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Peter J. King

@rock-rex.bsky.social
2.5K followers 1.9K following 8.8K posts

Poet, painter, translator (mainly from modern Greek & German). Originally from Boston, Lincolnshire, I now live in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. wisdomsbottompress.wordpress.com/pe…

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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 6h
Thanks. I'm not sure whether I should add a section -- I'm still pondering...
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 6h
Thank you!
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Reposted by Peter J. King
Tuta @tuta.com · 10/10/2026
Check out this cool open source tool that removes or disables unwanted AI components like Copilot, Recall, and other AI tools from Windows. 👏 Don't let Big Tech track you!💪🏼 ➡️ www.opensourceprojects.dev/post/c54eaf7...
Screenshot of Remove Windows AI tool
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 7h
Who Killed Cock Robin?" #poem #poetry #skypoets #blueskypoets #poetsofbluesky #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #poetsofdoom #murdermystery #whodoneit #blueskypoetry @sonnetsmith.bsky.social @jenthorne.bsky.social @phylogeneticsteve.bsky.social @daveashleypoet.bsky.social
The body’s found,
       a limp and bloody ball of ragged down,
              eyes dulled, claws torn.

Some choughs are sent
       to make a beak-tip search around the scene,
              but come up blank.

The victim was,
       by all accounts, well liked, so suspects will
              be hard to find.

A bluebottle
       was witness to his fall, but didn’t see
              the murderer.

We don’t know why
       he died, then, nor who foully took his life,
               but we know how:

a clothyard shaft
        that pierced his heart, and sent him tumbling
               from air to earth.And now routine:
        the trawling through of records and the like,
               until success —

the killer’s found:
        the sole toxophilite around the place,
                and envious

of Robin’s fame
        and fortune gained from Christmas cards and songs
                and biscuit tins.

He tries to fly,
        but Sparrow is no match for D.C. Hawk,
                 is brought to book.

Cock Robin’s mourned
        by every bird that flies; with sighs and sobs
                  he’s laid to rest

while in a cage
        his killer flutters helpless wings and rues
                  his jealous rage.
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 9h
"Incident". #poem #poetry #skypoets #blueskypoets #poetsofbluesky #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #poetsofdoom #murdermystery #whodoneit #blueskypoetry @sonnetsmith.bsky.social @jenthorne.bsky.social @phylogeneticsteve.bsky.social @daveashleypoet.bsky.social
there is
above the high-tide mark



                                       into a stain
that glistens darkly
                                 holds its shape

where


has been blown
by the light north-easterly.

a roving Airedale


grasps a piece of driftwood
in its jaws

later
there will be

striped plastic tape
to ward off ghoulish eyes
	blood on the beach

clumping the silicate
grains       the microscopic
shards of shell



raised slightly
the drier
sand
around it
off


snuffles
at the patch
and sneezes

and runs away.


a white tent
covering the find
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 9h
Acrylics on paper. #painting #art #acrylics
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 9h
Walk near Churchill, Oxfordshire. #photo #photography #churchill #oxfordshire
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 15h
Lucia would have been very excited.
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 16h
Thank you!
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 17h
And your grounds for that claim? Are you saying that a one-state solution means that Israel would cease to exist? That would be a peculiar position to adopt. Israel would continue to exist, but without the racist underpinning.
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 17h
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 17h
Anthropeum.com · Oct 11 2026 🟦🟦🟦🟨🟦🟦🟦🟦🟩🟩 89,610 · top 1% of players today! Again, one real stinker (over 11,500 km and nearly two centuries out), yet I still got a plus score for it!
anthropeum.com
Anthropeum
A daily game that challenges our understanding of human cultures. Ten objects. 5,000 years of human history. Guess where and when each artifact was made. See how you rank.
110
Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 17h
WhichYear 10/11/26 4824 pts (top 1%) 2.0 avg. years off 6️⃣ 🎯 🎯 4️⃣ 🎯
whichyr.com
Which Year - Photo Year Guessing Game
Guess the year real-world photos were taken. Test your history knowledge with a daily challenge featuring a new set of photos each day.
000
Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 17h
Beat It! I rocked DISCOVR: 1/36
discovr.uk
discovr.uk - The daily album art quiz!
Daily album cover quiz - guess the iconic album art!
000
Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 17h
So far as I can discover, that seems to be excellent news. Is that right?
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 17h
The last public execution in the U.K. was in 1868. I find it astonishing that it was still happening in the U.S. sixty-eight years later - so this is especially appalling to me.
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Reposted by Peter J. King
Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 20h
Starry Night, painting by Spennymoor-born Norman Cornish (1919-2014). He was a coal miner for 33 years.
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Reposted by Peter J. King
Pete Davies @pete-davies.bsky.social · 20h
A rare sighting in British media. An opinion piece backing the "Zionism is racism" position and arguing that Polanski's mistake was not coming out to support it. Good work, Martin Shipton!
02412
Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 18h
I'll have to go through the ones I still have, and try to work it out by a process of elimination!
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 18h
Yes, I think I had it on an album of theirs which I lent and never got back. Perhaps the most surprising recording is this one...
youtu.be
Pig (Live)
YouTube video by Harry Belafonte - Topic
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 19h
"Post Mortem". #poem #poetry #skypoets #blueskypoets #poetsofbluesky #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #poetsofdoom #murdermystery #whodoneit #blueskypoetry @sonnetsmith.bsky.social @jenthorne.bsky.social @phylogeneticsteve.bsky.social @daveashleypoet.bsky.social
When it is hauled – dissolving, hard to see
as what was once a human being –
out of the winter lake,
they gape in silence:
puffs of vapour stand for voices.

