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Reposted by Leslie (Les) Bell

Rosie Johnston @rojohumanwriter.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

#smallpoemSunday This is part of the title poem from 'Safe Ground', my collection published last year by @micapress @lesbillbell.bsky.social Each stanza is #17syllables though not the usual haiku form. Enjoy your #Sunday

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Leslie (Les) Bell @lesbillbell.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Oh, I forgot to say, my second collection of poems is out. Yes, it is self-published, because I have been too busy publishing other writers' work to have had time to seek another publisher for my own. So here it is micapress.uk/product/ragg...

micapress.uk

Ragged Flock, Les Bell – Mica Press

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Reposted by Leslie (Les) Bell

Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 30/06/2026

See the fields, Neera— green. Wonder if the day’ll come whun I canna see thaim onymair… —Colin Bramwell, “See the Fields” from FOWER PESSOAS – translations into Scots of #poetry by Fernando Pessoa (or by four of his aliases/heteronyms), @carcanet.bsky.social 2025 www.carcanet.co.uk/978180017464...

See the Fields
Colin Bramwell/Ricardo Reis/Fernando Pessoa

See the fields, Neera—
green. Wonder if
the day’ll come whun
I canna see thaim onymair.

The mair I think aboot that,
the hivvier the cluds git.
Hivvier the cluds, less regal,
less green, the fields.

Ach! Neera, leave
the future tae the future.
Whit isna noo doesna
exist fur the likes ae us.

Oan days like this
thirs nothin but green fields,
blue skies abune. Neera,
lat this be the hail warld.

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Leslie (Les) Bell @lesbillbell.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

The cow parsley has gone to seed and is dark now.

A footpath through grasses and cow parsley with the back of a house further on.

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Leslie (Les) Bell @lesbillbell.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

What a contrast is Allan Ramsay's 'Lucky Spence's Last Advice' - a dying bawd speaking to the women in her brothel.

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Leslie (Les) Bell @lesbillbell.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

I'm not a connoisseur of Mariolatry but I opened the old Penguin Book of Scottish Verse at random and William Dunbar's 'Ane Ballat of Our Lady' is astonishing - ringing with rhymes in seven superbly sustained stanzas.

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Leslie (Les) Bell @lesbillbell.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

I just signed a petition calling for an urgent investigation into Peter Mandelson's dealings with Palantir. Did he use his position as UK Ambassador to benefit the US spy tech firm? Sign now: www.foxglove.org.uk/campaigns/ma...

foxglove.org.uk

The Government must reveal all details of Peter Mandelson’s links to Palantir - Foxglove

Sign the petition for an urgent investigation into Peter Mandelson's dealings with Palantir. Did he use his position as UK Ambassador to benefit the US spy tech firm?

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Leslie (Les) Bell @lesbillbell.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Actually that URL resolved to a 404 not found. This might work: wildcourt.co.uk/a-hobby-of-e...

wildcourt.co.uk

A Hobby of Existence: on Dastidar, Sastry, Vince, & Winn – Wild Court

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Leslie (Les) Bell @lesbillbell.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

By Ian Hamilton Finlay, in the Garden Futures exhibition at the Dundee V&A.

'Mower is less' handwritten on paper and silhouetted fingers

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Reposted by Leslie (Les) Bell

Gareth L. Powell / G.L. Powell @garethlpowell.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

In the bookshop this morning: PARENTS: “Okay, we’re leaving now.” CHILD: *pulls another book from the shelf and sits down * CHILD: “Then I guess this is goodbye.”

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Leslie (Les) Bell @lesbillbell.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

I would really love To hear poems in Huntingdon From Stuart Henson but cannot attend. It's not my short attention Span, just the distance.

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Leslie (Les) Bell @lesbillbell.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Mica Press does not yet have a bluesky account but as the publisher, let me tell you there is a book launch and poetry reading in Norwich this Thursday:

Mica Press Poetry Reading
Maddermarket Theatre Bar, Norwich
6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Thursday 22 May
Sally Festing
launches her new collection
Meeting Places
with
Tiffany Atkinson,
Vaughan Pilikian
Bethany W. Pope
& members of
Norwich Stanza Group

Colourful book cover with image of the sun and a swimmer running into waves, text saying Meeting Places, Sally Festing

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Reposted by Leslie (Les) Bell

Shirley Franklin @shirleyfranklin.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

Here’s @michaelrosenyes.bsky.social Reading his poem at our meeting on Thursday Great poem and really good speaker m.youtube.com/watch?v=ih0W...

m.youtube.com

'Island of strangers?': Michael Rosen performs new poem for SIr Keir Starmer

YouTube video by Peeps

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Reposted by Leslie (Les) Bell

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Have never traveled to a country outside their own India 95% Indonesia 92% Nigeria 90% Brazil 87% Mexico 79% S Africa 77% Japan 34% Poland 32% US 23% S Korea 21% Greece 21% Spain 15% Italy 14% Australia 10% France 10% UK 4% Germany 3% www.pewresearch.org/global/2023/...

pewresearch.org

Attitudes on an Interconnected World

How close do people feel to others around the world? How much do they want their countries involved in international affairs? A recent 24-nation survey explores these questions.

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Reposted by Leslie (Les) Bell

Bill Manhire @pacificraft.bsky.social · 05/10/2024

"A useful life with pupils and with poems"

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Reposted by Leslie (Les) Bell

British History Online @bho.bsky.social · 27/09/2024

British Newspaper Archive in conjunction with the British Library, releases another 1 million newspaper pages free-to-view (free user account required): blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2024/09/19/o... #History #DigitalHistory 🗃️

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Leslie (Les) Bell @lesbillbell.bsky.social · 26/08/2024

You're inviting us to come up against a paywall. (I did not notice my subscription expiring). Maybe a judicious quotation could be supplied?

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Leslie (Les) Bell @lesbillbell.bsky.social · 24/08/2024

And the satyr play did not just wipe all that away.

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Leslie (Les) Bell @lesbillbell.bsky.social · 24/08/2024

Aristotle had a handle on it. Spectators were 'purged' of 'pity and terror' in the experience called 'catharsis'. They saw the great ones had flaws, and hubris led to their downfalls. They saw the Chorus - ordinary people like them - reacting to the crimes, errors of judgement, suffering.

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Leslie (Les) Bell @lesbillbell.bsky.social · 24/08/2024

I think, whatever followed, something happened to those people watching Greek Tragedy that Aristotle had a handle on, and it wasn't '[it] is supposed to end with "oh god" and then you stare at the wall a bit and go home' either.

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Leslie (Les) Bell @lesbillbell.bsky.social · 24/08/2024

Alas, I tried to read it but the link led to a 'page does not exist' message. Maybe you can edit the post?

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