This year, I am posting a few published poems while I finish some of my backlog of new work! Here are two contrasting summer poems, 'Crops', from 'Gallop', my Selected Poems, & 'Sunday on the Coach' from 'Thorpeness', my last collection, both from @carcanet.bsky.social. Happy midsummer!

Last traces of the longest day! From a fair, but fantastically warm evening, a very Good Night!

It's often said that blackbirds stop singing in July... Our current blackbird, which loves digging in the mulch around the trees, rewards us by singing IN the garden. So I thought I would try to record it- but it only sang when challenged by a distant power tool! From our varied homes, Good Morning!

Excellent radio series from which, I'd guess,most listeners could learn much! Classical music was not played in my childhood home, so my knowledge has many gaps. Fascinated that the magnificent services in Lincoln Cathedral were at 1st not heard by lay people! Series editor @emmaharding.bsky.social

Yes, I am speckled and spotted... but fully prepared to grow into a robin! There are 3 of us in this garden, in varied stages of spottedness. But this incompetent poet had her phone off when we obligingly lined up on the garage! There are 70 starlings in a local park! Are you a host to young birds?

From the garden's joyfully wet morning! A damp, enthusiastic young robin prepares for a foraging dive into a garage gutter, while a young red maple swims in its gleaming reflection... Have a good afternoon!

So many good poets!Including @zoebrooks.bsky.social @daydreamacademy.bsky.social @hannahcopley.bsky.social @kymdeyn.bsky.social @gosspoems.bsky.social @godzillakent.bsky.social @adamhorovitz.bsky.social @jlmmorton.bsky.social I could & should go on, but I'm there throughout & hope to hear all!

Good news! A brilliant new festival at Stroud,Gloucestershire @dobunni.bsky.social I'm honoured to be headlining with @pascalepetit.bsky.social. Looking forward to hearing this galaxy of poets.The Early Bird ticket,now on sale,admits you to over 15 readings! See you in Oct.. SEARCH DOBUNNI TICKETS!

Good morning! I discovered last night that the Frog is still in charge of the back garden. It does not care for the watering - which I would rather not do, but which helps to keep its tangled empire alive (& the flowers for bees, butterflies etc)! Do you have wildlife dilemmas?

A very rosy wild rose - surviving the gales on Crickley Hill, Gloucestershire @gloswildlife.bsky.social . Do you think this is a Briar Rose, please? Many-petalled thanks!

Finally, proof-reading @brianbilston.bsky.social : 'because we know the evil is in the detail and you can never be too through' Aargh!

The only advice I would tentatively offer @brianbilston.bsky.social is how to avoid 'that great big yawning void of vacancy', the blank page. Make sure, when an idea does drift your way, that the only paper in the kitchen is a shopping list. Or one of those mingily small pre-printed envelopes...

From 'Index of Poems...' 'Whither the linnet?' I may have written that one. I think I need, as Brian kindly suggests, a Poetic Licence ...

I wonder if the bookshop assistant who served me often sees @brianbilston.bsky.social 's book in the hands of people shaking with laughter.. (Warning: they're probably poets).Here's one sixth of his dietary year: Starch Cakepril... It gets more & more appetising. Unless you're a cardiologist...

Dear X, I bought this book for you. But first, of course, I read it through ...and promptly stopped penning lame couplets. I treated @brianbilston.bsky.social 's delicious yellow book to coffee & pud at the pub. In return, highlights follow! Skip these posts, dear X...

In various ramblings on Gloucestershire's high hills and in its deep woods, I have failed to see an orchid this year. So where is this? The grounds of a Malmaison hotel in central Cheltenham! A fine pyramid orchid? Perhaps a survivor of the grassy slopes of the first, failed spa George III knew!

A glimpse of Ledbury Poetry Festival! Old flags... and an exciting new programme. I'll be there Friday- Sun, 26-28 June. Look forward to the readings & to meeting fellow audience members. Perhaps I'll see you there? Very best midsummer wishes!

