Bill Herbert
LightNews LightNews
banner
billherbert.bsky.social
Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social
230 followers 130 following 350 posts
Visitor, scriever, ex-prof/-makar/-you name it, loser. Still seeking your poems for endlessly subdividing online/print projects: Ghost Furniture Catalogue; New Boots and Pantisocracies (Eco Sonnet Chain); New Gude & Godlie Ballatis (Dundee Renga), etc.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Bill Herbert
asls.org.uk
The Wigtown Poetry Prizes offer awards for poetry in all three of Scotland’s languages. The 2026 competitions are open for submission from today (2 Feb) until 6 May
www.wigtownpoetryprize.com/poetry-compe...
Wigtown Poetry Prizes Founded in 2005, the Wigtown Poetry Prizes are some of the UK's best established writing competitions, offering awards in all three of Scotland’s languages with a prize pot of over £3000. The 2026 prizes mark 21 years of Wigtown Poetry Prizes and over £50,000 awarded to emerging and established poets. The competition opens on 2 February and closes on 6 May 2026, with a prize-giving at Wigtown Book Festival in the autumn. We hope to see you there. Wigtown International Prize: £1500 Runner-up: £200 Wigtown Scots Prize: £500 Runner-up: £200 Supported by Saltire Society Wigtown Scottish Gaelic Prize: £500 Runner-up: £200 Supported by The Gaelic Books Council Dumfries & Galloway Fresh Voice Award Professional support including mentoring by Wigtown Festival Company and a retreat at Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre Alastair Reid Pamphlet Prize 30 copies of a pamphlet of your work set by Gerry Cambridge Supported by The Dark Horse Magazine
February 2, 2026 at 5:35 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
In these cauld and blustery days of far too much rain, how nice to sit back and dream of deckchairs with Stephen Bone…

Why not set one up in your living room now, and pretend you’re on the deck of a doomed ocean liner!

ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2026/01/29/s...

#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
Stephen Bone: Ode To A Deckchair
Rousedfrom cobwebbed hibernation,you regain yourself, emblemof holidays. Sun soaked dreamsof cornflower skiesand slumped easeunfoldedwith your teak bones.A weathered veteranbrave faced to the washo…
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
January 29, 2026 at 2:13 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
Kathleen McPhilemy’s excellent podcast, ‘Poetry Worth Hearing’, featuring the launch of our #EcoSonnetChain, is now up on Spotify, Audible, and YouTube, introduced by #LindaFrance and featuring readings from almost all participants:

open.spotify.com/episode/1FeZ...

#NewBootsAndPantisocracies
Spotify – Web Player
open.spotify.com
January 28, 2026 at 12:44 PM
Reposted by Bill Herbert
asls.org.uk
Atween November’s end and noo
there’s really nithin else tae do
but climb inside a brindlet coo
and dream o Spring…

—W.N. Herbert, “Rabbie, Rabbie, Burning Bright”
in OMNESIA (Remix), @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social 2013
Warming up for #BurnsNight
#poem
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/rabbie-...
Rabbie, Rabbie, Burning Bright by W. N. Herbert Atween November’s end and noo there’s really nithin else tae do but climb inside a brindlet coo and dream o Spring, fur Winter’s decked hur breist and broo wi icy bling. It feels like, oan St Andrae’s nicht, thi sun went oot and gote sae ticht he endit up in a braw fire fecht wi some wee comet – noo he’s layin low wi his punched-oot licht aa rimmed wi vomit. We too hae strachilt lik The Bruce and hacked up turkey, duck and goose; and let aa resolution loose oan Hogmanay, but waddle noo frae wark tae hoose lyk dogs they spayed. Each year fails tae begin thi same: fae dregs o Daft Deys debt comes hame and we gaither in depression’s wame aa duty-crossed – but Burns’s birthday is a flame set tae Defrost. Ye dinna need tae be Confucius tae ken, if Dullness wad confuse us, ye caa ‘Respite! Let’s aa get stocious – And dinna nag us. Grant us that globe of spice, thi luscious Delight caaed “haggis”!’ That truffle o the North must be dug frae the depths o January, but cannae pass oor lips, nor we cross Limbo’s border – unless that passport, Poetry, be quite in order. Sae thi daurkest deys o thi haill damn year can dawn in yawns baith dreich an drear – sae thi Taxman’s axe is at wir ear fur his Returns? We Scots sall neither dreid nor fear but read wir Burns.
January 24, 2026 at 2:46 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
Sinks: we all think we know where they start out, but then where do they go? We're astonished we haven't mentioned them before, but Andrew Sclater's poem plumbs the depths of the matter, dare we say, succinctly:

ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2026/01/21/%...

