Find myself wondering (with utmost patience) when @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social might be hosting another #PoetryTheme prompt...

A starter pack of #poets and other people associated with the #PoetryTheme Please follow them and repost the pack. #poetsonbluesky #poetrycommunity

Festive best wishes to all my friends on here, to all those who have been kind & supportive this year, to members of the #poetrycommunity, the #promptcombo & #poemsabout writers I have met, & to those who have participated in my own #poetrytheme prompt. Have a peaceful season & great 2026🙏🙏🕊️🎄

A #poetrycommunity starter pack of poets associated with my #PoetryTheme #Prompt. Full of fine #poetsonbluesky and #poetry supporters and readers. Please follow, share and repost #booksky #poets

My starter pack of people associated with the #PoetryTheme #Prompt Includes @janpsolivagant.bsky.social @uhume.bsky.social @francesca-laura.bsky.social and many more. Please follow and repost if you can #poetrycommunity #poetsonbluesky #writingcommunity

Looking forward to your next #PoetryTheme, by the way. 😁

This is a starter pack for #poetsonbluesky and members of the #poetrycommunity who are associated with the #PoetryTheme prompt. Please follow and repost if you can

Excellent pack. I do an occasional prompt called #PoetryTheme, so would love to be included if there’s room 🙏🙏🙏

The 13 posts in my thread☝️(13 despite negative associations is a Fibonacci number) may interest #poetsonbluesky, the #poetrycommunity and perhaps especially those who discussed rhyme with me during the #PoetryTheme prompt. Hope it's helpful to you.

And now there are 14 posts, which makes a sonnet.

I’ve seen lots of rhyme on here. I was particularly struck by how people used it when I ran my first #PoetryTheme prompt. This moved me to share some thoughts on my own experiences with rhyme & what I’ve observed in many great poets, from Dante to Tony Harrison, in their brilliant utilisation of it

Bufo Bufo By Dawn McLachlan Caught by the weather Pressed to ground by Autumn rain I sit with the toad We hear the river Flowing cold and deluge-deep Spawning memories The toad watches me Verrucose skin glistening Against the damp earth Fixed by copper eyes From cautionary distance Tolerated space In softening eve We rest in the fading light Just me and the toad

Huge thanks to @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social for advice on a #poetrytheme prompt #amphibian
This #haikuset is definitely better thanks to your help. Thanks for all you do to support poets.
Toad in this pic is also the actual toad that I share my plot with.
#poetrycommunity #haiku #haikusociety

This starter pack features the poets who took part in the first #PoetryTheme prompt. I will of course add anyone who takes part in the next. I'll announce the second theme, which will be a bit different, soon enough to allow lots of drafting time, with a posting deadline probably in early December🙏

That's it. #PoetryTheme #AMPHIBIAN croaks its last. Frog/prince(ss) reworkings, toads, reptiles, otherness, metaphoric amphibians, laboratories, as well as human love, pain, wonder & joy. Thanks to all the wonderful friends who took part & were kind about my comments/DMs. We'll do this again soon🙏💙🐸

As we enter the last hour of the first ever #PoetryTheme prompt #AMPHIBIAN I have just reposted all of the fantastic entries. This prompt has been a real joy. Thank you to everyone who has taken part. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. And one hour to go for anyone else who wants to post something...

Recollected rural walks & a grandmother's hair's suggestion of yellow lily & frog become in @coastalpoet.bsky.social's take on #PoetryTheme #AMPHIBIANS a symbiotic fantasia, what lessons could be learnt from birds in trees or in a braid, what new ecological systems might blossom. Elegy & rhapsody👏👏👏

This haiku set, @deemclachlan.bsky.social's #PoetryTheme #AMPHIBIAN take, is meditative, seasonal & observant (verrucose is a lovely adjective) in keeping with form, but is also an unsettling stand-off, 'amphibious' itself in tone, as we wonder what'll happen if the 'tolerated space' is breached 👏👏👏

Bufo Bufo A haiku set By Dawn McLachlan Caught by the weather Pressed to ground by Autumn rain I sit with the toad The toad watches me Verrucose skin glistening Against the damp earth Watched by copper eyes From cautionary distance Tolerated space In the soft rainfall We wait in the fading light Just me and the toad

