iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

If it floods and freezes in winter, remember to take your skates! Did you find Burgess Field too? And the other side of the river?

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I recently decided to start a #Substack as a hopefully effective way of sharing my bit of light in the world's darkness. Who else is there? Please make yourself known 😊 And here's my article for today substack.com/home/post/p-... #HolyCross #BVM #Knitting #PetrarchanSonnet #Poetry #PoetsOfBluesky

substack.com

Poem: “Knitting Madonna”

...for Holy Cross Day, 14th September

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

#Poets, what's the longest period you've experienced between submission to a magazine and acceptance (hopefully) or rejection (@#$%^&*) ??? I've just received a #rejection almost exactly 18 months after sending! #PoetsOfBluesky #Poetry #ExistentialQuestions

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Here's a poetic triptych relating to boat people, St George as asylum seeker, and our shameful response Thanks to @elsewherejournal.bsky.social for publishing "Us English" earlier this year www.elsewhere-journal.com/palimpsest/2... #PoetsOfBluesky #PoetryCommunity #BoatPeople #StGeorge #Flags

Poem text: Us English are a country / of boat people. / Waves washed in the craft of Neolithic, Beaker folk, Celts / before ever the Romans / came and saw and conquered. / And which of us has not dwelt / in the settlements of Angles, Saxons, / Jutes, Frisians, Franks? / Or swayed on the Tube and tram as / Danes and Vikings / on the aft decks of their dragonships? / Us Normans rub along with traders, troubadours, / seekers after life and the curiously off the map. / William of Orange is old news.

Poem text: St George stares out of the hotel window. / His ears are filled with sun, / family, orange trees and childhood. Mama / has been telling her stories of Palestine. / She leaves out the occupying forces. / He looks down at twisted white faces / but he doesn’t understand / what or why they are shouting. / At the front he sees a boy / look up from his Baba’s shoulders. / He would like to have a friend. / Mama has been telling stories of Baba, too. / She says he is following them from Syria / and shows him on the map. / But all the map is telling him is / ‘Here Be Dragons’.

Background photo of two boys with a Palestinian flag, hosnysalah on Pixabay

$Poem text: You who imagine ‘Here Be Dragons’ beyond \ these shores \ to set St George against himself, who \\ drape England flags over \ motorway bridges and, \ demanding everyone give way always to the \\ Right, \ paint a rash of red crosses on mini- \ roundabouts — wouldn’t \ you agree they were \ built to connect and \ painted to ease passage? \ there is equal opportunity on a roundabout and \\ everyone has \ their own dragons to slay? What if \ some of them were hoarding \ offshore treasure? Background photo: one of the Dragons of the City of London mzmatuszewski0 on Pixabay$

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Now you can rest in peace #WendellBerry www.theguardian.com/books/2026/s...

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS
Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Thanks to Amethyst Magazine for publishing Transfigurations today. It's in three parts: Hand, Apple, Leaf. Here's Leaf... amethystmagazine.org/2026/08/30/t... #UKPoets #Poetry #Attention

LEAF

take hold this leaf in your miraculous hand
its inner workings in your mind’s eye
count the pulsing chlorophyll
follow the sap through its veins
let it fall into your stunned heart

A photo of red apples on a tree (sourced from the linked post)

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I just harvested the last lot of plums this afternoon. I've probably eaten as many again over the last couple of weeks. This is the first year the cordon has produced anything #TinyJoys

A tray of about 60 large dark purple plums

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Coincidentally, alongside this @churchtimes.bsky.social piece, I also have out this weekend "Recycling" (a very different take!) and five other poems in @sixtyoddpress.bsky.social sixtyoddpoets.substack.com/p/108-clare-...

sixtyoddpoets.substack.com

108. Clare Bryden

making connections and finding patterns in the physical realm and beyond

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Including a short article I wrote about what to do with your copy after reading. Hints: - May involve #Compost - Don't #BurnAfterReading www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/202...

churchtimes.co.uk

Read, reuse, recycle, repeat

Clare Bryden finds a multitude of uses for this publication

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Websites Ahoy! @websitesahoy.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Exeter Food Action rescues excess food from shops, providing it to 70 food banks and communities in Exeter & Devon, supporting 1,000s of people. Right now, rising costs and funding shortfalls have put severe pressure on finances and their future is uncertain. Can you help? exeterfoodaction.org.uk

exeterfoodaction.org.uk

Home - Exeter Food Action

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc faucibus erat eu porttitor molestie. Pellentesque sollicitudin quam et turpis convallis molestie. Mauris eget porta leo. Quisque ornare or...

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

It's very slow to update, but your quote post should make it into the feed eventually! 🐌

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Today we heard at @exetercathedral.bsky.social about the corbel of Mary with Christ Child, above a Green Man. "Such images speak of an overcoming of sin, renewal of life, and the salvation of [hu]mankind." devonchurchland.co.uk/blog/the-gre...

