I will never understand people who do not stop and smell the roses.

Whoever decided everything art related needed forms needs punishing. It's not important 'what the public takes away' from live performance. Nor 'who' the artist is. All that matters is quality & craft. If you think other things ought to be foregrounded, you're a charlatan.

Molecules Unlimited is setting up an online poetry journal! Issue one submissions are open for unpublished work of any length. The closing date is July 15th & the theme is HEART. Poems need to impinge on the chemical sciences in some way. Please submit to [email protected] & spread the word 😊

Honestly, the world (and art) would be much improved if the big presses (Penguin et al.) committed to only publishing writers with a minimum of two books and 50 journal credits under their belts.

"I have sewed a new garden fertilized by ash, The remains of a scorched hive of bees, And I offer their bodies as a sacrifice." New work just published: 'Hunger in the Yarrow Stalk.' In Twenty-Two-Twenty-Eight. #writing #publishing #poetry #art #writingcommunity

Basil fried bread stuffed with an egg, topped with red pepper cottage cheese sauce, topped with paprika tofu, topped with sauerkraut, topped with soy honey fried mushrooms.

Ah joy, my council tax just came through. I just love paying council tax. I always know that my overpriced annual contribution to the city is well spent, largely avoids bureaucratic bloat, and provides the vital services we all need. Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

"I am become the tender fuchsia tree, As it sings its grapples upwards, In delicate stretches, Each soon to turn thick bark." New poetry just published in TwentyTwoTwentyEight. One of two pieces. www.twentytwotwentye... #poetry #writingcommunity #art #literature #writing

Life is better when you buy an Irishman's book. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/... #writing #writingcommunity #poetry #art

Hello Inverness

A corrolary of the 'ai' imbroglio in lit yesterday is tied to Claude Shannon's Information Theory, or the surprisal, which loosely states that, say, a sentence is most informative when balanced between the known/anticipated & the unknown/random. It shows the way forward 1/10

There's a reason this kind of stuff passed muster at the competition we all know just gave this a prize. It ties neatly into a neo Victorian recontextualization of art as the vehicle for demonstrating the 'practitioner's' adherence to a moral/cultural zeitgeist. This is the end result.

Granta. Deary me. I'm curious what the response will be.

I just woke up very early from a dream involving a depressed man with an ankle injury rallying old friends, including (post apocalypse world) the ghanean cider queen, to take io her inherited mantle as leader of 1/2 remaining Christian faiths... They had a Jesus cider sing along.

Strange when you think about the volume of work, as a published poet, you end up with out of print - after a book run ends, or a press closes. I'm at 58 individual poems & a book o.o.p, & 221 & a book still 'live,' and readable or purchasable.

For those, like me, who despise the strange tower of Sauron replacement for the lovely Stephen's Green Centre, I just got this from the Dublin council. Shame they require a fifty quid fee to object, but the link is here: www.pleanala.ie/en-i...

There is something simultaneously wholesome, and rather amusing about a flock of ducks quacking loudly as they fly at night.

Just experienced an existential longing for a Govindas on Aungier Street, Dublin. Why oh why did you have to close??????

Scumbags

Read this. Just read it.

Why is it some people wear short jackets, with high trousers, but a long untucked shirt? It looks like a strange garish bib dangling ever onward. Surely they can consult a mirror and either tuck it in or, if they must, at least wear a longer coat?

One of the best 'little big' things I think we could do at a provincial/national/supra-national level is create a full-fledged collective purchasing system for our industries, giving every individual & small business the same bargaining power as multi-nationals. 1/10

A neighbour of mine in Edinburgh drives this. It's twice as big as a normal car. It's never in the countryside. It definitely says something about them.

Man can not live on cereal alone.

Barry's tea is by far the best breakfast tea.

I don't know... I get it's morally wrong, but if you're worth €1.5 billion & your chief of staff nicks €1 million over 8 years, maybe just let it go? It's the equivalent of someone nicking three quid from the average person. Annoying, wrong, aye, but...

Not having stepped into a retail bank in a while they really have gone down hill. Chipped paint, half the customers look zombified, and all the staff wear runners.

Delighted to say, had a nomination for the Erbacce Prize, for the second time. Wonderful to be listed again, as a poet. www.erbacce-press.co...

I have two demented (virgin 50 year old aggro violent aspie brothers) downstairs neighbours. One of my other neighbour's sons went to school with them. They're wannabe thugs, but very bad at it. They also pick terrible times for attempted intimidation. Weird people.

It is likely more pleasing to live several decades as a myriad of bugs than it would be to be reincarnated as a handbag Chihuahua named Mitzi.

Has anyone ever checked if the Tv license bureau pays its Tv license?

Ah, I tell you, a couple of quiet pints by the sea with a good book, then walking home by the cherry blossom trees... Beautiful

Largely as I haven't said it for a few weeks: trump is an arsewipe fuckweasel. If you, in any way, like trump, you are an arsewipe's arselicking fuckweasel.

Gym people... The human cohort least likely to contribute to an improvement of the common weal, most likely to be a pain in the hole, the last thing we, or the human race needs is your self-improvement. It was better when you were quiet and obsessively eating chicken dippers.

One of the biggest problems with the rise of spoken word, 'own truth', 'authenticity' types in literary culture is timing. They've left a hollowed out mess, just when we needed ('ai') a strong, intelligent, & erudite core.

Christ, it's a glorious day in Edinburgh

Words that make me want to read a book: ambitious, experimental, creative, playful, beautiful. Words (and phrases) that make me decide to never read a book: trauma, self-discovery, personal, 'lived experience,' authentic, 'own truth,' and healing.

It is lovely to spend an evening with good friends.

Absolute scumbag. Confirmed as fake by Ballyscullion: www.facebook.com/sha... Apparently doing the rounds. As a poet, a festival like this could make a huge difference. Parasites like this Rosalind need punishing. Also, fyi Becky Tuch

When there's 'no food' in the house.

Finished three books this last week and a bit, one excellent, one very fun, one utterly dire. Wolf Solent was spectacular. Mehmed, the Hawk was loads of fun. Kavan's Ice... Deary me what self indulgent tripe.

Have to hand it to the @NewYorker on this one. Phenomenal reporting:

My lack of engagement with meme culture always makes me feel better when I encounter meme culture. It's like encountering a nomadic tribe that embraces leprosy as a spiritual means for growth. Whenever I see them, I think: "Ah, fuck yeah, I'm glad I don't have leprosy."

Heavenly

Orban is out. Yahoo!!!!

Orban is out. Uahoo

"I was appalled by the way trauma has been instrumentalised ... particularly around the very basis of their politics ... the gentrification of pain." Only listened to the first three minutes (have to subscribe to listen further), but thus far, I agree.

Was looking at descriptions of events at a few literary festivals there. So many contained: X's work has "explored" shame and identity. Can we have a year without literary events being stuffed with people who 'explore' shame, identity, and trauma? One year about art? Please.

I have zero respect for anyone who says who a person is should in any way influence whether or not their work should receive institutional support. One criteria matters: quality. Solipsism is not a quality.

Ah it's good to have a pint in the Dublin local.