iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Merril D. Smith

The Chaos Section Poetry Project @chaossectionpoetry.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

R. Yael Weissburg In Seminerio’s Courtroom "I wonder, how did his people arrive here? From Mexico? Ecuador? Peru? Did they come on Spanish ships, preaching Christ? Did his grandmother, young and pregnant, also flee violent men?" #poetry #LaPoesía #chapbook #immigration #NoKings #vote #booksky

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The Chaos Section Poetry Project @chaossectionpoetry.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Espejo Roto / Broken Mirror Sofía Reyes "mis papeles dicen que existo, que soy real pero el miedo no sabe leer, no pide documentos" ... "my papers say I exist that I am real but fear doesn’t know how to read doesn’t ask for documents" share.google/GCmdeZg4BFlv... #Poetry #LaPoesía

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The Broken Spine (SUBS OPEN) @thebrokenspine.co.uk · 29/09/2026

#PoemsAbout #Rot starts Friday. Write decomposition. Corruption. Spoilage. Something beautiful kept long past the point it should have been thrown away. Draft now. Share from Friday. Tag #PoemsAbout. Use Alt Text.

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Frazzled Lit *Closed for Submissions* @frazzledlit.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Exciting News! @frazzledlit.bsky.social is soon to be in print! We can't wait to put Life As Mask into your hands! Thanks to all of you for your unending support of our mag and our writers. Everyone who has pre-ordered. It means the world to us! @jmcm.bsky.social @kerrybyrne.bsky.social

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DrNaturegirl @drnaturegirl.debbiemross.co.uk · 28/09/2026

For Monday’s #LiftToTheSky I’m bringing you @throwawayreg.bsky.social Notes from Various Sofas from my sofa to yours. A stalwart of #PoemsAbout this new release from @sixtyoddpress.bsky.social gives you irreverent, humorous, short verse to make you smile. Pies, pints, sex and settees in abundance.

A photo of a book cover Notes from various settees roger waldron. A graphic of a blue background with a yellow settee and 3 framed prints of 3 more settees in purple green and orange. A small round wooden table at the right end of the settee with the hand and arm of a departing person with grey trousers, brown socks and a blue sleeve. White skirting either side of the sofa and standard lamp with yellow shade far right.

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Merril D. Smith @merrildsmith.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This is a powerful anthology--available to read for free! I'm pleased to have poems included here. The print version will be available soon. #PoemsOfResistance

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Cindy Ana 🇳🇿 @kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This one was a written a long time ago but fits the theme @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk #poemsabout #deadletters

Yours Always

I fold the smooth 68gsm sheets in half.

Ellen yells from the lounge Mum, the internet isn't working' then without hesitation 'Never mind.'

The heavy stock envelope matches the cream paper.

I slip my inkings into their snug enclosure.

Tim emerges from the depths of his bedroom to tell me,
"The last male white rhino has died, fucking humans.'

I write your address with the flourish of cherished strokes, stick down the flap, place the stamp in its rightful place.

My phone lights up with notifications; a Facebook memory of our Anniversary pics, the fridge suggesting a recipe using the broccoli that is tiring, seven new emails.

I place the envelope in my bag.
The car radio talks of how robotic telesurgery via high-speed internet is changing healthcare,
followed by the importance of drones in modern warfare.

I sit in my usual place, next to your gilded name.

I take the envelope from my bag, and release my thoughts from their ink;
so they can stretch for that place we will never reach.

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The Broken Spine (SUBS OPEN) @thebrokenspine.co.uk · 27/09/2026

Next up: #Rot. Flowers rot. Houses rot. Governments rot. Love can rot beautifully if you leave it somewhere warm enough. New theme begins Friday. Don’t post early. Use Alt Text. Tag #PoemsAbout. Read. Repost. Reply.

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Lish @teaintheweeds.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

For anyone who learned that love can be used to justify almost anything. #DeadLetters #7SyllableSquad #PoemsAbout #Poetry #PoetryCommunity #WritingCommunity #Writers

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roger waldron @throwawayreg.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

morning Friday you get more autumnal every time I see you which I don’t mind tbh🍁 here’s my little “throwaway” poem for #PoemsAbout #DeadLetters and thank @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk have a lovely weekend everyone everywhere 🛋️🍁🍂

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Sue Ibrahim @sueimnw.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

For this week's #PoemsAbout #DeadLetters with thanks to @thebrokenspine.co.uk Out most of the day - will try to catch up with everyone later.

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John Chmura @johnchmura.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

#PoemsAbout #DeadLetters @thebrokenspine.co.uk It helps to know Bu Shi is a muse/alter ego I created in the early 2010s to post haiku/senryu, it also helps to know they don’t use the lettters L and T, but the poem uses all of the other letters. Our pseudo relationship is sometimes contentious.

DUBIOUS BU

bu emerges from a crack underground
open hand punch
hammering an arc of misshapen force

nor misspoken nor misheard

was a bad poem worsened
by jagged end rhymes
before even being conceived

weaned on my screams and misgivings

bad karma broken casino spinner
dopamine miser sucking my money sac
receiving receiving receiving never giving back

aces queens and princes join voracious jokers

oversized zippers sever
spewing sacred sera in free mason jars
examined by hydrographic surveyors

bu says form precedes usage

do you agree

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Reposted by Merril D. Smith

Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Not feeling very profound today #PoemsAbout #DeadLetters @thebrokenspine.co.uk Not the house style, but there you go.

