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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 6h

From the archives for @poetrydayuk.bsky.social: a filmpoem by Moira McPartlin / @moiramcpartlin.bsky.social for the late Spike Walker. It is 'Magnificence' and full of #Wonder. inksweatandtears.co.uk/wonder-moira... #InkSweatandTears #NationalPoetryDay

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 12h

Texts placed inside a crate to create 'Poem Under Construction'. Photos of the finished collage become #WordandImage: 'Wondering: Poem Under Construction'. These are #Wonder (ful). @createdtoread.bsky.social for #NationalPoetryDay on inksweatandtears.co.uk/wonder-rache... #InkSweatandTears

Image of crate covered in different clippings, texts and fonts.

Text:

National Poetry Day
'Wonder'

Word & Image
Rachel Carney

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 14h

We're kicking off our celebrations of National Poetry Day strong. Our first day of #Wonder brings you poems from Philippa Greasley, Cindy Botha and Niklas Pettersson. Read them here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/day-one-of-w... #InkSweatandTears #Poetry #NationalPoetryDay

Image: a bear surrounded by grass

Text: Wonder Day 1

Philippa Greasley
Cindy Botha
Niklas Pettersson

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 30/09/2026

My inbox is open again and I'm excited to read more. This time around I'm looking for filmpoems on the theme of 'transit'. I am also accepting submissions of poetry, flash, word & image and reviews. Email me at interns@inksweatandtears.com. --Sabine inksweatandtears.co.uk/submissions/

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 30/09/2026

Emma Dandy's 'I found it particularly hard as a dad' bites at a broken system in a formidable prose poem that will lay on your heart. Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/emma-dandy/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: a father and daughter holding hands, tinted blue, surrounded by a light blue border

Text: I found it particularly hard as a dad.’

I’ve been staring at the blank page of this notebook for an hour. I close my eyes and breathe in for four, hold for four and out for eight, then repeat three times.

Emma Dandy

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 30/09/2026

Sometimes you only need a little poem to capture a big moment. Ken Cockburn illustrates this in his poem, 'Duomo' Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/ken-cockburn/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: silhouettes of cathedrals surrounded by an orange border

Text: Duomo

We slept as best we could on the night train.
Leaving the station we walked empty streets

aimlessly until turning a corner
there it was, silent and vast as the moon.

Ken Cockburn

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 28/09/2026

Satya Bosman reviews 'The Lives We Had Before' by Vanessa Napolitano / @moette.bsky.social and is strongly drawn to this 'remarkable' collection: Part of our 'In Praise of...' series. inksweatandtears.co.uk/satya-bosman... #InkSweatandTears #Poetry #PoetryCommunity #Review

Cover of Vanessa Napolitano's 'The Lives We Had Before' showing a woman's hand rising from an assortment of pale daisy-like flowers.

Text

'Each poem is a story, an empathy machine, a portal into her rich and vivid imagination’

Review by Satya Bosman

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 28/09/2026

'Balancing' by Tim Dwyer asks a question that will consume your thoughts: 'do corvids feel pride?' Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/tim-dwyer-5/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: two birds against a grey background surrounded by a black background

Text: Balancing

On the pitch of the roof
a jackdaw holds a twig
longer than its wingspan—
do corvids feel pride?

Tim Dwyer

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 27/09/2026

'When we die, do we' by Genna Gardini is a poem that zooms out further and further until we are just tiny, wonderful specks. Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/genna-gardini/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: shooting stars surrounded by a cream border

Text: When we die, do we

go back, small cell, atom
slit by light. It takes up
space, an ocean, a planet, a
god. Too large to understand
the scale, although we accept
the concept. Constellations,

Genna Gardini

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 26/09/2026

'Sunflowers' by Fran Hayden is the little pick-me-up you need, we promise. Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/fran-hayden/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: sunflowers in the city surrounded by a yellow border

Text: Sunflowers

that was all I needed
to remember
that somewhere in this world
I still bloom
in someone else’s mind.

Fran Hayden

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 25/09/2026

'At Sea' by Betty Doyle might leave you feeling slightly adrift, but in a sea of your own longing if you've lost somebody... Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/betty-doyle/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: a foamy sea surrounded by a white border

Text: At Sea

My grandmother, loosened slowly
into Cardigan Bay under a Hay Moon.
My best friend, spread across a bed
of Pacific seamount, five years before.
Down there, the rocks are hot.

Betty Doyle

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 24/09/2026

The images of Mark Rutter's 'Well' will remain long after it has been read (or burned down). Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/mark-rutter/ #Poetry #InkSweatandTears

image: a dilapidated house in the woods surrounded by a brown border

Text: Well

when the people are gone
and the wooden house
has been burned down
to recover its nails

Mark Rutter

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 24/09/2026

So excited once again to be supporting the Jhalak Poetry Prize. Start submitting those pamphlets, collections and anthologies (or nudge your publishers to do so!) Thank you for the opportunity @profsunnysingh.bsky.social and the Jhalak team!