Here are radiant drifts of what @gloswildlife.bsky.social calls 'Britain's rarest buttercup'!The Badgeworth buttercup, in Glos' 1st nature reserve,put on a fine show for its open day! Its tiny enclosure is almost Britain's smallest trust reserve. Norfolk has 1 thorn bush! Do you have a local rarity?

Apologies again to British readers! The villagers (some of whom never owned a watch) have cheerfully mastered time zones. After we reposted yesterday, they were delighted to gain new readers. They also apologise for those song lyrics,NOT from our village, but somewhere nameless. (Really, Redbourne!)

'Village', my non-fiction prose book, is now 1 year old - & FREE to download today Sun 7 Jun. You can read of village generosity in this extract! 'Village's' Notes give live links to song performances & lyrics, like these. Spot the verse which Percy Grainger decided NOT to publish!

Apologies to my British readers - I'll repost the villagers' thanks due to Amazon's range of time zones! Click on the text pages & meet a baby -& learn the exact age of the cheerful young villager in the song! Did Alfred Bateman, who told a collector he'd forgotten it,in fact recall it all too well?

'Village', my non-fiction prose book, has been out for a year.The villagers warmly thank all friends- some have left generous stars on Amazon (possible for free downloads)! The digital Village is FREE today Sat 6 Jun.Its many Notes include links to online song lyrics & performances! Meet 'my honey'!

Allen Ginsberg stalks Lorca in a Californian supermarket!I had forgotten how funny Ginsberg could be. An engrossing story of a last ambitious creation.But,like the lemon which @dranniegray.bsky.social expertly adds to fish soup, sharpness cuts through- Ian Sansom & Mark Ford in Julian May's kitchen!

I read in 'The Garden', the RHS' excellent magazine, that roses typically live 25 -30 yrs. I'm sure that's true - but don't tell exuberant Rambling Rector (left) planted on moving here 49 yrs ago, or free-flowering Iceberg (right), already here, so fragrantly 50+! How old is your most senior rose?

Here - courtesy of the peerless Cerney House Gardens - are some of the flowers my garden cannot grow. Voluptuous peonies. Stately poppies. Those fascinating alliums, bristling with bumblebees. At least my clay soil is loved by my favourites, the roses... Fellow-gardeners, what do you long to grow?

'Human beings cannot choose their time or place. But they can choose their fate.' 'We don't know another universe. This one should be enough.' Gravity and grace. Tomas Venclova, 'The Grove of the Eumenides' @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social

Here are Cerney House Gardens (Gloucestershire), on Sat,soaked in sun. The friendliest of places...& I'm more & more impressed by the subtlety of the plantings. It is now awash with roses - a masterclass on the tactful pruning of ramblers. Endless supply of home-made cake! Highly recommended!

Sunday CD review! Beautiful & bubbling, 'The Nightingale' is one of the songs on @jimmoray.bsky.social ' Jim Moray's new CD, "Gallants' : the loveliest track I've heard for a long time, set amongst traditional songs & Jim's own. Entrancing!

'The Verb' & @imcmillan.bsky.social will not leave you in the dark.It has @brianbilston.bsky.social whose acute, funny lines brighten any day, Daljit Nagra with a great-hearted poem of friendship,& the music of @marrrtha.bsky.social's translations of St John of the Cross.Highly recommended!

Good night, on a cool, moonlit evening! I think the small red eye is the light on a radio mast high on the hills above...

The percussion of our kitchen is behind me as I watch our newly-arrived Hummingbird Hawk-moth! Have you seen one yet? I find myself wondering how long they have been arriving in England, & if words were written for them...

Rosa Mundi... A Gallica, medieval rose, flowering briefly, and sumptuously, but only once each summer. There is a story that its streaked petals are named after Rosamund, the royal mistress. I cannot tell you if her summer was brief...

Painted Lady butterflies are like buses. You wait (a year!) & then EIGHT come along at once. This incompetent poet could only catch 2 in one shot, as the rest whirled & skirmished on the valerian. How lovely the leaf pattern is on their wings' underside! Very best winged wishes!

