#WednesdayWIPs @thebrokenspine.co.uk Today is week two of the 'Writing with...' webinar from @northseapoets.bsky.social. Last week it was @dharmabam.bsky.social on Sylvia Plath. Thanks to him & Sylvia I seem now only to be able to write in 3-line stanzas of (7-)syllabic verse. Two of these so far!🥰

Survivors' Zoom Poetry Cafe again this evening - looking forward to another session of open mic creative energies surging....🥰

@victoriaspires.bsky.social #PromptCombo #ancestry Wonderful prompt, Victoria! Sorry I have lately not been much around these parts, mining some side-tunnels in my writing at the mo, but here's one of my ancestors, my mother's father - a free-form poem I posted in January for #PoemsAbout #smoke 🙏😊

Look what landed here this morning, because, you know, I am always well ahead of the curve in my reading matter...🥰

This morning may I #LifttotheSky the wonderful @rosannamcglone.bsky.social , whose fascinating book on the process of poetry and the journey of different writers, from first draft to published piece, arrived on my doormat Saturday...?👌🥰

recoveryinthebin.org/2025/09/19/r... Honours indeed! Many congratulations to @dollysen.bsky.social and @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social and @asylummagazine.bsky.social and other winners and all at @ritb.bsky.social ❤️🤜🤛❤️

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#WednesdayWIPs @thebrokenspine.co.uk On the stove - an essay about anger; an essay about reflective practice groups; an essay about hospitality; a poem about friendship; a mound of correspondence; two training sessions to deliver in the next two days; a mound of reading; and then it gets serious...

🎶 "Frog went a-courtin' and he did ride, uh-huh..." 🎶 New #poetrytheme prompt from @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social 👏👏

The first #PoetryTheme prompt is #AMPHIBIAN Nature's amphibians move across habitats. Metaphorical ones might shift in class or identity Take your time. Post a poem by the end of 30 September. Tag @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social Use #PoetryTheme & #AMPHIBIAN hashtags & please say if you want DM comment

www.theguardian.com/politics/liv... Disgrace! (unless we arrest the guy on his way back out, of course)

#WednesdayWIPs Shelley's stair #3: 😁 trouble is, I don't want to share a nearly-final version: usual problem of where else this might go. So here's maybe lines 9-10 (la volta): "You came in hope of mercy, believing in me / too much, in yourself too little... " Thank you all for keeping me on it!🙏

The 4th annual HHG Experiences in Communities public event - tickets still available! 🥰

A fantastic open mic with Survivors Poetry at the Harrison this evening after, for me, a bit of a gap. I read a few newish pieces, and witnessed some truly amazing and inspired performances. I want to drop everything and let the beats and images flow ❤️

Writers of poetry, prose and everything in between—tomorrow’s your day. #WednesdayWIPs is back. Share your scraps, sparks, doubts, and drafts. One line. One photo. One step forward. #PoemsAbout #PoetsOfBluesky #BlueskyWriters #AmWriting

Online launch event Friday 26/9 for the @asylummagazine.bsky.social Autumn issue. I am looking forward to hearing contributors speak to their work, and to reading my poem, 'A psychiatric hospital is not a factory' (an obvious point, you'd think, but one sadly now only upheld from the margins) 😠🤜🤛🙏

The death of Diogenes, reimagined... "... never been one for shibboleths / or slogans, or shotgun shamings. Lately it’s the abyss / which beckons. I’ll lift up my cup at the threshold / leave you bereft / in the blink of a fucking instant...." johnadlampoems.substack.com/p/the-death-...

Here are some #Bluesky poets whose work I have/will explore with my students this year. Important to support living poets 🤩 🤩 🤩 @helenlaycock.bsky.social @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social @johnadlam.bsky.social @jamesmcconachie1.bsky.social @hool415.bsky.social #poetrysky ##poetrycommunity #poetry

#PoemsAbout #Facades @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk This is something that I came up with earlier this year for #PromptCombo but I thought it might fit here this morning as well... 🙏❤️🙏

'The technocrats / are taking over the asylums...' I am very glad my poem 'A psychiatric hospital is not a factory' is in the new issue of Asylum. Big thanks to @hspandler.bsky.social & all at @asylummagazine.bsky.social for supporting my work & for campaigning so consistently over so many years ❤️❤️

This! 👇❤️👇

The 4th annual HHG Experiences in Communities public event - tickets still available! 🥰

#WednesdayWIPs @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk Slow progress on this one, but a sort of sonnet is sort of coming together...we (for now) have an opening couplet: "Down Shelley's stair in single file we stumbled / one blue abbreviated autumn evening..." 😬

Thank you @rosannamcglone.bsky.social this is very exciting! I must straight away say hi and big thanks to @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social whose haibun posted back in early summer (and then a very helpful weblink shared) first alerted me to the existence of this form...🙏🥰🙏

#WednesdayWIPs @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk 'progress' would be giving it large, but I was on the Golfo dei Poeti on Sunday (to hear Luciano Mezzetta read at Tellaro) and this photo and this opening couplet is what's in my head.... "On Shelley's stair Somehow I lost my footing..."

#PoemsAbout #Riots There's the Clash, natch, and whatever went down in Cell Block No. 9, but for this week it has to be the mighty Sly and family, who made a timeless album (largely) about race riots without mentioning the word 'riot'...length of title track: 0.00.✊❤️ open.spotify.com/album/29f2cO...

