Thrilled to share — my prose piece Layla Sabourian is published and featured in Ink Sweat & Tears, one of the UK's finest literary journals. Being featured here means so much. 🖤 inksweatandtears.co.uk/layla-sabourian/ #IranianWriter #InkSweatAndTears #Published #LaylaSabourian #IranianWomen
Collaged animal with three tusks protruding from its snout. Title: That Three-Tusked Beast. Quotes: I wasn't to know that it was a three-tusked beast; that there was not one, not two, but three that grew the seed of me.' Poet: May Grier.
May Grier's 'That Three-Tusked Beast' considers rarer forms of conception involving three people instead of two and likens the speaker's experience to that of three-tusked creatures not often found in nature.
inksweatandtears.co.uk/may-grier/
#InkSweatandTears #NonTraditionalFamilies
Background: Darker fireworks glow over background of bright gold fireworks forming a frame. Text: IS&T Nominations for the 2026 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem (Written) John Bartlett 'sclerenchyma' Rachael Clyne 'Homeland' Mariam Saidan 'A Cry'
We have the green light from @forwardprizes.bsky.social and can announce our three Nominations for the 2026 Prize for Best Single Poem (Written): John Bartlett, @rachaelclyne.bsky.social & Mariam Saidan. Congratulations!
inksweatandtears.co.uk/2026-forward...
#InkSweatandTears #ForwardPrizes2026
Image of a row of trees. Text On her first day home, she took to plucking the sky with tweezers - latched onto clouds and waited for their let-down. She must've known Daniel Hill copyright
Daniel Hill's poem 'Pollarding', a form of tree management, seems to be told from the perspective of the uppermost branches as they witness the actions of their caregiver/ arborist.
inksweatandtears.co.uk/daniel-hill/
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Submission #Pollarding
Poem in the form of a risk assessment. Title: Content Warning. Quotes: 'Answer the following questions as truthfully as possible: What is a risk assessment? What is the hazard you have identified?' Poet/ Artist: S. Reeson.
Today's Word & Image is'Content Warning' by S. Reeson / @internetofwords.com. The piece considers risk assessing and reflecting on the major crises of our time and what filling out such a form could bring to light.
inksweatandtears.co.uk/s-reeson-2/
#WordAndImage #InkSweatAndTears #RiskAssessment
Man in a room with a lamp, plant and window. TItle: Man in a Room. Quote: 'seeming absorbed into the street wall looking up to the window grille -- ' Poet: Sheila Saunders.
Sheila Saunders' poem 'Man in a Room' is an ekphrastic poem inspired by Lucien Freud's 'Interior at Paddington': the subject is not necessarily the subject but rather an indication of mood and of a slow unravelling.
inksweatandtears.co.uk/sheila-saund...
#InkSweatandTears #EkphrasticPoetry
Bag of soil and scoop next to a wooden box. The image is framed by a border of 'traditional fabrics' potentially Indigenous fabrics or inspired by Indigenous North American culture. Title: 'What is holding you back from building your wormery?' Quotes: You can't say there isn't time. Everyone has the time when it comes to a womery. Born with the right tools to hand.' Poet: Trelawney.
Do you need a DIY pep talk or a new project for spring? Try reading Trelawney’s poem, ‘What is holding you back from building your wormery?’ And tackle those garden improvements like no one’s watching.
inksweatandtears.co.uk/41815-2/
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Submission #Wormery
Special forces police officer representing ICE agent, in dark fatigues, mask, helmet and glasses. Text: and I’m wondering if we’ll ever be the way we were or if this is it now, reality shot down in a hail of bullets as our world accepts that nothing is true any more... David Van-Cauter©
A powerful invective from David Van-Cauter against events in Minnesota and how they both affect and reflect personal crises.
inksweatandtears.co.uk/david-van-ca...
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Submission #Minnesota
Three open windows, a desk and a chair. The image is framed by a wood flooring. Title: 'Unexpectedly'. Quote: 'My neighbour opens her window for fresh salty air.' Poet: Tim Dwyer.
In Tim Dwyer's 'Unexpectedly', an open window seems to set in motion a chain reaction that offers hope.
inksweatandtears.co.uk/tim-dwyer-4/
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Submission
Sound wave framed by a photograph of water waves. Title: Postscript. Quotes: 'I drain each clip of hiss and static, nip and trim all hum and crackle' and 'bind them in crisp audio winding sheets and set them sailing off through cyberspace.' Poet: Paul Moclair.
