iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 18h

I'll leave you to read the exchange again, my friend. You'll spot the error eventually. 😉

Petty, point-scoring exchange on Bluesky that really isn't worth my time or effort explaining. 🙄

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 26/09/2026

My mate's also a graphic designer. I asked him for ... oh FFS!!

Photo of a man's naked torso covered in brightly coloured tattoos that are very obviously just clipart images.

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 22/09/2026

One of two poems I'll be reading this evening at the @survivors-poetry.bsky.social Zoom Party from 7pm. See the threaded skeet for more details. 😉

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 20/09/2026

Some of the full-colour plates from Bonnie Blue's upcoming autobiography are a bit much. #justleaked

Illustration from the Ladybird Books' retelling of the fairy tale 'The Magic Porridge Pot'.

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 17/09/2026

Been about 50 years since I last saw a weasel. Just found this one dead in my garden, sadly. ☹️

Photograph of a recently deceased common weasel.

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 31/08/2026

Published this in one of my poetry journals (@iamb.uk) a while back. It's written by @roguestrands.bsky.social, and deals with just the kind of scenario the fessor is describing.

The Last Carry

by Matthew Stewart

You were seven and hadn’t asked
for one in months, but the salt wind
had whipped your energy away
before calamares fritos
at our favourite place on the prom
left you woozy, slumped in your seat.

Even as I threw you over
one shoulder and braced for the trudge
to our house, my back was hinting
at a future without your breath
tickling my neck. At you walking,
beside us, if we were lucky.

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 26/08/2026

Wasn't expecting to find a brown long-eared bat dead on my driveway this morning. No evidence that any of my cats have been anywhere near it (it was fully intact, for one thing). Typical. My first time holding a bat, and it's deceased. 😢

Likely a brown long-eared bat, found dead on a driveway in East Hampshire, UK.

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 26/08/2026

You send your mate Mark Gruffalo. He replies with Alan Stickman.

Illustrative hybrid of The Gruffalo with the face of Mark Ruffalo in the style of Axel Scheffler.

Illustrative hybrid of Stickman with the face of Alan Rickman in the style of Axel Scheffler.

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 26/08/2026

Cards on the table: this is not my joke. I saw a cartoon very similar to this many years ago and have never been able to find it again since. So yes, I enlisted AI's help to recreate it from a prompt. Kudos to whoever came up with this originally. 🙏🏻

Cartoon of a lion and a witch in a furniture shop. The witch is sat on the edge of a display bed, looking over at the lion who's pulling open a drawer in a tallboy. The caption below the scene is the witch saying to the lion, 'It's all right ... but is it really us?'

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 22/08/2026

Most poets who witnessed the recent solar eclipse will have written about it. A particularly great poet said the way to make YOUR poem stand out is to take an original angle. So in mine, the titular 'event' takes place in my neighbours' small back garden as they prepare to watch the spectacle ...

Watching the event

The partial solar eclipse over Britain on August 12th 2026 was the last many who saw it will witness in their lifetimes.

I caught the whole thing from my garden –
children with faces round as the moon’s;
dark-eyed adults, cheeks pinked by the sun,
waiting for the last one of their lives.

Their talk was of timings and angles:
the path it would take as it reduced
a star four hundred times its own size
to a thin, fluorescent banana.

Faces crossed each other, fought to see
the best act since Cool Britannia.
And me? Well I was there the last time.
I didn’t look at it directly.

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 15/08/2026

I'm thinking the outfit doesn't help. And to be honest, if the elders catch me on Bluesky ... #callmejebediah

Poet Mark Antony Owen (sans moustache) dressed in traditional Amish clothing.

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 14/08/2026

Someone's after new ways to distract from his many war crimes ...

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 08/08/2026

It says a lot about the character and generosity of spirit of poet Kathryn Bevis that, though she didn't need to credit @iamb.uk on the acknowledgements page of her @serenbooks.bsky.social collection 'The Butterfly House' (all three poems having appeared elsewhere before iamb), she did so anyway. 🥹

Acknowledgements page from Kathryn Bevis' poetry collection 'The Butterfly House', showing the name of online poetry journal iamb among many other publication titles.