A #haikuset for @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social #poetrytheme of #amphibian
Inspired by the magnificent toad that I have shared my allotment with for a number of years.
#haiku #poetry #poetrysociety #poetrycommunity

I expect things to slacken off this evening. So I've just reposted all the wonderful contributions to date to the first #PoetryTheme prompt
#AMPHIBIAN
These pieces deserve your attention, real gems all
Thank you to the brilliant writers
And thank you also for the kind comments about feedback
🙏💙🐸🦎👏✍️⭐

But to be honest, the most important things is happening now with the #PoetryTheme prompt #AMPHIBIAN which is that the writers themselves are engaging with each other’s pieces, mulling them over, sharing their impacts, praising them. Which is exactly what I had in mind. I couldn’t be happier 🙏💫🐸

Cunning perceptual shifts - funky paint-splats to hooks to plastic toys & ultimately party evocation - in @helenlaycock.bsky.social's magical piece for #PoetryTheme #AMPHIBIAN How the title & the voice's self-dare bring a sense too little explored in poetry - taste - to the fore. A sensory feast👏👏👏

For this first #PoetryTheme initiated by @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social,
here's my #AMPHIBIAN poem. 🐸

#poetry #poetsofbluesky #blueskypoets #poetrycommunity

Amphibiousness of feeling, destructive even, in @carmellapoetry.bsky.social's fine take on #PoetryTheme #AMPHIBIAN The omnivorous heart eats others - & self. In yielding to its omnipotent predation, the voice permits (even seeks) lacerations that won't ever heal. Love as pain, unavoidable, sought👏👏👏

Caught, by Carmella de Keyser, an initial response, to the online poetry prompt of 'amphibian', created by Paul Connolly

Hi @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social thank you for creating this wonderful and imaginative #PoetryTheme of #Amphibian .🙏🏻

Here is my offering to you... Looking forward to reading the other pieces as they arise. 🔆

🦎🐸🦎🐸🦎🐸🦎🐸🦎🐸🦎🐸🦎

youtu.be/J71EXg2hdX4?...

@badvibrations62.bsky.social's #PoetryTheme #AMPHIBIAN piece amphibiously straddles domestic comedy (cat, box, broom) & the natural horror pets can unleash (screaming, phobia). When the toad disappears domestic order & feline indifference merge almost cynically. Normality restored, save in memory👏👏👏

Screenshot of my poem with a background of the Himalayas on my desktop. Screaming That time the cat brought in a toad Cat, delighted Human, not so Toad, screaming Suppressing her Amphibian phobia She nudged the Toad into a box With a broom Pushed the box Outside. By now Both she and the Toad were Screaming The cat slipped out to find more gifts Returned in the early hours For a nap. The toad was never seen again. © Dave Kurley 2025

Here's my contribution to @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social's inaugural #PoetryTheme: #AMPHIBIAN - great prompt!

This post alone from the brilliant @francesca-laura.bsky.social makes the #PoetryTheme #AMPHIBIAN prompt worthwhile...

An A5 black and white block print of a fat toad looking very grumpy as a small fly buzzes in front of its face. The print is propped up on a plant and is signed by Francesca L Rolle.

And although not poetry I thought I'd share my grumpy toad print to celebrate the first #PoetryTheme day hosted by the fabulous @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social (my actual poetry contribution above) #Amphibian

A small boon for those who have contributed to the #PoetryTheme prompt is that they can now be found in this new starter pack. Please follow, share, repost

#poetrycommunity #poetsonbluesky #poetry #prompts #booksky #writingcommunity

Toads to mythic amphibians in @palimpsest22.bsky.social’s stunning take on #PoetryTheme #AMPHIBIAN The seeming smugness of the natterjacks gives way to sleekness of legendary water dwellers but with the twist that in their unbeholden state they are, as the title suggests, liberated modern women 👏👏👏

Poem Liberation by Sarah O'Grady. Starts 'Natterjacks flip flop', for the Amphibian event organised by Paul Connelly.

@thepaulconnolly.bsky.social #AMPHIBIAN #Poetrytheme
Had some fun with this tale. DM welcome as obs still rickety. Thanks for the prompt & event.