Brought to shore, it lies upon a canvas sheet;
the brightly painted rowing boat
is dragged up on the freezing mud,
and those with jobs to do leave in relief.
The rest look anywhere but at their dripping catch,
and wait until the surgeon comes
to certify the thing is dead.

It’s whisked away,
laid out upon a table, stainless steel —
and then the slicing and the sawing,
and the grim performance
of the modern haruspectic rite
that seeks for omens, not of things to come,
but of the past.Here, trapped within the folds of grey,
a bullet’s found, striations mapped;
upon the wrists and ankles, barely visible,
abrasion marks.
The organs bottled, tissues laid on slides,
and dental work recorded...
finally the closing, crudely stitched.
The corpse is slid into a chilly drawer,
the table’s sluiced,
and there’s just time for sandwiches and tea
before the next one’s wheeled along.

Examining the entrails, though, brings no success;
the days drag past, then weeks,
and after months the clockwork of investigation
slows, winds down, and other cases
take its place.
                              The human jetsam – missing
certain bits and pieces – is reduced
 to smoke and ash, unmourned, unmarked.
From water into air, then fire,
and finally it’s laid in earth.



published in Oatleaf Poetry Magazine, June 2025
(nominated for Pushcart Prize)
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 19h
From the 1933 song with lyrics by Benjamin Hapgood Burt.
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Don't forget all his lies.
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
That's a view often expressed by those of a certain political persuasion, but the legal position seems to be otherwise - and the moral position is quite clearly otherwise.
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Reposted by Peter J. King
Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
BREAKING Professor Peter Hallward has just been arrested on the National March for Palestine for holding a banner with a factually accurate legal statement on it. “In the UK it’s a crime to say I support Palestine Action” Help end the absurdity: www.wedonotcomply.org
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
The problem is that that doesn't make sense. If we're having the illusion, that in itself is a temporal process. In order for time to be illusory, we'd have to posit a sort of meta-time, and so on ad infinitum.
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
"looose"
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
If you give me their addresses, I'll try to reduce that to zero surviving users.
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
The Breath - "Hide Out" Ríoghnach Connolly - voice, flute Stuart McCallum - guitar John Ellis - piano #song #thebreath #ríoghnachconnolly
youtu.be
The Breath - Hide Out (Writing Room Session)
YouTube video by Real World Records
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Στέλιος Κερομύτης/Νταίζη Σταυροπούλου - «Μ' αρέσει να 'σαι μάγκισσα» #song #greeksong #rembetiko #aristokratis
youtu.be
Μ' αρέσει να 'σαι μάγκισσα - Κερομύτης, Σταυροπούλου
YouTube video by Manolis Vlaxakis
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Laura Nyro - "Poverty Train". #song #soul #lauranyro
youtu.be
Laura Nyro - Poverty Train
YouTube video by superreverbking
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
"Four and Twenty. (very new - first draft) #poem #poetry #skypoets #blueskypoets #poetsofbluesky #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity
                               unmerry twinkling
                   the sky is full of stares
                                            we’re judged
                                                   found guilty