Screenshot of the publication credits from the bottom of Kathryn Bevis' page in online poetry journal iamb.

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 07/08/2026

Well done on resurrecting (and bastardising) a perfectly serviceable joke from almost nine years ago. 🙄

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 07/08/2026

Spending time in the garden with Kathryn Bevis' debut @serenbooks.bsky.social collection, 'The Butterfly House'. So sad there'll never be another from her. The quote on the cover by @dharmabam.bsky.social cheers me though: a reminder that come December, both he and Kathryn will be part of @iamb.uk.

Photo of the cover of the late Kathryn Bevis' debut poetry collection from Seren Books, 'The Butterfly House'.

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 04/08/2026

Not sure for whom I feel most sorry: this unfortunate pigeon, or the neighbours in whose TV aerial this bird became entangled. Just to be clear, the creature is very much dead.

Photo of a dead wood pigeon entangled in a TV aerial.

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 01/08/2026

FUCK OFF YOU EVIL YELLOW BASTARD!! NO ONE WANTS THIS SIX-MONTH LONG SUMMER!! #ukheat #endlesssummer

Photo of a green garden parasol with sunlight shining through it.

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 08/07/2026

Keep seeing this new theory of how our entire universe could be the interior of a black hole – and of how, in general, each black hole might contain a whole other universe. 😳🤯

Instead of a black hole ending in a singularity, it might give birth to a new expanding universe. If that's true, our own universe could simply be the interior of a black hole that formed in another universe.

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 04/07/2026

One for @coastalpoet.bsky.social's #poemsaloud at the end of a week that saw @afterpoetry.com and @iamb.uk announce nominees for @sundresspub.bsky.social's Best of the Net. This poem of mine from Release Three of @subruria.com was put forward for BOTN a few years ago by @eastridgereview.bsky.social.

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 03/07/2026

Victoria doesn't have a book to sell just now, but Rishi and Mark (obviously) do! You can buy 'Cherry Blossom at Nightbreak' from @ninearchespress.bsky.social, and 'Hotel Petroleum' from @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social. And hey, maybe @salopress.bsky.social will consider reprinting 'Soi-même'?

Cover of Rishi Dastidar's fourth poetry collection, 'Cherry Blossom at Nightbreak'.

Cover of Mark Fiddes' fourth poetry collection, 'Hotel Petroleum'.

Cover of Victoria Spires' pamphlet, 'Soi-même'.

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 01/07/2026

*Actually, just five nominees this year for @iamb.uk, as I broke my self-imposed rule last year to enter Rishika Williams' 'on the bald hill' into the 2026 competition. 😉

Screenshot of the top of the iamb page for poet Rishika Williams.

Full text of the poem 'on the bald hill' by poet Rishika Williams.

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 23/06/2026

Here's a little proof (for anyone in need of it) that my youngest really does feed these birds and their babies by hand.

Photo of a young boy feeding bird seed to a Canada goose from the palm of his hand.

Photo of a young boy feeding bird seed to a Canada goose gosling from the palm of his hand.

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 22/06/2026

Welcoming @emteepoetry.bsky.social as a first-time host of #promptcombo with this little beach vignette from Release Three of @subruria.com. Also tagging in @coastalpoet.bsky.social, as this one also works for #poemsaloud.

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 20/06/2026

Little something for @coastalpoet.bsky.social's #poemsaloud – in remembrance of a friend.

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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 01/06/2026

Happy summer to all who refuse to commiserate with me during this awful time of year.

AI-generated beach scene featuring a pink gingham towel, heart-shaped sunglasses, a cold drink, a seashell and an inflatable flamingo. A wooden sign reads, 'Good times, hot days'. The main headline says: 'Summer is back ... sadly.'

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