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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Thank you so much @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social and helmsman @matthewmcsmith.bsky.social ! An unexpected pleasure and honour to receive this nomination. 😊 Congratulations to Jakky, Victoria, Rhona, Helen Laycock and Kate who join me in this year's nominations. Serendipity lives! 🥰

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Yes, the difficult years Nina. Lunch? A handwritten poem? The Hacker's Guide to Immortality? A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu (seven volumes)? I'm quite happy with expensive soap...😁

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This week I'm reading '35 Up' following the recent and final episode '70 Up', having watched most of the series through the decades. I bought it some time in the 90s from a library clearout. It now lives in our home library. A rarity with value perhaps (or not).

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A poem with instant visualisation Mike. We are there, waiting, ever hopeful, curious perhaps. Join a queue; someone must know what's on sale here. Maybe nothing but, hey, we've got lots of time to spare...

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Mike O’Brien @zoomburst.substack.com · 25/09/2026

#poemsabout #deadletters I'm a little out of practice...

The usual guff about life after death - I reckon that I must have enough for a small pamphlet by now.

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

There is very little that's new in poetry or prose Laura, especially since poetry freed itself from the shackles of the greats. We read, anything and everything, which feeds into how we write. Out of all this our own voice develops...slowly. We are a mashup of all we hear and read.

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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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Beth Brooke @bethbpoet.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

It’s Friday again so…#PoemsAbout. #Faultlines. Thanks @thebrokenspine.co.uk and Alan Parry

On the beach

They have drawn a line in the sand;
a deep incision wide as the stick one
of them used to make it. It is a line of
principles of stances taken.
You may approach to consider
its certainties: thus far
no further they will not countenance
any stepping beyond it is after all
a line in the sand.
Ask a question while they stand there
resplendent in an angry black
stand there backs to the
ocean indifferent to the fact of
an incoming tide

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

A wonderful and visceral metaphor Beth

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

All is not lost...but where is it? You'll probably find it somewhere. I'll let you know if it is rejected. 🙂

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I wrote a reply to you Mike on a poem you might consider, a contemporary dance choreography...but I can't find it. The poem is currently out for submission acceptance. I'll hear back from them in 3-6 weeks they say.

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Karen Pierce Gonzalez @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Some #Prompts are like stage curtains. In this case, when pulled back, they can reveal #poetic plots worthy (I hope) of applause! #PoemsAbout #EndOfSummer #Poetry #PoetsOfBlueSky @thebrokenspine.co.uk #StayCreative

Season’s End

Someone left a rowboat
tied to the dry dock
of late summer

Was that you?

Did you row with driftwood oars
to the sleepy shore of me
sandy
sun-warmed

waiting
always waiting
for the promise of you

to ripen on my tongue?

And why did you
surf the salt waves of my want
then dissolve
without even swimming

the sea in my heart?

Karen Pierce Gonzalez

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

...and something about the poet, their inner character Karen. We voice what lies beneath, even if it is cloaked, what needs to be freed in the flow state of writing, pen to paper; simply that poetry reveals our inner thoughts and fears if we let go.

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The Broken Spine (SUBS OPEN) @thebrokenspine.co.uk · 01/09/2026

If you like our #PoemsAbout prompts, you should be reading the poets we publish. AFTER HOURS: BEAT CULTURE MADE NEW is full of the territory we keep returning to: outsiders, restless lives, rebellion, memory and the world beyond respectable hours. shorturl.at/ETO6h

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The Broken Spine (SUBS OPEN) @thebrokenspine.co.uk · 31/08/2026

Last week’s poets brought it. Next up: #SheddingSkins. Leave something behind. An old name. An old life. The version of yourself that no longer fits. Growth isn’t always pretty. New theme begins Friday. Don’t post early. Use Alt Text. Tag #PoemsAbout so we can find you. Read. Repost. Reply.

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The Broken Spine (SUBS OPEN) @thebrokenspine.co.uk · 31/08/2026

This isn't Gatsby fan fiction. It isn't a centenary tribute with champagne coupes and tasteful Art Deco borders. BEAUTIFUL LITTLE FOOLS treats The Great Gatsby as a cultural artefact worth interrogating. Edited by @alanparrywriter.co.uk & @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social shorturl.at/126Ks

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

...in a transformative way, being open to receiving the gift that standing at the ridge might be whispering to you. ❤️

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

There is a deep longing in this piece Beth, that moment of being at the ridge, at the edge. You fix us in a sensory moment of being between two worlds, two stars, and the inevitable change to come. There is so much of you and about you in this poem, and your emotional state, a loss and grieving...