#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
Αndrew Sclater: The Sink
The pipes here underneath my sinkamaze me by the way they linkmy blinkered house to Lower Earthand in so doing add real worthto living this my drywall life—together with my drywall wife—though we a…
https://ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2026/01/21/αndrew-sclater-the-sink/
January 22, 2026 at 5:15 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
No-one who has sat in or seen an Orkney chair would think of it as anything other than a safe place. As Olive Ritch points out, though, that rather depends on what you need protection from:

ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2026/01/12/o...

#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
Olive M. Ritch: Stoneyhill
An Orkney chair in my dining-roomspeaks of another place, another time,before womenfolk were entangled in our webof online fear, offline shortcomings.A time when great-grandma lowers herselfonto th…
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
January 12, 2026 at 4:12 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
Striking, resonant poem - and a brilliant instance of the 13 line near-sonnet.

I think this is translated by Richard Lourie, though the Poetry Foundation site and indeed the publisher (as far as I can tell) don't seem to mention this.

Can you confirm, @johnglenday.bsky.social?

#CzesławMiłosz
johnglenday.bsky.social John Glenday @johnglenday.bsky.social · 26d
‘You Who Wronged’ by Czesław Milosz. For some reason or other this poem came to mind this morning. Written in a time of tyrants:
#Poetry
January 9, 2026 at 4:09 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
As a perfectly ordinary week somehow reaches its Friday, #NewBootsAndPantisocracies has 2 points of inflection, reflection, & invective to share w/ you.

Here’s Peter Childs from last year, re #Trumpo’s pardons for the Jan 6th mobsters:

newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2025/05/01/e...

(1/2)
Executive Disobediences #6 – Peter Childs
Responding to Presidential Proclamation 10887: GRANTING PARDONS AND COMMUTATION OF SENTENCES FOR CERTAIN OFFENSES RELATING TO THE EVENTS AT OR NEAR THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL ON JANUARY 6, 2021 The …
newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com
January 9, 2026 at 12:27 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
Another in the occasional series, #ExecutiveQuatrains, to welcome in the new year, as it were.

The occasion: #Trumpo’s Venezuelan intervention.

www.tumblr.com/billherbert2...

#NewBootsAndPantisocracies
Post by @billherbert23 · 1 image
💬 0  🔁 0  ❤️ 0 · Executive Quatrains, 15: Triumphus Trumpi This is not, as Bowie states, America - but that is, and that, and so is that! Attack us, Caracas, if only with words: we have dabs on…
www.tumblr.com
January 8, 2026 at 12:07 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
As the #DaftDays recede and the #NewYear kicks in, the dream of home seems ever less ghostly until, as in this piece by @imogenforster.bsky.social, it’s almost a construct we could rearrange to suit our whims n fancies:

ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2026/01/06/i...

#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
Imogen Forster: Home and Garden (a construction)
Imogen Forster lives and works in Edinburgh, where she writes poems and amuses herself by making constructions (like stage sets, but not quite) using paper, cardboard and oddments that she comes ac…
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
January 7, 2026 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Bill Herbert
asls.org.uk
My heid’s dementit an’ my feet’s the same,
When they’ll no wark thegither it’s a lang road hame;
An’ we’ve twa mile to trayvel, or it’s mair like three,
But I’ve got a grip o’ Alick, an’ ye’d best grip me…

—Violet Jacob, “Hogmanay”

Keep the heid, folks!
#poem #poetry
digital.nls.uk/works-by-sel...
Hogmanay by Violet Jacob Oh, it’s fine when the New and the Auld Year meet, An’ the lads gang roarin’ i’ the lichtit street, An’ there’s me and there’s Alick an’ the miller’s loon, An’ Geordie that’s the piper oot o’ Forfar toon. Geordie Faa! Geordie Faa! Up wi’ the chanter, lad, an’ gie’s a blaw! For we’ll step to the tune while we’ve feet intill oor shune, Tho’ the bailies an’ the provost be to sort us a’! We’ve three bonnie bottles, but the third ane’s toom, Gin the road ran whisky, it’s mysel’ wad soom! But we’ll stan’ while we can, an’ be dancin’ while we may, For there’s twa we hae to finish, an’ it’s Hogmanay. Geordie Faa! Geordie Faa! There’s an auld carle glow’rin’ oot ahint yon wa’, But we’ll sune gar him loup to the pipin’ till he coup, For we’ll gie him just a drappie, an’ he’ll no say na! My heid’s dementit an’ my feet’s the same, When they’ll no wark thegither it’s a lang road hame; An’ we’ve twa mile to trayvel, or it’s mair like three, But I’ve got a grip o’ Alick, an’ ye’d best grip me. Geordie Faa! Geordie Faa! The morn’s near brakin’ an’ we’ll need awa’, Gin ye’re aye blawin’ strang, then we’ll mebbe get alang, An’ the deevil tak’ the laddie that’s the first to fa’!
December 31, 2025 at 8:14 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
We’re on the case of the last lost hours while we count down (or is it backwards?) to the bells with the help of Emily Gillatt-Ball’s leaden long-case clock:

ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/12/31/e...

