Nine Delights 2026

Thinking of new kinds of writing exercise for the year ahead -- here's a custom NYT Connections board to get students accustomed to terminal consonance rhymes. connections.swellgarfo.com/game/-OhoMpo...

What a lovely image from Richard Meier's 'After the Miracle', fresh through the post today.

This week in the poetry blogs w/ @johnsiddique.bsky.social @jamesmcconachie1.bsky.social @myheadtheforest.bsky.social @clareshawpoet.bsky.social @alinaetc.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @shotscarecrow.bsky.social @pearlpoet.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/12/poet...

I wrote this essay again, bigger and better, as a way to get me in the mood for 2026. This time I recruited Stephen Spender, Jonathan Miller, John Berger and others to my cause. shotscarecrow.substack.com/p/search-mor...

Watching Lost Hearts (Ghost Stories for Christmas) for the first time, and something went badly wrong with the sound -- all the characters started talking like Regan out of the Exorcist after Abney burned the hurdy-gurdy. Took us a minute to realise it wasn't intentional.

This deep into holidaze I will not be linking anyone tonight but here at least is a not-at-all-rushed edition of the poetry blog digest for your reading pleasure. I think it's a particularly good round-up. But then I think that every week. www.vianegativa.us/2025/12/poet...

Research assistant!

A few snaps from Future Karaoke: Retro Toys and the launch of Calque Press's Ragged Band of Travellers. A great close-out to CWC's 2025 events calendar! #poetry #writing @angliaruskin.bsky.social @anglialt.bsky.social

This week in the poetry blogs with @shotscarecrow.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @emmalee1.bsky.social @wendypratt.bsky.social @richardjnewman.bsky.social @kent-nj.bsky.social @cbeditions.bsky.social @beckyltuch.bsky.social @shawnalemay.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/12/poet...

Do not accept the premise that education is to blame for abysmal jobs outcomes. “The fantasy economy's framing of economic inequality… focuses exclusively on education…deflects attention away from decades of public policies and changing business practices that have…contributed to stagnating wages”

Sorry, Bluesky! I haven't been keeping you up to date with my mini ice-themed advent calendar. Let's catch up; Day 1: "The saddest thing of all ..."

A brilliant idea - and they're 95% of the way to their goal. But it only launches if enough of us join: www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/...

Two days to go! If you're near Cambridge, drop by our book launch to chat with the writers and editors, knock back a tot of rum or wine, and listen to some very weird poems. Details: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-launc...

This week in the poetry blogs w/ @suefinch.bsky.social @velveteenrabbi.bsky.social @linarvitvideopoet.bsky.social @mcrucefix.bsky.social @emmalee1.bsky.social @jwikeley.bsky.social @kimmoorepoet.bsky.social @richardjnewman.bsky.social @shotscarecrow.bsky.social 1/4 www.vianegativa.us/2025/11/poet...

On my way to #Poetry in Aldeburgh. Have got my hands on Ragged Band of Travellers: Writing from the Threshold of Dungeons & Dragons, a new anthology from Calque Press based on our Future Karaoke event series! Also: Sidekick catalogues!

Why write poetry in a crowded field, with AI encroaching? Poetry in Aldeburgh is this weekend, so I've written a reintroduction essay for my website, loosely related to my panel. shotscarecrow.substack.com/p/essay-the-...

Keep the Halloween feels flowing!

Over on Substack, we dive into the process of designing 2018's Batallion. And is that a Halloween Special deal I see mentioned in the first para? sidekickbooks.substack.com/p/cover-proc...

So much to lap up here, as ever!

Finishing a few tasks then heading off to this -- the Transformation Poetry Showcase at Thrive, where I will introduce seven poets.

New poem/brief commentary on Substack: substack.com/home/post/p-...

Tried a new exercise in class today which I'm very pleased with: have one of your characters climb to the highest point within ten miles and look out in all directions. Detail everything they see.

If you're thinking of submitting and want to take up Broken Sleep's suggestion (which you should!) but don't know where to start among their vast and diverse range of titles ... well, 'Unravelanche' is currently the only one of my pamphlets still in print: www.gojonstonego.com/toys/unravel...