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Bernard Pearson @bernp.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

my thanks to @thebrokenspine.co.uk and @alanparrywriter.co.uk for hosting #PoemsAbout #DeadLetters this was written for my fathers great friend lost when H.M.S. was sunk I have the letter

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Andy Williamson @andywilliamson.com · 25/09/2026

Happy #PoemsAbout folks, here's my quick contribution to #DeadLetters - will check back later to read others! Thanks @thebrokenspine.co.uk #poetry #poetrycommunity

Correspondence

every day of summer
I wrote you a letter
heartbeats
hand shaking
ink staining my fingers

I still have them
at the bottom
of a box
at the back
of the attic

I look out
over the sea
and wonder
how this day would feel
if I had posted them

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Kyla Houbolt @luaz.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

For #PoemsAbout #DeadLetters, here's a slightly crazed point of view: The Dead Letter. (*waves* to @alanparrywriter.co.uk 😁 )

The Dead Letter
We keep his secret, we remaining in the alphabet. He just got weary
of holding up that space between K and L. He always felt misplaced,
he cried to himself in the night. His shape became…
unrecognizable and after a while no one knew his name.
He slipped off the page. We do not forget.

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La Reine des Metaphores @metaphorqu.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

@thebrokenspine.co.uk #PoemsAbout #ItWillDo #DeadLetters In his anger, he whispers that living with her is like inhabiting one of her terminally unfinished epistolary novels. He'd love her to end it.

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Rachel @vignettes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

For this weeks #PoemsAbout #DeadLetters Thanks as always to @thebrokenspine.co.uk

Dead Letters

They dressed him in bronze,
raised him above the traffic
to applause.

A century ripened beneath his shoes.

Then rope.
Bronze struck stone, shoulder first,
the city ringing through his body.

Harbour water closed over his mouth.

They dragged him out bedraggled,
silt in his cuffs, weed between his buttons,
stinking of still water.

Paint across his chest:
the city writing back.

Now, behind museum glass,
he dries badly.

This morning a letter lies
against the empty plinth,
rain loosening the ink
into the stone,
an address
still valid.

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Reposted by Merril D. Smith

David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A little stumped by today's #PoemsAbout prompt #DeadLetters so here's quite an old poem which I think works. Many thanks @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk for the challenge. Will read and respond to other offerings later

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Merril D. Smith @merrildsmith.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Good morning and happy Friday! Here's an old poem I revised for #PoemsAbout #DeadLetters. Thank you as always to @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk

Poem:

Erasure

Here is where time unfolded wings
and flew from

the straight path I had imagined

the stars have shifted, I cannot
navigate this whirligig expanse,

the parallel universe
where you wrote her letters
and she slept in my place.

Now I burn every word,
all the traces, hints, glimpses–

love and us,
erased.

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The Broken Spine (SUBS OPEN) @thebrokenspine.co.uk · 24/09/2026

Tomorrow: #PoemsAbout #DeadLetters. Some words miss their destination. Some reach it twenty years too late. Write from there. Don’t post before Friday. Tag #PoemsAbout. Use Alt Text.

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Merril D. Smith @merrildsmith.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I just spent my morning at this workshop, and it was well-worth it! Thank you so much @alanparrywriter.co.uk

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The Broken Spine (SUBS OPEN) @thebrokenspine.co.uk · 20/09/2026

Next up: #DeadLetters. Wrong addresses. Returned envelopes. Last words. Love letters that outlived the love. Things written for people who will never read them. New theme begins Friday. Don’t post early. Use Alt Text. Tag #PoemsAbout. Read. Repost. Reply.

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Fiftywords @fiftywords.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I wrote this on my travels and it seems to fit #PoemsAbout #Strays

Making Amends On the way to the coffee shop beggars raise weather worn hands, palms open beneath bright signs as scooters split the rain
and phones flare in every hand. Inside, an American says
he has left America for good. Trump, he says, with the small embarrassment
of someone explaining a stain. His father was here once, twenty years old, a family in debt
and no bone spurs. He came with other boys
carrying rifles, photographs,
leaving questions no peace could answer.
The son has come by choice.
He speaks of debts, of what one country owes another, then lifts his cup and watches the street
through glass.
His father went home in '75. Later came Đổi Mới:
shutters lifted, English climbed the walls, Credit cards welcome
flowered on doors.
The waiter brings him the bill.
He taps without contact,
and waits for the screen's approval

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Dawn McLachlan @deemclachlan.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Things you might not know about me. I’m also a printmaker. I use plastic that can’t be recycled to make etching plates, and paper that was going in a bin, to make drypoint prints. Here’s the latest on 85 year old paper from a book that fell apart. #drypoint #printmakers

A closeup image of a drypoint print (etching) of winter trees

A heavily foxed page with a print of winter trees on it

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Reposted by Merril D. Smith

Phil Hyde @gphydeauthor.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Here are two ‘pi-ku’ poems for #fragmentsfriday with @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social I discovered pi-ku reading Merril D Smith’s blog @merrildsmith.bsky.social – the form follows the number for π, 3.14, and this determines the number of syllables per line. #vsspoem

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