	*

                                 dawn is caught red-handed
                                    as she tries to sneak
                                                 into the day
                                                      over the eastern hills

	*

          Sisyphus rolls
a glowing ball of dung
                    towards the zenith of the azure bowl
                                   pretending not to know
                                              what happens next

	*

                                              what happens next
                                                             the long descent
                                                                        and nothing he can do
                                                    to hold it back
                                 to stop it trundling
                        to night’s long vale

	*

                               the still air slowly darkens
                         shimmering with song
                 a myriad melodies                         antiphonal at best
                                                                    unharmonised
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Acrylics on black paper. #painting #art #acrylics
0242
Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
St Laurence's church, Milcombe, Oxfordshire. C13th tower, C15th font. #photo #photography #church #churcharchitecture #milcombe #oxfordshire
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
For a while the pressure was taken off wildebeest by a new fashion for tracking down female novelists: Brophy hunting.
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
There are five letters missing there.
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Reposted by Peter J. King
Alec Finlay @alecfinlay.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
three conspectus views of Skye, from A Company of Mountains. The conspectus is a visual poem transcribing a view from a single location. www.company-of-mountains.com/p/map.html
0163
Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Beat It! I rocked DISCOVR: 1/36
discovr.uk
discovr.uk - The daily album art quiz!
Daily album cover quiz - guess the iconic album art!
010
Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
WhichYear 10/10/26 4742 pts (top 20%) 2.4 avg. years off 7️⃣ 🎯 2️⃣ 1️⃣ 2️⃣
whichyr.com
Which Year - Photo Year Guessing Game
Guess the year real-world photos were taken. Test your history knowledge with a daily challenge featuring a new set of photos each day.
120
Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
010
Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Anthropeum.com · Oct 10 2026 🟦🟦🟦🟩🟦🟦🟨🟨🟦🟦 86,796 · top 2% of players today! I was four centuries and over 2,700km out on one, and still got a plus score for it... What did other people guess? 3rd-century Martian?
anthropeum.com
Anthropeum
A daily game that challenges our understanding of human cultures. Ten objects. 5,000 years of human history. Guess where and when each artifact was made. See how you rank.
240
Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Maya blinds everyone, through ajnana. (Odd, though - I didn't have you down as a follower of Hindu thought.)
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Reposted by Peter J. King
Raimo Kangasniemi @rk70534.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
"The colonial violence of Zionism entails erasing Palestinian communities and narratives. If we are to understand this genocidal structure (and ideology), we have to listen to the voices of those who it victimizes and oppresses." m.youtube.com/watch?v=dFkO...
m.youtube.com
Zionism From The Standpoint of its Victims
YouTube video by Politically Depressed
0197
Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I'm not at all sure about many university presses...
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Βασίλης Τσιτσάνης - «Σόλο σε ρυθμό 5/8» Vasilis Tsitanis - "Solo in 5/8" #bouzouki #tsitsanis #greekmusic #tsitsanis
youtu.be
Σόλο σε ρυθμό 5/8 Λα μινόρε - Τσιτσανης (Το Χάραμα)
YouTube video by ThanosGR Bouzouki Music
080
Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
It is - despite the sharp wind occasionally...
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
"Imperfect". Latest in a sequence "To Be Continued"; each starts with the last line of another poet's poem. (Very much a first draft.) #poem #poetry #skypoets #blueskypoets #poetsofbluesky #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #johncurry #odd @zoomburst.substack.com @sixtyoddpress.bsky.social
	(first line from John Curry's “Small Seconds” in "Odd" 1:3)


                                       the small seconds dropped into place
                                 snug in the spaces left for them

it’s in the calm before the storm
         that damage strikes
                                    and like the tingle in a tongue before a sneeze
                                                                                 the world fizzed
                                                                 each separated interval of time
                                                                                      a little bomb
                                                                                              exploding

                                                                                            recognition
                                                                        of the fear to come
                                                            days   weeks   months
                                           or even decades later
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Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Acrylics on paper. #painting #art #acrylics
0253
Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Walk in Churchill, Oxfordshire. #photo #photography #churchill #oxfordshire
1100
Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
The Breath - "Carry Your Kin" Ríoghnach Connolly - voice Stuart McCallum -guitar #song
youtu.be
The Breath - Carry Your Kin (Acoustic)
YouTube video by Real World Records
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