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Dr M. I. Matthews-Schlinzig @whatisaletter.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Congratulations to Viv Fogel! Thanks to everyone who voted!

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 23/09/2026

'Relevant, brave and urgently important' Huge congratulations to Viv Fogel whose poem 'At the End of the Class' is the IS&T #PickoftheMonth for August 2026. Revisit the poem and see more voters' comments at inksweatandtears.co.uk/august-2026-... #InkSweatandTears #Poetry #PoetryCommunity

Image of desert landscape with hilly area in back just glimpsed and sun rising from the water. Overall gold haze and deep gold border.

Text (centred)

Congratulations

Viv Fogel

At the End
of the Class

IS&T August 2026 Pick of the Month

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 23/09/2026

Gráinne Daly reflects on where her body belongs in spite of where it was made in 'Not for me Glasnevin'. Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/grainne-daly/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: an aerial view of fields surrounded by a green border

Text: Not for me Glasnevin

Not for me the tomb of Irish soil.
Put me on a plane
and let me make one last journey
before my final departure.

Gráinne Daly

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 23/09/2026

We have now closed for these. Please do keep checking our Submissions page for details of when we will open up again. Sabine remains open for submissions of word & image, filmpoems and reviews.

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 22/09/2026

'Why don't you eat pork?' by Rebecca Cohen is an act of siting through heritage and memory you won't want to miss Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/rebecca-cohen/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: tiled floor with a strip of light surrounded by a dark border

Text: why don't you eat pork?

I have only the memory of a six-year-old
who sat on the floor at Ohel Leah

and hummed along to the davening,
cradling a wooden cat in her lap.

Rebecca Cohen

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 21/09/2026

'Undertow' by Rhian Thomas is a haunting poem of a world sucked under water... Don't you wish that world was one only in their head? Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/rhian-thomas... #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: a coastal road surrounded by a grey border

Text: Undertow

I dream roads winding under water. Concrete like flaking skin
or weed rising in glass-green depths. Scan through the earth’s crust

you’ll find tectonic graveyards, plates you might have mapped
in earlier oceans, landmasses in ribbons - now continents

Rhian Thomas

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 20/09/2026

Helen Ivory / @helenivory.bsky.social is currently open for general submissions of poetry and short prose. For more details go to inksweatandtears.co.uk/submissions/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry #PoetryCommunity #Submissions

Semi-transparent image of typewriter with sheet of paper containing the word 'writing'. Grey blue background.

Text in white (centred)

Helen Ivory
is currently open for
general submissions of
poetry and short prose.

These will close at midnight on
30 September or when we reach 60 in total!

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 20/09/2026

The theme of summer continues with 'Summer's End' by Sue Norton. Maybe a few more will bring back the warm weather... Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/sue-norton/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 19/09/2026

Do check out our latest review! @timrelf.bsky.social is 'in Praise of' @andrewmcdonnell.bsky.social's '55 Devotionals (Against Erasure)' @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social, finding a 'vein of joy, gratitude and wonder'. inksweatandtears.co.uk/tim-relf-rev... #InkSweatandTears #PoetryCommunity #Reviews

Image of the cover of Andrew McDonnell's '55 Devotionals (Against Erasure)' which shows a painted dark green horizon against a deep sky blue. The border is grey blue.

Text:

'a hugely insightful book with much to say about class, masculinity and family’

Review by Tim Relf

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 19/09/2026

We can reminisce on summer in all shades. Steph Morris' 'Summers in Black' reminds us... @herr-morris.bsky.social Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/steph-morris... #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: children swimming in the water surrounded by a black background

Text: Summers in Black

Obviously I wouldn’t be wearing that bit,
ever. But the shirts I lived in

all summer, loose, but still black,
a couple of buttons open, neck free,

something most Jesus and Mary Chain fans
didn’t have – something he could do.