'Postscript' by Paul Moclair contemplates how the essence of someone, in this case their voice, can resurface and be shared after death.
Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/paul-moclair/
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Submission
A cup of tea in a ceramic mug. Title: Cup. Quotes: 'Sometimes words are the only thing that get you through, But not the words you think,' Poet: Susan Elizabeth Hale.
Susan Elizabeth Hale's poem 'Cup' ponders the most useful words and what they have in common.
Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/susan-elizab...
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Submission
View from inside Sacre Coer Cathedral looking out over the city of Paris. Title: Candlelight. Quotes: 'We lit a candle for you that day in Sacre Coeur, under its white-flame dome as high as Paris could go and still be Paris,' Poet: Seán Street.
'Candlelight' by Seán Street commemorates someone dear who is not named in the poem but remembered vividly through shared experiences in Paris. @seanstreet.bsky.social
Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/sean-street-3/
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Submission #SacreCoeur
What's not to love about a nature walk? Marjory Woodfield's poem 'Inventory of a Walk' takes the scenic route. Her speaker names lush flora and fauna and has small conversations along the way.
Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/marjory-wood...
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Submission #NatureWalk
Scenic North Wales Coastal Landscape View. Title: Draenog. Quotes: 'He was wandering across fields and streams, and then what seemed like forever along a winding lane.' Poet: Ian Seed.
In @ianseedauthor.bsky.social's 'Draenog', it's as if the speaker wanders through the fields and streams of his own memory to recover a forgotten word.
Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/ian-seed/
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Submission
A border of bricks and a slate square in the centre. Title: Tabula Rasa. Quote: 'Rectangular, with corners cut off like an octagon, muddy brown shows through the cream exterior where the edges are chipped. Just the right height for a young child learning to stand.' Poet: Sue Wallace-Shaddad.
@suewallaceshaddad.bsky.social's 'Tabula Rasa' poem shifts in perspective as the speaker grows. First only the cut corners are visible, next the surface and what the table can hold. @Sue_SWS
Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/sue-wallace-...
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Submission #TabulaRasa
Close up of a cracked wall surface but also looks like a cracked egg. Title: How many blows does it take to crack an egg. Quotes: 'If you don't know, I should tell you, an egg Is what they call the girl inside the male mask When she doesn't even know she's got it on Doesn't even know its there' Poet: Cally Ann Kerr.
On #InternationalTransgenderDayofVisibility, we have Cally Ann Kerr's poem 'How many blows does it take to crack an egg?' where she explores what it takes to break through a false exterior to reveal her true self and what comes next.
inksweatandtears.co.uk/cally-ann-ke...
#InkSweatandTears
Continuing our theme of #ColouringOutsidetheLines, we have 'The Music That Lives In Me' by Angela Yausheva, a filmpoem that takes the viewer around the city exploring the speaker's relationship and inner music.
View it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/angelayaushe...
#InkSweatandTears #FilmPoem
Multi-coloured balls of sheep wool with white lamb-shaped heads. Title: SURREAL SHEEP. Quote: I sell the postcard of multi-coloured sheep over and over again. Poet: Sue Moules.
Sue Moules' poem 'SURREAL SHEEP' is a reminder, like the postcard at its centre, of the need for whimsy in the midst of routine.
inksweatandtears.co.uk/sue-moules-2/
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Submission #PostcardPoem
A woman examining medication bottles at home. Title: Unmedicated. Quotes: 'I carry grief. I carry the memory of when we were happy. I carry it unmedicated.' and 'Not because I am stronger but because some truths live in the body.' Prose Writer: Layla Sabourian.
'Unmedicated' is a personal essay by Layla Sabourianan, an Iranian author in exile. She explores what it means to hold the complexities of her life in Iran and abroad and asks how to 'end tyranny without becoming it'.
inksweatandtears.co.uk/layla-sabour...
#InkSweatandTears #Prose #Submission
Woman in the sea. Smiling and touching her neck. Title: Brine. Quotes: 'There was salt in my kisses. It preserved us for a while, resisted the putrefaction. Skin on sea-stained sheets.' Poet: L Kiew.
'Brine' by L.Kiew is a love poem, full of sensual imagery and eros that starts at a pebbled beach and lingers long afterwards.
Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/l-kiew-6/
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Submission #LovePoem
Four women wild swimming in cold water. Title: Hurst Reservoir. Quotes: 'Heads raised high against the tiny vicious waves.' and 'Crazy women some might say but we laughed with the joy of it, almost cried'. Poet: Margaret Baldock.
Margaret Baldock's poem 'Hurst Reservoir' charts several women's joyous adventure as they push past the edge and let go of limitations.
Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/margaret-bal...
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Submission #WildSwimming
Man kneeling at a place of worship with Buddhist prayer beads around his hands. Title: Sanctum Without God. Quotes: 'You did not reach for me.' and 'You did not need to. Devotion is a self-inflicted posture.' and 'I learned the angles of you --' Poet: Krishh Biswal.
Krishh Biswal's 'Sanctum Without God' does not offer an ecstatic or romantic view of worship but instead grapples with the discipline of faith once façades have fallen away.
Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/krishh-biswal/
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Submission
Joyful child playing in winter snowfall. Title: 'Buried'. Quotes: 'That winter the snow kept rising, a slow white wall climbing the windows each morning untouched, the whole world muffled under it.' Poet: Tamara Salih.
If you grew up with long snow-filled winters, then Tamara Salih's poem 'Buried' may transport you back to that place of childhood building and imagination. This is a warm and inviting poem with luminous details.
inksweatandtears.co.uk/tamara-salih/
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry
#SnowPoem
Apples on a tree branch covered in ice. Title: Bureaucracies of Water. Quotes: 'A ghost apple is something the name of which I keep forgetting' and 'so I call them glass apples instead, which is more what they look like.' Poet: Alicia Byrne Keane.
Alicia Byrne Keane's poem is one where the science of an event adds to its mystery. In fact, everything described in relation to ghost apples becomes an enigma, like frozen water formed around an absence.
inksweatandtears.co.uk/aliciabyrnek...
#InkSweatandTears #GhostApple
Man holding wheelbarrow with a bucket of mortar. Title: THE APPRENTICE OF GROUNDHOG DAY. Quotes: 'Each wrinkle he laid as mortar on a wall. More bricks, more weight.' and 'All this was an experience'. Poet: Gareth Culshaw.
Being a poet can feel like a lifelong apprenticeship. So in honour of #WorldPoetryDay, see Gareth Culshaw's 'THE APPRENTICE OF GROUNDHOG DAY'. Into the mortar everything goes - a metaphor for making poems.
Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/gareth-culsh...
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry
A close up of Scottish Highland cows. Title: 'Wild Cows'. Quotes: 'Those full udders will slowly burst' and 'spitting milk onto the grass strands.' Poet: Jennie Howitt.
Jennie Howitt's poem 'Wild Cows' traces the pathway of surplus milk and its effect on the landscape. The speaker considers what this overflow could nourish.
Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/jennie-howitt/
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Submission
Field of tall grasses and a purple sky at dusk. Title: 'Killing Time'. Quote: 'at the cider farm, eight minutes before handover, we strike on feeding the donkeys -- and sprint towards the orchard,' Poet: Matt Bryden.
Matt Bryden's poem captures what happens in the eight minutes before a shift's end, a window of perceived possibilities. @methyst.bsky.social
Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/matt-bryden-2/
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Submission
Close up of stems with thorns. Title: 'Thorny (One Sided Conversations No4)'. Quotes: 'to embrace you is like clasping a fist full of briars' and 'if your mouth was a envelope I'd lick it shut'. Poet: Colin Pink.
Desire and repulsion form the push and pull tension in Colin Pink's poem, that one is never far from the other makes it difficult to let even the thorniest of situations go.
Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/colin-pink-3/
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Submission
Hummingbird hawk moth sucking nectar from a flower. Title: 'Hummingbird Hawk Moth', Quotes: 'What were these fairies called before we knew of hummingbirds' and 'I fancy Garden-sprite, Hoverling, tiny Vanguard from the Realm of Humm,' Poet: Simon Williams.
Simon Williams' poem 'Hummingbird Hawk Moth' is a spell. Each curious new name transforms Williams' light, velvety and whimsical subject.
@greatbigbadger.bsky.social
Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/simon-willia...
#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Submission
'succinct, modest, affecting portrait of a good but constrained life'
Huge Congratulations to Stephen Chappell whose poem 'At the Barbers' is the IS&T #PickoftheMonth for February. To revisit the poem and for more voters' comments, go to inksweatandtears.co.uk/february-202...
#InkSweatAndTears
