Writer giggles in Marseille.

Marseille here we go!

Entering the dentist,new tagline on the door: 'your smile, our passion.' Can we please stop with the corporate coded bilge waffle? You're a dentist, that's quite sufficient. I do not need you to be passionate, simply competent.

Performing tomorrow at Stockbridge Cricket Club at 1530, as part of Irish culture day, which kicks off at 1230, featuring craic agus ceoil, so music, dance, pints, art, and fun. Welcome along. www.ireland.ie/en/gr... #poetry #writingcommunity #art #writing #literature #books

There's something very weird about getting a bus home, then ordering a pizza that is delivered in a private car. I mean hey, why can't my pizza pick me up?

Guy who argues gun controls are bad, dies because there are no gun controls. Yeah, from Europe, 20 years ago we signed condolence books... At this point... It's fairly obvious why this happens, and unless you act to prevent it, our response is now: 'well, duh!'

Ahhhhnd home.

There is definitely something substantially less cool and more childish about vapes, when compared to a cigarette.

You know, I'm really looking forward to 14 degree weather!

Instead of tours, which I despise and ignore, I'd love, say, a no frills minivan, picks you up every two days, moves your bags to the next two days stop, and nothing else. Hotel/apartment pickup/drop off. Just that.

I appear to have become art, courtesy of my friend Raj

One of these days I'm going on holiday somewhere without mosquitoes

Well, it's finally happened. I went for a delicious three hour meal (I'm on holiday), and went, you know what, I'm going to go home and read. I can see jazz tomorrow.

When a person is a dick to a pigeon, I know that person is a dick.

When a person is a dick to a pigeon, I know that person is a dick.

When I was a child, the peach from James and the giant peach really freaked me out.

In the words of a great scholar, Palermo tomorrow, Palermo tomorrow, Palermo tomorrow, Yahoo.

No one should be allowed into politics unless they've spent six months working in a minimum wage job.

I often think of the tragedy of Bewleys deciding to try to go global, enter Japan, and how the mad corporate strategy destroyed an institution that was central to Irish artists for generations. The loss is unending.

And that's the new @thedarkhorsemag read. All in, one of the most enjoyable journal reads in years. Some disagreement, some poems I didn't rate (natural), but fun & rollicking. Essays on Thomas & Carruth's poetry the highlight, as is its critique of ideological banality. Bravo.

For what it's worth, if you like taylor swift, and you're over 12, you need to grow up.

Don P. Is a lot more outspoken nowadays. It's a good thing. @donpatersonpoet

Excellent piece by Jim Carruth @jim08218867

The world is worse for the fact that 90% of people dress like they went thrift shopping for house clothes at an Arctic gardening fête with a pyjama party theme. Shoe choice also languishes, cleaving to the style common at a four year old's birthday party in a 90s MacDonald's.

Finding international #poets on #BlueSky, some of you are also finding me. Welcome! I skeet mostly in Dutch, but promise I will use English too. Meanwhile, let me show you my favourite translation @astridalben.bsky.social made of my work: www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poe... . #poetry #poems

After you finish a book, there's this sort of brain hiatus, where you're simply emptied, and all you do is kind of wander around happily, enjoying life. Then, when a few months pass, the need returns, and the cauldron once again bubbles. It's lovely, like the turning seasons.

Amused to read of Heaney's letters: 'He liked Bill [Clinton] as he did "all capable dealers and dogers."' Credit for the scholarship in reading is due to Maurice Riordan, whose work I'm reading in @darkhorsemag.

For some reason, 'AI' spambots have decided to send me a different daily email about my second book, telling me that they are in fact a real person ready to take my '23 published work to the stratosphere with book clubs, if only we connect. I'm still unsure why. Poetry /= money

Och, just learned, after John Burnside's death, St. Andrews moved to discontinue @Agendapoetry -- a big loss. Living history, co-founded by Ezra Pound, gone. Luckily, & sadly, I had the fortune of being published in what ultimately became Agenda's last issue. #writing #poetry

Just read Edna Longley's essay in @thedarkhorsemag Excellent read it was. My continued sympathy to her too, for his passing.

10am Sunday checkouts are a tad overly fun shy presbyterian in this day and age.

Just had dinner in the world's largest treehouse.

Meanwhile, in Northumbria

Thank you oh wonderful Barter Books of Alnwick

Another immensely dumb thing about 'AI' users... You reply in a long discussion & answer questions in a detailed way. They clearly read the AI summary, then ask you questions you've just answered. If you're going to ask a question, you have an obligation to read the answer.

The Lapwing, written in memory of seven months in Syria, it seems apt now, too. Wonderfully published in @NorthGravy and their excellent new anthology. See below for details. Delighted to feature. #poetry #writingcommunity #art #writing #literature #books

The Souq of Aleppo, written in memory of seven months in Syria, it seems apt now, too. Wonderfully published in @NorthGravy and their excellent new anthology. See below for details. Delighted to feature. #poetry #writingcommunity #art #writing #literature #books

One thing that really separates me from modernity is that when most people get a tune in their head, it's something poppy. For me... Well I just spent a few minutes trying to remember... The Britannia coconut dancers' Nut Dance.

There's something very uncanny valley about those who stick motivational quotes on their walls. They look human, but the quotes are a dead giveaway they aren't. This counts double for any employing the rule of three.

Years ago, people understood David Brent was a caricature of one of the most cringeworthy human types. Today, people use 'AI' to talk like David Brent and they think it's wonderful.

Had the unusual pleasure of doing a podcast a little different to what I've done before, leaning into the journalism and finance world in which I work. Outside of art, of poetry, I've always been in the other chair :) so my thanks to Vineet! An eclectic ride! podcasts.apple.com/u...

Thinking about the big tech boom... There's something I missed. They only transformed into crazy villains after they all embraced burning man and mushrooms. Most people have an experience of unity and joy, I now wonder if big tech people found the opposite.

There is no queue at the four open tills in Tesco, or rather one person deep at each. There is a 25 person deep queue entirely consisting of under 25 year olds at the self service part. Why are they lining up pointlessly to do more work? What's the point?

Thoughts. Magpies and squirrels have a unique relationship. People who drink food (Huel) have prioritized the wrong things. Over 30s people... Have you forgotten that shoes exist? Not everything has to function like a duvet. Goslings rule, & swans are excellent parents.

Yes, having a full volume video chat on speaker with no headphones on a bus is just as ignorant as playing music loudly on a bus without headphones.

Palermo in September, Palermo in September, Palermo in September. Excited!