My books cartoon for this week’s @theguardian.com

Gustaf Sobin

cutting back time I constantly have to cut back my moustache to stop it muffling what I say

Something beautiful for the weekend! ✨ A rare rock crystal tool made by Neanderthals between 200,000 - 40,000 years ago. From a Mousterian level at the Merveilles rockshelter, Sergeac, Dordogne, France. 6 x 3.3 x 1.5 cm. Musée d’Archéologie Nationale, Saint-Germain-en-Laye 📷 by me #Archaeology

There's an implication of progress and absolutism here, which I'm not keen on. The novel is dead if you interpret it as so. I do not. This is the problem of the avant-garde.

Nothing is worth more than this day. Goethe

WOW! This late Roman blue glass cup made an epic 12,000 km journey! Made in the eastern Mediterranean, it was excavated from the Cheonmachong Tomb, a royal tomb of the ancient Silla Kingdom in Korea! 🤯 Early AD 500s. Gyeongju National Museum, South Korea. 📷 by me #FindsFriday #Archaeology

@ianseedauthor.bsky.social's newest book, Forgetfulness, published by Shearsman, is officially out and he will be launching it tomorrow in London. To get you in the mood for it (and his waiting-for-you SP book), read this short interview published with Ian by the RLF. www.rlf.org.uk/posts/my-wri...

Something lovely for the weekend! Minoan cups made by Bronze Age potters some 3,800 years ago! Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete 📷 by me #Archaeology

For #smallpoemsunday, I'm re-sharing this one by @isabellewrites.bsky.social 💙 @tomsnarsky.bsky.social

In Japanese, "tsundoku" means collecting books and letting them pile up, not for neglect, but for the joy of knowing they're there, full of untold stories.

“In the middle of the forest there's an unexpected clearing that can only be found by those who have gotten lost.” Transtromer

‘..universities should be identifying academic potential wherever it exists, not mistaking polished performance, so often shaped by privilege, for greater raw talent.”

‘There is a surety in it, like swans on a pond. However long the diversion, however delightful or distracting, the second bracket will always appear.’ Rebecca Perry on parentheses. granta.com/tolerable-di...

Osip Mandelstam, tr. R. H. Morrison

Short poem about keeping giants in proportion.

Jeremy Radin, from Dear Sal

Michael Bazzett @mikhailbazharov.bsky.social @ampoetryreview.bsky.social

My nomination for political cartoon of the year... ...Siegfried Woldhek for the win!

We are bridging the turning of the year with poetry

I’m delighted to be launching Forgetfulness at the Shearsman Books reading on Tuesday 13 January, starting at 19.30. Swedenborg Hall, 20-21 Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TH. Infinite thanks to my brilliant editor Tony Frazer. I’m also looking forward very much to hearing Michelle Penn read.

Book Cover of the Day:

Often when l imagine you, your wholeness cascades into many shapes. You run like a herd of luminous deer, and I am dark; I am forest. Rilke, Rilke's Book of Hours

"not with a bang but a whimper."

Morning all! (Photograph by Tore Yngve Johnson)

until only infinity remained of beauty John Ashbery

'Snow Day London' by contemporary Welsh painter Sarah Evans #Womensart

Thanks, Tristan - so pleased you like our Emmy! If anyone is interested in find out more, or even getting their own Aetherstrophen, here's the link to the publisher: zimzalla.co.uk

Much enjoyed Atherstrophen (a collection of poems by Emmy Hennings - an early Dadaist - skilfully translated from German by David Annwn and gobygoodby.bsky.social). The collages and lanterns created by John Goodby are also excellent. A lovely object of art from @zimzallapress. Highly recommended.

Australian author, critic, and professor Cassandra Atherton has just had this to say about @ianseedauthor.bsky.social, Howie Good, and Sacred Parasite. cassandra-atherton.com

Powerful Guardian editorial on urgent need for #climate adaptation & for “real plans, real finance, real justice”. And good to see shout out to work of @climatemajority.bsky.social & GlacierTrust showing adaptation as both essential in itself & as a spur to greater decarbonisation👇

' #Winter night' by Canadian born printmaker and artist Carol Collette #WomensArt ❄️

The world's richest 0.001% now control 3x as much wealth as the entire bottom half of humanity combined. 56,000 wealthy individuals have more than roughly 4 billion people. Read that back.

“And the leaves on the paths / Ran like rats” Wallace Stevens

A brilliant review by @mferguson-writer.bsky.social of My Outsize Hank Williams Cowboy Hat. It can be ordered directly from @sacredparasite.bsky.social here: www.sacredparasite.com/product/my-o...

Yes to today's tube poem

. My Final Poem   Someone rides a bicycle through a cemetery, then in and out of my poem. Why would anyone do that?   I was expecting a dark horseman, not a clown on a bicycle. .

A beautiful 1673 edition of ‘100 Poets, 1 Poem each’, a Classical Japanese poetry anthology and one of the editor’s favourites 💯🌀

One of the editor’s favourite books of 2025: Thomas A Clark’s ‘thrums’ on @carcanet.bsky.social #beattentive

Sacred Parasite author @ianseedauthor.bsky.social's next book will be officially released next month from Shearsman Books, and you can now pre-order your copy here: www.shearsman.com/store/Ian-Se....

another dusk the automatic lights come on again oyoguhito #haiku haikueye.blogspot.com

Sound The bird’s Voice My body A cave -Mark Kirschen

Almost snowed under.

Another brilliant literary object from @zimzallapress including a substantial, bi-lingual collection of the poems of Emmy Hennings, translated beautifully from German by David Annwn and John Goodby. Highly recommended.

Beach Finds #Withernsea

This sounds like a parallel universe!

My draining board