The Painted Lady! Delicate pale underwings, & a tawny glow as it luxuriates in the heatwave. Deservedly? For it flies here from Africa over several generations. I believe Painted Ladies, born here,will leave for Africa in autumn, flying spectacularly high... Do you have these striking visitors?

Here is my automatic plant watering system, powered by AI (and clothes pegs). You can hear the robin informing you that a patent is pending... We wish you a cooled Bank Holiday Monday!

A postscript to my last post on cut flowers... If you are a gardener, do you, like me, never cut your own flowers? In fairness, some flowers do not take kindly to vases - and insects have their own claims! (I'm not sure what this interesting striped claimant is!) Very best flower-filled wishes!

Delighted that BBC Radio 4's Farming Today last week featured British flower-growing! Cut flowers are a luxury & I didn't buy them until recently. But if you ever buy flowers,I thoroughly recommend British Sweet Williams, cheapest in the supermarket, generously scented & lasting a fortnight!

Would you like to read something FREE this Bank Holiday Sunday? Go with John Brackenbury, a Victorian shepherd, & his family to an outdoor excitement with a London visitor! A 'camp meeting'... The phone/computer/Kindle edition of 'Village' is FREE today! SEARCH FOR ALISON BRACKENBURY VILLAGE AMAZON

Would you like to read something FREE this Bank Holiday Sunday? Learn how a Victorian shepherd spent a (highly active) day of rest with a London visitor!The phone/computer/Kindle edition of 'Village' is FREE from 10 am Sun (& I'll explain the meeting)! SEARCH FOR ALISON BRACKENBURY VILLAGE AMAZON

The plan to bring in my best primrose to preserve it from snails seems to have gone slightly awry....

Hard-won wisdom... Six lines from Ingeborg Bachmann, who grew up in Nazi Austria. Six of her poems are translated by W. D. Jackson, in @pnreview.bsky.social .

'Let's not think about the journey ahead of us, let us sit together in the kitchen for a while.' From 'A poem starting with a line from Osip Mandelstam'. Moving and rooted work by Laura Scott in the latest @pnreview.bsky.social .

In @pnreview.bsky.social , @sashadugdale.bsky.social, with tenderness & strength, translates Propertius. His dead lover, 'golden' Cynthia, speaks 'where the river Anio washes the apple blossom downstream... first pull up the ivy its tough tendrils have bound my soft bones'.

If you love music & birdsong, here's a marvellous interval with both! Miranda Rutter, with her violin, her bird recordings & her voice in conversation with @jamesfagan.bsky.social on 'Thank Goodness It's Folk'. Now on Mixcloud, 10 minutes in. A melodious Australian bird sings out first! A delight.

Have you got precious poems waiting for the right competition? Look no further than Buzzwords Poetry! Judged by the discerning Penrlope Shuttle, your poem could win £600 (or a special prize of £200 if you live in Gloucestershire )! Closes 29 August! Why not enter this Bank Holiday? LINK IN COMMENTS

Charingworth Court, near Winchcombe. Glos. Victorian trees, lovingly preserved, against a backdrop of hills, drifts of cow parsley, vegetables mingled with roses. Open for charity today Sun 17 May. See National Garden Scheme website!

Looking forward to hearing Melissa Harrison, @davegoulson.bsky.social & Minette Batters with @adamrutherford.bsky.social on Mon 18 May,Start the Week, Radio 4! Melissa's 'The Given World is new & deeply rooted amongst damaged land & imperfect people. Farming, food, wildlife & the future at stake...

I really admire this golden rose. It is meant to be a climber, but, in my overcrowded garden, it has become self-supporting. I wish you a sturdy Saturday!

Very moved by Margaret Drabble's eloquent interview with @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social .I read her novels-then in public libraries!-avidly in youth.Still impressed by characters not devoted to possessions/status,living modestly, working to improve the lives of all around them.And by her lyric endings!

Poetry Review @poetrysociety.bsky.social'That tapping from the hull of the sunken submarine' Daniel Huws;reviewer Stephanie Burt @notquitehydepark.bsky.social. A critic with transatlantic insight whose eloquent plainness,'Lunch with the truth; it's the only meal we get',lures me to 'Debris',Carcanet