that parties of centre shifting right on immigration is what raises the salience of such issues and then encourages their voters to vote for "stronger" voice on that. Result today further proof in pudding

Credit where credit’s due, this is great from Sarwar

'The world has not known what to do with IHF’s rage because he was so gifted in finding forms to reveal and camouflage it. After one quarrel, an old friend sent an olive branch from Delphi in a bid for reconciliation.' www.thelittlereview.co.uk/shop/p/issue...

after Liu bow you tie bow you play bow you sail bow you bow bow you woof! woof! woof! 12.XII.25

@billymills.bsky.social - Remembering the great poet, translator, anthologist, Jerome Rothenberg (1931-2024) on the anniversary of his birth - allenginsberg.org/2021/12/s-d-....

Tomorrow's front page 📰 'The UK is letting these people die'

never forget that between the givers and takers there are the fakers and the makers 11.XII.25

Critics argue that the ECHR stops us from being able to deport illegal migrants. In reality, in 75 years the ECHR has only ruled against the UK in 13 cases out of 500k: 0.000026%. The ECHR is being used a scapegoat for domestic challenges, and we must defend it.

The McPolanski Effect, equal polling with reform in Scotland.

Leveson II, sure to be my favourite sequel. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/d...

Tartan Army reduced to platoon.

I read the Sandie Peggie ruling. Here are nine key points the media missed out www.thenational.scot/news/2568550... 'Across Tuesday’s front pages, the 312-page ruling [on Sandie Peggie vs NHS Fife] was presented as a clear “win” for the nurse – despite the fact she lost on 43 of her 47 allegations'