Steph Morris

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 18/09/2026

'Going down to do lights and curtains to fool any burglars' by Kathy Pimlott is one of those poems composed by the lights of night time. @pimlottkathy.bsky.social Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/kathy-pimlot... #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: a street light tinted purple, surrounded by a light purple border

Text: Going down to do lights and curtains to fool any burglars

All done, street lamps
cast my long shadow so it circles me as 1 walk back.
It grows and shrinks, scales walls. Sensing something
behind me, I stop, turn. There she stands, fox-smart

Kathy Pimlott

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 17/09/2026

Beyond excited to have Rachael Clyne / @rachaelclyne.bsky.social Highly Commended for the Forward Prizes 2026 #BestSinglePoemWritten for her poem 'Homeland' which was published on IS&T and #PickoftheMonth for June 2025! #HighlyCommended #ForwardPrizes #ForwardBook2027 #Faber #PoetryAnthology

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 17/09/2026

'Free Range' by Sharon Black is abstract in a way that will wriggle under your skin to your nerves, but it intends to. Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/sharon-black/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: a fox in a rustic setting surrounded by a green-brown border

Text: Free Range

I have a tongue for truth
and a tongue for lies. My mouth

is dry, all this barking. People say
I have something of the fox.

Sharon Black

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 16/09/2026

'A bit OCD' by Vanessa Napolitano holds its finger to the pulse of a mental health matter that is more than a bit complex, but Napolitano handles it beautifully. @moette.bsky.social Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/vanessa-napo... #InkSweatAndTears #Poetry #MentalHealth

Image: household clutter in black and white surrounded by a black background

Text: A Bit OCD

Floors are unvacuumed. Spices remain un-alphabetised.
I bless the spaces between the furniture to keep everyone safe. Seven.

I do not arrive exactly on time. Margins can keep their default size.
I would like you to promise me this isn’t poison. This supermarket chicken.

Vanessa Napolitano

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 15/09/2026

Vote now for your IS&T #PickoftheMonth for August 2026. Will it be Aardhra Chandran, Viv Fogel, Janet Hatherley, @whatisaletter.bsky.social, Mark McDonnell or @damenobrien.bsky.social? Poems and the voting link are at inksweatandtears.co.uk/august-2026-... #InkSweatandTears #Poetry #PoetryCommunity

Image: August fields in the sunlight with VOTE icon bottom righr

Text:

IS&T August 2026 Pick of the Month

Aardhra Chandran
Viv Fogel
Janet Hatherley
Marie Isabel Matthews-Schlinzig
Mark McDonnell
Damen O’Brien

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 15/09/2026

'Nostalgia as Yogi Bear' by Ben Verinder is a whimsical reminder that a poem comes in any package, so sort through your childhood and you might find a poem Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/ben-verinder/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: a picnic site surrounded by an olive green border

Text: Nostalgia as Yogi Bear

Lifts a memory from the pic-a-nic basket
of your past and sniffs it excitedly.

He lies about the freshness
of the morsel. Exaggerates its taste.

Ben Verinder

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 14/09/2026

'I'm Just an Ordinary Dryad' by Jane Spray is exactly the type of poetry you would hope for from a poet hailing from the Forest of Dean. Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/jane-spray/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: full moon seen through trees with a dark brown border around it

Image: I’m just an ordinary dryad

full moon in new
dark rising to light

skin and bark together
woodbine up hazel shoots

in loving arms under the boughs
I lie all night in this secluded wood

Jane Spray

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 13/09/2026

This is the post of 'The Poem of the Sock' by Paul Stephenson. Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/paul-stephen... #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: reflection of orange trees in water surrounded by a light blue border

Text: The Poem of the Sock

The poem of the bath had no depth (full of bathos).
The poem of the mirror was a true reflection.

The poem of the plane never really took off.
The poem of the ship soon ran aground.

Paul Stephenson

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 12/09/2026

'DayGlo' by Alex Josephy is a poem so resplendent it's as if it's clad in... hi-vis. @alexjosephy.bsky.social Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/alex-josephy... #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: construction workers gathered around a fire surrounded by a neon yellow border

Text: DayGlo

Let us now praise hi-vis men
who gather together
round a pothole, filling the gap
with their sticky black remedy.

Alex Josephy

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Eleanor Carpenter @eleanorcarpenter.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

This poem is so relatable!

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 11/09/2026

For all those feeling detached, 'Out of Place' by Claire Lynn is for you. Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/claire-lynn/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: an up-close shot of fir trees surrounded by a light green border

Text: Out of Place

I don’t understand. Christmas
seems to come round faster

each year. My small talk
shrinks. I spray

DON’T SPEAK TO ME
across my reflection.

Claire Lynn

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 10/09/2026

It's gonna happen, happen sometime. Or 'It Might Never Happen' according to Peter Daniels. But either way, you'll get a great poem out of it. @peterdaniels.bsky.social Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/peter-daniel... #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: men in silhouette surrounded by a haze

Text: It Might Never Happen

This is not you, but someone soaked in fake Brut
coming at me in a gesture of fake generosity.

For goodness sake, I only want a quiet life,
it’s no crime not to be a gregarious joiner.