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

No, just that we look back and see it in a different light Jen, and wonder what was really going on. If we come through unharmed it's a tick for experience, and to be aware of what we now know, trust we will see it differently next time. 💚

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

We can never be sure Lin, and time can distort the balance of that relationship. We have to give to receive, but be mindful of the transgression of boundaries. No easy answers. He guided you out, and you can thank him for that without the ruminating we do from afar. ❤️

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Lin Hart @poetry-with-hart.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Reminiscing about a singer friend from years ago, a dark time for me. He guided me out of it, though I'm not sure he ever consciously meant to. Now I've started to become a bit disillusioned to who I thought he was, and what it all meant. Regardless, enjoy 🤗 #poemsabout #deepcuts #poetry #tanka

Deep timbre, safety
his voice lifting me, broken
creature from a cave,
cavern of my own making
the recesses of my mind.

I was seventeen
he was a decade older,
the first time he sang
for me, garage band wonder
his voice carried me aloft.

When pain came later
I tethered thoughts to his sound,
he held me, shattered
I wouldn't have made it out
alive if it weren't for him.

As time has passed since
I find myself with questions,
was it grooming if…
did he really save me, and
did he ever love me back?

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

This week I'm reading...The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, published two months before her death. This version is from 1989, where it has waited patiently in our home library to be tackled.

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John Chmura @johnchmura.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

We can learn a lot from @stacebot.bsky.social in the formatting of this poem for #PoemsAbout #ThriftStore. Those of us who write a lot of short form poetry and even those who don’t, might have been inclined to use all two line stanzas once it looked like a pattern had been established,

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Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

I posted a #poemsaloud thread yesterday👇trying to illustrate a few changes in English verse orthography &, where relevant, implied pronunciation across time & geography. I realised that I’d never recorded one of my favourite Shakespeare sonnets, 143. So here it is #ShakespeareSunday #poetrycommunity

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Thrift Store: "A thrift store is a retail shop that sells used goods—such as clothing, books, and furniture—at low prices, often to support a charitable cause."

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

And because the machine is listening to your every finger tap John, here's what came up very shortly after replying to you. The force is out there, and sometimes it wants to guide you.

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Earworms are good John, and they do always come out again. You just have to allow them to leave as you sleep... 💤🐛

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DrNaturegirl @drnaturegirl.debbiemross.co.uk · 13/07/2026

For today’s #LiftToTheSky check out Mike O Brien of Sixty Odd Poets fame. He shares his own work on Substack as well as this fabulous showcase and a selection of poets he’s published too. substack.com/@mike0brien?... #blueskypoetry #poets #poems

substack.com

Mike O’Brien | Substack

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Jenevieve Carlyn @coastalpoet.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

#PoemsAbout #PowerCut The recent earthquake reminded me of a poem I wrote after a 2023 quake. It actually highlights two events (7 weeks apart) in Feb & April that year. From my journalism-in-verse era, it was in River Heron's 2023 'Poems For Now' issue. CW: suffering (but also hope) #PoemsAloud

youtu.be

"Dust and Ashes"

YouTube video by Jenevieve Carlyn

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The Broken Spine (SUBS OPEN) @thebrokenspine.co.uk · 12/07/2026

Last week's poets brought it. This week: #PoemsAbout #ExitWounds. Every departure leaves evidence. Theme opens Friday. Use Alt Text.

Dark interior facing glass exit doors, with bare trees visible outside and a glowing EXIT sign above. Overlay text reads: “#PoemsAbout #ExitWounds”.

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Wow Jan. And yes, an intensity that burns, the scars deeply laid, clarity fixed, phographic, emotions nuanced

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Thank you Debbie; found some energy to share, even if it was from the archive. 💚

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Thank you Jen. I had a fling in the recent past with #PromptCombo; then the words and energy went out of the door. It was a peculiar experience to meet with Monolith Marx. And as for the flowers...

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Thank you Jan; I suddenly remembered it after seeing someone had written about memorials. 🙏🏼

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

...and here it is, here he is: memorial monolith monument

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

For this week's #PromptCombo on the theme of #monument, I have dug out an old one from last July. Welcome host @jenthorne.bsky.social 💚

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Oh, that is interesting Jen. It was nowhere in my thoughts! 😊

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Thank for reading this Jen. It's certainly ambiguous on second reading, something that didn't hit me while writing it. An evening primrose would just not have worked.

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Thank you John. It was a response to the image for #PoemsAbout this week, and maybe that flower (I love the name). It's the generational divide as well, with me no longer understanding what the world is about, this human zoo...

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

I've left it vague Jane, and there are multiple ways to read it; as a poem about night-scented stock as well as the night-scented blurring of gender.

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Rother Writes @rotherwrites.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Wow, this is so drenched in soul and the endless search, and the indefinable that is our deep time ancestral roots Jane. We are homo sapiens and we can't help thinking, feeling, longing...

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Not so much #ThatLook as 'the look (your eyes had once). A #PoemsAbout for @thebrokenspine.co.uk

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