Morning Friday here’s my little “throwaway” poem for #PoemsAbout #chandeliers and thank @alanparrywriter.co.uk & @thebrokenspine.co.uk #poetry have a wonderful weekend everyone everywhere 🚶🏼‍♂️‍➡️

Hail #WednesdayWIPs & well met! I have been working on a poem set at the festival of Ferragosto which we marked on 15/8 here in Val di Taro. Eight 4-line stanzas but not yet ready to share even as WIP, so this is just a toe in the water. Nice idea though❤️ @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk

Choric, rhythmical and relentlessly enraged stuff here from @johnadlam.bsky.social

Condemning myriad forms of brutality and oppression around the globe, ‘How worlds end #4’ by @johnadlam.bsky.social names what we’re up against, including the horrors so many people are facing at this moment. Do not give in. Do not stop fighting. To quote Timothy Synder: ‘Do not obey in advance.’

Writers of poetry, prose & everything in between, this is for you. #WednesdayWIPs launches 20 August. Scraps. Struggles. Works in progress. shorturl.at/YY1dr #PoemsAbout #Writers #PoetsOfBluesky #BlueskyWriters Let’s build this.

#PoemsAbout #Ceasefire @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk Apologies, I am away, and sans laptop, so this is the link to something (rather long!) I recently posted on Substack on (our!) complicity in genocidal wars. Below the poem is a brief commentary ❤️🙏 open.substack.com/pub/johnadla...

#PoemsAbout #Ceasefire @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk Joni again, I'm afraid...🥰 🎶 "We're going to have to hold ourselves a peace talk / in some neutral café / You lay down your sneaking round the town, honey / and I'll lay down the highway" 🎶 open.spotify.com/track/0wGyen...

Brilliant new online poetry mag from the wonderful Jack Caradoc. Free to subscribe and submit. Go on - you’ll enjoy it, especially if you have fond memories of the late lamented Dreich #poetrycommunity #poetsofBluesky #PoemsAbout #poetryvoices #poetssupportpoets @dreich.bsky.social

#PoemsAbout #BlackSky @thebrokenspine.co.uk I am off tomorrow morning on hols, will keep in touch but might be a bit quiet! My soundtrack for the theme, Jerry and the boys: "Shall we go / you and I while we can / through / the transitive nightfall of diamonds..." ❤️🙏❤️ open.spotify.com/track/07CwWC...

New post on my 'Psychosocial concepts and praxis' Substack - comments always welcome! johnadlam1.substack.com/p/reflective...

‘now you are shading / out of memory and belonging’ the slow fade of presence, not just of things but the people who kept them holy. A stunning elegy in domestic fragments. #KeepWriting #PoemsAbout #Starcrossed

#PoemsAbout #Starcrossed @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk I'm sorry for recycling a poem I offered not long ago, but as starcrossedness goes I couldn't think beyond what I'd written here (and I also had some other writing on the go). I look forward to reading everyone else's later! 🙏❤️

#PromptCombo #MyGod @hool415.bsky.social Okay, I think this is now ready enough for the table...a kind of haibun, I think it might be, and one of a series around my mother's Alzheimer's ....❤️🙏

Welcome To The Starbeck Orion Summer Feast Of Artwork And Poetry Issue Eleven Day Seven featuring the poetry of Paul Connolly: open.substack.com/pub/the880/p...

Thank you so much @hool415.bsky.social for the #MyGod #PromptCombo. Apologies I've missed a week or two lately. I have something on the stove but want to let it simmer. Meantime, though it's not very long ago that I posted this as a response to the #Architecture prompt, it does feel apposite...😔🙏

As a sideways contribution to the discussion, this is from my Barrelblog a few years ago, grappling with the particular challenges of writing 'about' racism from inside experiences of Whiteness (as opposed to affecting some kind of impossible positional neutrality) barrelblog.org/2021/11/25/w...

This is where my mind was a week ago. A reflective essay that I wrote late last Sunday night, July 20th. What emerged a couple days later arose partly from the frustration described here. There were other origins, too, which I'll try to write about properly, in greater detail, at some point.

Well #promptcombo is #myGod. More like oh God for this one. Happy Monday @hool415.bsky.social

#LiftToTheSky @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk A collective launch skywards for Evie @coastalpoet.bsky.social who is not only a fine writer and most generous community member but has just launched the #PoetryOfWitness initiative 'We are the Chorus' open.substack.com/pub/poetryof... 👏❤️🙏

#PoemsAbout #Glamour @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk apologies again for absence this week. Bandwidth still down! This has been my thematic earworm... 🎶 "And when you kissed / Robert Mitchum / gee, but I thought you'd / never catch him..." 🎶🥰 open.spotify.com/track/5MIjLr...

Got a political or eco-poem with something to say? Perhaps something urgent for a recent #PoemsAbout? Share it here. Subscribing means new poems arrive in your inbox when they're posted, but you can participate either way. Let's spark more conversation, inquiry, action. There's strength in numbers.

Thank you so much Evie, this is a great and generous initiative and @bethbpoet.bsky.social thanks again for the poem. This is my little essay referred to: open.substack.com/pub/johnadla...

#PoemsAbout #WaxTears Joni earworm 🎶 In the church they light the candles / And the wax rolls down like tears / There's the hope and the hopelessness / I've witnessed thirty years 🎶 open.spotify.com/track/5YoBEh...

Nothing from me this week for #PoemsAbout #WaxTears, no bandwidth for various reasons, but I see some amazing riffs on the theme already in and will try to comment later today 🙏🙏