Peter Daniels

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 10/09/2026

'Bus Pass' by Emma Farmer is a poem of connection with a familiar through line: the bus. Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/emma-farmer/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: an arial shot of a bus stop surrounded by a pink border

Text: Bus Pass

I sit at the stop we used to wait at for the bus to pick us up,
but now you're three stops ahead
and the journey's been used up.

emma Farmer

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 08/09/2026

I simply love a narrative poem, like 'At Casa Diablo: Portland's World Infamous Vegan Strip Club' by Carson Wolfe. @carsonthepoet.bsky.social Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/carson-wolfe/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 07/09/2026

Today we feature a poem from UEA's Birch Family Scholar Gurmeet Kaur, who is doing the MA in Poetry. Read it along with poems posted on IS&T over the last few days. It promises that we have not see the last of this fine poet! inksweatandtears.co.uk/gurmeet-kaur/ #InkSweatandTears #UEA #Scholars

Burnished image of jet trailing flight lines across the sky. (Image adapted by one by William Hook on Unsplash.)

Text

Heathrow flight lines

I kill lines of ant. Heat arrives
in the wrong season. It feels important
to know the names of birds under
the thrum of a flight corridor.

Gurmeet Kaur©

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 07/09/2026

'There's The Big Things' by Sarah Nathan is a poem that ends on a much more uplifting note than you'd think... but what is poetry without a journey? Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/sarah-nathan/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry #ChoosePeace

Image: a dried lake bed with boats, a mountain in the distance, surrounded by a dark blue border

Text: There's The Big Things

The ash that screams into the night,
the lake that dries, the child amongst the rubble,
the heat, the fire, the lack of books,
the men who’ve clearly lost their minds.

sarah nathan

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 06/09/2026

'Akademichna Street' by Anna Bowles turns an eye to tragedy in East Ukraine with a personal connection. @annabowles.bsky.social Read it, and find out more about Anna's story, here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/anna-bowles-2/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Ukraine

Image: a derelict street surrounded by a green border

Text: Akademichna Street

another glide bomb on course for the city, is
partly still standing so fuck you russia, is
the medic checking her eyeliner over cheesecake, is
the café owner smoking on the steps, her
eyes averted from her bombed-out flat

Anna Bo

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 05/09/2026

'Through Always' by Michiya is a welcome dip into formal poetry, but will leave you no less moved. Like a cloud through the sky... Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/michiya/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: a cloudy sky reflected in water

Text: Through Always

now alone
his water glass
holds the window
a cloud moving
through both.

Michiya

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Philip Athans @philathans.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Hey! That's #Poetry by me!

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 04/09/2026

Philip Athans 'Neveralways' is an exploration of the non-linear and experimental. @philathans.bsky.social Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/philip-athans/ #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

Image: a hand reaching out to a wall with a cream background

Text: Neveralways

Always keeps it to himself
Never looks for it
Always tightly clutches it
Never says it
Always holds it
Never it
Always it
Never
Always

Philip Athans

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 03/09/2026

'The Fallen Angel' by Michelle Diaz is for those who are "sticking [their] life back together" and it will make you feel less alone. @michelleadiaz.bsky.social Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/michelle-dia... #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 02/09/2026

'Inefficient Use of Resources' and 'Respect is Rainful' by Rona Luo are our most recent word & image pieces. They are mindfully crafted, challenging and beautiful. Look at them here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/rona-luo/ #InkSweatandTears #WordandImage

Image: a shell laying on the ground with scraps of paper with text inside surrounded by a purple border

Image: an illustration of water pumps surrounded by a brown border

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 02/09/2026

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 02/09/2026

'Hive' by Autumn Richardson is a poem humming so much it feels alive... like being covered in bees. Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/autumn-richa... #InkSweatandTears #Poetry

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 02/09/2026

My inbox is open again and I'm excited to read more wonderful words that have a potential home here at IS&T. I am accepting submissions of poetry, flash, word & image and filmpoems. interns@inksweatandtears.com Sabine Details at inksweatandtears.co.uk/submissions/ #InkSweatAndTears #LitMag #Poetry

Image: a hand holding a flower

Text: submissions are open

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Melissa Todd @melissartodd.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Been such ages since I was asked to review a poetry collection. And this was an absolute banger.

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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 01/09/2026

@melissartodd.bsky.social encounters death in 'Memento Mori' by @garethwd.bsky.social and finds a collection directed towards what is left behind. Another in our series of 'In Praise of..'reviews on inksweatandtears.co.uk/melissa-todd... @yaffles-nest.bsky.social #InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Reviews

Image of cover of Memento Mori by Gareth Writer-Davies showing a half skull on top of some papers and books

Text:

‘...remembering is never a passive act, but an ongoing labour, undertaken with joy’

Review by Melissa Todd

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