Oh Laura thanks so much

That’s it - memorial done. Sleep easy, sister ❤️

A woman holding a picture book and reading from it plus the Bookstart logo and words: "BookTrust Partner Survey 2026 - last chance!"

We know how important our Early Years partners are.

Which is why we pay attention to what you say.

👉 Your thoughts in last year’s BookTrust Partner Survey have been shared in our #ReadingRights report & with government. Don't miss your chance to influence what happens next!

https://bit.ly/4sEWD1R

Opening for submissions on Monday April 27th.

www.stanchionzine.com/submissions

Channeling my inner Shakespeare It’s Monday and as is customary, it’s all kicking off.

open.substack.com/pub/bethbroo...

This is just unconscionable.

No one is illegal, & the bar to obtaining asylum is high. Reversing an asylum decision would be hideously cruel & threatening to do so would leave ppl in a horrendous situation of insecurity.

I have just finished The Tortoise’s Tale by Kendra Coulter (sent by my daughter in law from Canada) and about about to start Caesar’s Last Breath by Sam Kean. Hoping this one will give me ideas for poems.

Effective 2025 federal tax rates paid by these corporations:

Alphabet: 8.01%
AT&T: 4.6%
Meta: 3.57%
General Motors: 3.09%
Amazon: 1.37%
Exxon Mobil: 1.31%
Disney: -1.57%
CVS Health: -3.88%

Income tax rate paid by the typical American: 14.5%

This is what a rigged system looks like.

Beruit: A Literary City A Look Back At The City's Amazingly Rich History. By James Hartley.

A look at the long, illustrious literary history of a city by the sea
themadridreview.com/f/beruit-a-l...
##beruit #lebanon #history

Written my bit for my sister’s memorial service. It’s on Tuesday.

Thanks. I’m obviously not holding my breath!!!

😁

Yes, Laura mentioned them. I will give them a try

Got a collection. Who’s open?

Up like Icarus We walk our kite where others walk dogs; watch as its long tail races on ahead, wagging over awestruck buttercups. Then up – up like Icarus. Our eyes follow it like fools. Climb, until they burn and fall.

For #poemsabout #gravity, a poem about gravity ...

Lost Federico García Lorca verse discovered 93 years after it was written Eight-line poem found on the back of a manuscript sheds light on Spanish poet’s preoccupation with time

The clock sings
I count the hours mechanically
Seven o’clock; twelve o’clock
It’s all the same
I am not here
It is the mark of flesh
That I left behind when I departed
So as to know my place
Upon my return.

A lost Lorca poem is found

Ooh thank you! It’s a favourite of mine

Illustration of new moon on third day of lunar cycle showing detail of craters on moon surface.

Goodnight.
‘The moon is my mother.
She is not sweet like Mary.
Her blue garments unloose small bats and owls.
How I would like to believe in tenderness—
The face of the effigy, gentled by candles,
Bending, on me in particular, its mild eyes.’ ~Plath
The Moon: third day, Secrets of the stars, 1922.

Thank you. I wanted the science along with the captain’s log vibe. I am a lifelong Trekkie

Escape Velocity T-1 minute. Vibration within normal parameters. Launch. (the issue of physics in relation to the human body) G-force within normal parameters. No blackout. Full consciousness. T+ 2.5 clear the Von Karman line. The edge of space. Weightlessness. (we return to the free float of the womb umbilicals of technology) T+ 8. Orbit established. Cloud formation indicates storms below. T+90. One orbital cycle complete. Functioning within normal parameters. This is the right distance to achieve perspective (to function within normal parameters.)

#PoemsAbout #Gravity Yes, I know…

I’m not sure is any other pop stars have been into space Men who blasted six women into space Don’t understand gravity Don’t know how it feels to push Against a boundary Don’t know roots reach down Don’t know the sensation Of being sealed in a capsule A Tupperware lip slurps As it loses its vacuum Song lost in endless blackness Turn to look at earth 🌍

Good morning #poemsabout
#gravity
The title is after a Katy Perry quote
@alanparrywriter.co.uk
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
🌍 🚀

Have you had the one that says not enough resources yet?!

The Northern Lights Fill The Skies Over Alberta The Aurora Borealis is having a moment media feeds of excited posts from people proclaiming they have been blessed to observe those luminous transparencies of green and purple silk rippling across the night sky I send you a text asking if you have seen this spectacle Not yet you say and hope they will be there again at bedtime And I think how the night for which you wait is already here for me I wake next day to an inbox full of your photographs The Northern Lights shot from the decking in your garden beauty illuminating a moment which for you is now but already yesterday for me Beauty hanging in your sky four thousand miles away

One for the Canadians

Seems to be ok now. Panic !

Three Poems by Paul Connolly Lothlorien Poetry Journal Edited by Strider Marcus Jones Poet - Publishes poetry and fiction online and in print periodically. https://lothlorienp

lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/2026/04/thre...

Five Essential Iranian Poets And some great moderns to check out too. By James Hartley.

open.substack.com/pub/themadri...
#iran #Persian #Persia #Iran #poetry #history #culture

Arbour

On the treeline
Seven rooks grate sound
Into dark shards

Featureless fields
Roll on by like ruckled rugs -
No birds sing

Up in dancing stars
A too-bright sky -
Seasons change

I sit on a plank, too full,
Open to suggestion
Crushed by new buds

Morn @imcmillan.bsky.social

I had a lovely time reading my poems and chatting at Black Cat Books Launceston today as part of my time as Causley Poet in Residence . #poetry #poetrycommunity

There was no good way to organise this visit and nothing gained by sending him. A severe risk to national dignity, undertaken for no advantage whatsoever.