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' 🦀

I should have finished this before the start of term -- it's the final part of my big catch-up on the year's creative output so far, this time focusing on New Work. There are lots of pictures! shotscarecrow.substack.com/p/i-goon-mar...

These have arrived, and I am celebrating with a glass of beetroot juice. It's the seventh 10 Poets book! You can get it here: sidekickbooks.com/booklab/book...

Your final reminder, Cambridge! Alice Willitts and Christina Thatcher will be performing their #poetry tonight, at the Recital Hall at ARU. A conversation-led reading, with time for questions from the audience!

Doing a night (well, two hours) of fighting games and #poetry with the students this evening. Here are the ten thematically appropriate poems I've selected for it. gojonstonego.com/blog/2025/10...

It's not just that. In conservative ideology, the sole purpose of art is to confer cultural sophistication and prestige. By definition, it has to be something few can access, or do -- otherwise associating yourself with it does nothing to boost your status.

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

Going over my slides for Tuesday -- it's 'poetry as soapbox' week, which means comparing the styles of Gboyega Odubanjo and Tony Harrison. Hits in a way it didn't before now they're both gone.

Well this is a lovely surprise for @poetrydayuk.bsky.social having my poem 'The Crab Man' 🦀 from 2014 NPC used for close reading / writing prompts on the theme of #play for NPD by @shotscarecrow.bsky.social - this is the right Jon Stone? Hello, and thank you 🙏 poetrysociety.org.uk/wp-content/u...

This year's #nationalpoetryday theme is 'play'! How about a #poem and a #dicegame from the same book? Here's Abigail Ottley's 'The Sea Always Wins' ... 1/2 @poetrydayuk.bsky.social

Start of a new term is hectic, and a little harrowing, but I think I'd be far more heavy-hearted if I didn't get to walk around a buzzing uni full of all different kinds of young people talking, laughing, hanging out, planning where to go next. The bastions of civilisation haven't fallen just yet.

Anyone know of any online lit journals that might want a readymade review of a recent poetry book? I have one going spare.

RIP Tony Harrison.

Are you a fan of expressive short-form videogames? Check out the first Game Poems Community Showcase at gamepoems.org/showcase Please play, share, and leave comments!

"Polanski is adamant that Labour no longer deserves to be thought of as progressive. "The Labour Party is so dead and gone in terms of being a progressive force. You don’t need to be in the Labour Party: @greenparty.org.uk time is now.” www.newstatesman.com/politics/lab...

PR is the only hope for the political future of my country at this point. There is zero chance of a non-far-right part emerging as an election-winning vehicle, thanks to centrists wrecking the joint.

New poster for a new event.

The Whimpering of Lot 49.

"Even among those who speak passionately of reinvigorating it, too many seem to approach criticism as part sorting machine (...) part ritualistic act of obeisance, whereby critics contribute to the aura of respectability enjoyed by a heroic figure." shotscarecrow.substack.com/p/i-goon-mar...

New Substack post (first in months) on running events in Cambridge over the spring/summer. Photo-illustrated, in technicolour! shotscarecrow.substack.com/p/i-goon-mar...

Well, I've spent the morning trying to get Bluesky's card function to load the intended preview image with no luck, but Sidekick's new anthology, 'Ten Poets Prowl the Seas in Search of Plunder' is out next week, and you can pre-order copies now from sidekickbooks.com/booklab/book...

I've part-digitised three on-paper poem RPGs based on three 2022 games I love. You can read/play them here: shotscarecrow.itch.io/micro-rpgs1

A short blog post about some of the earliest stories I wrote, including the entirely unlicensed 'Paddington Goes Swimming' and an eco-terrorist fantasy in which children transform into Zodiac signs: gojonstonego.com/blog/2025/08...

A little 15th anniversary post, with some photos of early Sidekick memorabilia! sidekickbooks.com/booklab/2025...

I'm going to be at Poetry in Aldeburgh this year, on a panel about AI poetry, talking a bit about Sidekick. www.poetryinaldeburgh.org

Typesetting a book of pirate poetry while listening to the Monkey Island theme on a loop yo.