Carved corbel of the Virgin Mary with Christ Child (before 1309), above disgorging Green Man motif, representing The Tree of Mercy erupting from Adam’s gaping mouth, in the late-13th century chancel of Exeter Cathedral, photo Lucy Miller

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Image source: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kn...

commons.wikimedia.org

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

My social media profile image is staying remarkably young, even as I continue in the attic getting ever more battered by the years. So here's a proposal for a social media network: one that shows our avatars fading into decrepitude, while we go about our lives as spring chickens.

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Elsewhere. A Journal of Place @elsewherejournal.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

'They mean well, the poets of place and landscape, but in their pages I observe I am the offspring of flat.' From our Palimpsest issue, poems by @clarebryden.bsky.social www.elsewhere-journal.com/palimpsest/2...

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

For men... Respect Men's Advice Line Languages: English Phone hours: Mon-Fri, 10AM - 5PM Chat hours: Mon-Fri, 9AM - 10AM Call 0808 8010327

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

38% increase when England lose 26% increase when they win For women National Domestic Abuse Helpline Interpretation services available Phone hours: 24/7 Chat hours: Mon-Fri, 10AM - 10PM Call 0808 2000 247 #WorldCup #Football #DomesticViolence

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

...Burnham’s task: to unite this horribly divided country. With what he’s learned from #poetry [incl V by Tony Harrison], he’ll maybe have a chance." #EUCU #ExeterUni @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

...to the point where many institutions are shedding staff and closing down degree courses. But do you need to have studied science, maths or PPE to become a prime minister? Maybe not... [cont]

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

"[Andy] Burnham’s career shows that a #humanities [English] degree need not be a disqualification in life. The number of young people studying #English, history or languages at university has declined catastrophically in recent years... [cont]

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Second, here's @theosthinktank.bsky.social on one context - the erosion of Theology and Religious Studies in the UK - and why we should care Hint - soft power, empathy, cohesion, and the ability of society to understand itself are also mentioned www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2026...

theosthinktank.co.uk

The collapse of Theology and Religious Studies in the UK will be a loss for all

George Lapshynov responds to the University of Exeter’s considerations to cut Humanities staff and calls for safeguards to religious education.

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Some posts re the proposed cuts at @universityofexeter.bsky.social which disproportionately affect academic posts in Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, and Environment & Energy at its #Cornwall campus. First up, please sign the @exeterucu.bsky.social petition at www.change.org/p/stop-redun...

change.org

Sign the Petition

Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

No wait... I shouldn't be liking that!

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Plus, the new phone is less likely to shatter in my hands. I'm amazed the old one survived as long as it did, given all the cracks front and back!

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Dropped my phone in the River Bovey on Saturday 🙄 I needed a new one anyway... which would have been easier to set up if I could have opened the old one, but its touchscreen was throwing a wobbly... until just now, so I can export and import all my hiking, podcast and reading settings #TinyJoys

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I should make it clear that I am not employed by #UniExeter but am posting in solidarity with people I value who are

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

"The arts are what makes life worth living. You've got food, you've got shelter, yeah. But the things that make you laugh, make you cry, make you connect - make you love are communicated through the arts. They aren't extras." - Obama #UniExeter And let's take a moment to remember that...

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Re @universityofexeter.bsky.social proposed #cuts to staff numbers, disproportionately affecting #Humanities, #Arts and Social Sciences, here are a couple of quotes: "The arts are essential to any complete national life. The nation owes it to itself to sustain and encourage them." - Churchill

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Exeter Green Party @exetergreens.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Exeter Green Party stands in solidarity with the Exeter University and College Union in condemning the University of Exeter’s announcement of sweeping job cuts. These plans will recklessly imperil the University’s vital contributions to the social, cultural, and economic life of the city. 1/4

Graphic which reads: Statement of solidarity with Exeter University and College Union.

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Monday Moon! @mondaymoon.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Have a palate cleanser/reminder that the Cowlitz beaver kit livestream is still going strong, and if you need a break for today you can watch sleepy beaver babies whenever you need! www.youtube.com/live/hy765ud... #TinyJoys #Wildlife

youtube.com

Cowlitz Beaver Kit Cam Live

YouTube video by Cowlitz Indian Tribe

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Big red signs and barriers at the Branscombe end of Hooken undercliff. Why not at the Beer end? @southwestcoastpath.bsky.social @nationaltrust.org.uk #SWCP

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Finally some news for your mailing or quarterly!

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The Poetry Society @poetrysociety.org.uk · 11/05/2026

Congratulations to our Exeter Stanza on the publication of their new zine, The Silken Twine! What a gorgeous book! 😍

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