nasturtiums growing out of rock walls are handy when you’re hungry and thirsty and have a long way to walk yet. ditto wild fennel #wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social from Portugal

yellow lupins and daisies everywhere #wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social from Portugal

oh just a massive tourmaline crystal recently popped out from the granite bedrock on the footpath to the clearly signposted neolithic rock carvings I couldn’t find but did start to hallucinate. Carreço, Portugal

even the mist here. is metamorphic. just a matter. of time before. even the mountains. become something. rather more. ephemeral. Carreço, Portugal.

there are complex intrusive relationships here. geologically speaking. granite into quartzite sandstone. granite into granite even. and who amongst us. hasn’t witnessed evidence. of healed fractures. after bedding.

Uncharted island soon to appear on nautical charts A 93-strong international expedition team has been exploring the northwestern Weddell Sea in the Antarctic on board the Alfred Wegener Institute's icebreaker Polarstern since 8 February 2026. In this ...

“the scientists and ship's crew were surprised by the sudden appearance of an island that had previously only been marked as a danger zone on the available nautical charts” www.awi.de/en/about-us/...

Péter Magyar victory speech:

"We want to make a country where no one is persecuted because they think differently or because someone loves in a different way to others."

He may not have campaigned as a liberal. But this is a huge change of direction and rhetoric from Orbán’s anti-LGBTQ+ crusade.

I watched a documentary about Hungarian chess grandmaster Judith Polgár last night and now Orbán is out. what a relief.

the slowworm’s way — my stochastic rewriting of Basil Bunting’s Briggflatts, has just been published in this excellent new issue of Ensemble Park: A Journal of Human + Computer Writing www.ensemblepark.com/issues/ensem...

part of the openwork background of beaded lattice-work from a medieval pilgrim badge depicting Our Lady in the Undercroft, Canterbury Cathedral. the badge in the 2nd photo is in the London Museum, late 14th century. #mudlarking

Native Americans invented dice and games of chance more than 12,000 years ago, archaeological study reveals A new study shows that dice and games of chance date back thousands of years earlier than experts previously thought.

Native Americans invented dice and games of chance more than 12,000 years ago, archaeological study reveals. Via @live_science #archeology #History #Anthropology #sociology

three beads on a piece of medieval pottery. green, blue and dark purple

small blue bead on the Thames foreshore, in wet sand

a three bead morning. a three ring circus. step right up. drop. crawl. and squint. impossible to date. but oldish, one imagines. on account of their irregularities. the green hole, not quite round. the blue cut from a glass tube, not quite straight. the large dark shows purple, when held to light.

get my book The Gathering Cloud (on the environmental impact of cloud storage) direct from the intrepid @uniformbooks.bsky.social here: www.uniformbooks.co.uk/thegathering...

2 poems - The Manchester Review Image: © Courtesy of Manchester City Galleries   bee me up talk to me about tender.are you blue from slender.are you bruised from under.or are you billowing bright.were you green this morning.or are y...

here’s a poem about swans, pens, and penning reflections, published in @manchesterreview.bsky.social issue 28 in December 2025 (second poem on the page): www.themanchesterreview.co.uk?p=13120

advertising poster for Swan fountain pens showing a swan diving underwater to pick up a fountain pen

swans are so closely associated with writing that the word pen comes from the Latin penna, which is the name for a female swan. there is also an etymological link between the fountain pen, the plume (in french) and plumage.

hand holding the remains of a swan feather with foreshore in the background

painting of a woman writing with a feather quill

the remains of a swan feather found on the Thames foreshore. from the 7th-century onward for 1300 years, goose, swan, and turkey feathers were used to make quills for writing. the first five flight feathers of a swan’s wing are most prized for making quills.

17th-century “nipple button” found on the Thames foreshore this morning, made of tombac, a copper-brass alloy, cheaper than sliver, for when you need as many buttons as possible.

fab few days exhibiting #mudlarking finds and giving poetry readings at Waterman’s Hall. the Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the River Thames was founded in 1514, when the earliest Act of Parliament for regulating watermen, wherrymen and bargemen received Royal Assent from King Henry VIII.

river poems and mudlarking finds. today and tomorrow. 1pm.

I’m exhibiting #mudlarking finds on Sunday 29 March and giving river-themed poetry readings 28 & 29 March 1PM at historic Watermen’s Hall in London. price of admission gets you £5 off my collections with @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social @shearsmanbooks.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/river-read...

thanks

River Readings with Poet and Mudlark J.R. Carpenter Join us for a short talk and river readings from award-winning poet and mudlark J. R. Carpenter at Watermen's Hall.

to hear me read a sample from this forthcoming publication, alongside some other river poems, come to the mudlarking exhibition at Waterman’s Hall in London 28–29 March. spaces are limited. For information and booking: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/river-read...

hand holding a poetry chat book with a bluish grey cover with the title shore thing, and the author name, JR Carpenter. Black-and-white drying of a fossilised sea urchin. Bright orange wall in background.

I am an underling. a shore thing. scanning. eying. sliding. overing. chalk cobble. and flint nodule. pebble. pebble. pebble. gravel. pebble. gravel. oyster shell. brick. brick. brick. brick. until click. the blue of something. smoothed by hand.

small blue bead surrounded by rubble on the Thames foreshore

ARC of my new poetry chapbook, shore thing. all about #mudlarking * illustrated by Theo Rumsby * published by above/ground press * available 1 May. watch this space.

Death by Landscape From the acclaimed author of the novel Oval comes a book of “fan nonfiction” about living and writing in the age of extinction In this constellation of essays, Elvia Wilk asks what kind…

this week in Climate Writing we read Death by Landscape by @elvia-wilk.bsky.social — resulting in the most lively conversation we’ve had yet in this module softskull.com/books/death-...

table with stacks of books by J. R. Carpenter. two books are brown with blue rivers on the covers. lined up in a row, the rivers appear to flow into one another

thanks to everyone who came to the Leeds launch of p a u s e. last evening. only photo I took was of the book table. check out this amazing thing @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social did, linking up the rivers on the covers of p a u s e. and City of Marvels — kisiskâciwanisîpiy and the Ouse respectively.

cliff face, with spruce trees growing above, blue sky, high clouds

winter, snow, person wearing big coat and ski goggles, chickadee perched on mitten

this long poem listens closely to water and weather, birds and trees, mudstone and ice, while never forgetting that no geology, no language, and no river are neutral. @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...

a view over a river surrounded by trees, blue sky, high clouds in the distance

birch trees

In p a u s e. J. R. Carpenter turns the simple act of going for a walk into a radical practice of attention. Written over the course of a year of daily encounters with kisiskâciwanisîpiy (the North Saskatchewan River) as it runs through amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton) in Treaty 6 Territory…

book cover, brown background with blue river design. title: pause, by J. R. Carpenter

good citizens of West Yorkshire. there will be a book launch event for my new poetry collection p a u s e. @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social this evening 5pm in the School of English foyer, University of Leeds, FREE all are welcome. also available online: www.ticketsource.co.uk/university-o...

took a little tour of the blackthorn in blossom to map out future sloe gin adventures #wildflowerhour

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