#GhostFurnitureCatalogue (1/2)
Emily Gillatt-Ball: The Leaden Long-Case Clock
Emily Gillatt-Ball is a member of Darlington Writers’ Group.
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
December 31, 2025 at 6:26 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
In time for the seasonal Thrapplecramfest - the just dessert trolley arriveth, courtesy of the gloriously generous eloquence of @janeburn.bsky.social:

ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/12/23/j...

#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
Jane Burn: Off my Trolley
Meals tasted better when they enteredthe room on wheels. Luncheon proudly trundled in,the host gripping the handle with élan,Nylon-clad thighs swishing,creating all kinds of electric.When was the l…
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
December 23, 2025 at 7:08 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
Rachel Lewis identifies possibly the most hauntological item in the whole house (to a child obliged to learn the piano), only for it to make, by way of heartbreaking reply, ‘noise after noise’:

ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/12/16/r...

#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
Rachel Lewis: piano
piano like the surface of the sun. piano like half a boiled egg with the top cracked open and yolk leaking out. piano like everything dad worked for stood on mahogany baby grand legs, with wheels f…
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
December 17, 2025 at 1:36 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
I should share info about my course in January for @faberacademy.bsky.social. As ever, I have misgivings that it would be pushy even to mention it…

However, Xmas is coming and the goose isn’t getting any fatter with that kind of attitude, so here you go:

faberacademy.com/product/writ...

(1/2)
Writing Poems (Newcastle) – 26 January 2026 | Faber Academy
A playful, supportive three-month poetry course for beginners and aspiring amateur poets, with two of the best practitioners and teachers in the country.
faberacademy.com
December 16, 2025 at 5:40 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
Dear Pals, This is your friendly neighbourhood ‘Too Late to Make a Difference!’ reminder that tonight, at 7.30pm, we are launching the #EcoSonnetChain with #LindaFrance and a host of (well, several) contributors:

facebook.com/events/s/eco...

#NewBootsAndPantisocracies (1/2) @azjackson.bsky.social
Eco Sonnet Chain - Pamphlet Launch
Event by Andy Jackson and Bill Herbert on Wednesday, December 10 2025
facebook.com
December 10, 2025 at 1:09 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
Folks, we’re at that exciting moment in the calendar where it’s #EcoSonnetChain Launch Eve! The organisers & poets can hardly sleep for thinking of all the audience members who will turn up tomorrow to hear us launch that jolly old pamphlet, edited by Linda France & myself.

(1/3)
December 9, 2025 at 6:42 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
Sometimes, even when you clear a house, Oliver Comins notes, the evidence of presence (if not the presences of its previous inhabitants) is still there.

A spare but appropriately haunted addition to the #GhostFurnitureCatalogue for this week:

ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/12/08/o...
Oliver Comins: Worn air
There are no goods and chattels left.    Windows have no curtains.Rooms are filled with vacant light    and nothing’s lost in shadow.Patches of wallpaper, hi…
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
December 9, 2025 at 5:41 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
By a remarkable coincidence, I took a pic of a similar specimen on a nudibranch line in Bristol.
December 8, 2025 at 5:51 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
Get your link to the #EcoSonnetChain launch!

We tried sending by bobolink (but they flew away); we approached the wraith of Link Wray (he wouldn’t say); we even left the link on Lincoln Cathedral (in a mystery play).

In the end we thought: just ask folks to just ask @azjackson.bsky.social!
azjackson.bsky.social Andy Jackson @azjackson.bsky.social · Dec 4
Just under a week to go till we launch the Eco Sonnet Chain - if you're interested in coming (and I hope you are!) we'll send you a Zoom link...please message me!
December 4, 2025 at 10:11 AM
billherbert.bsky.social
An excellent synoptic account particularly of the influence of Arthur ‘Laughing Boy’ Schopenhauer, which finds room for witty asides, eg:

‘…his morose estimate of humankind was confirmed by his not receiving a prestigious essay prize even though he had been the only entrant.’
lrb.co.uk London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · Dec 3
‘He regarded the work of most philosophers except for Plato, Kant and himself as a lot of hot air. He was venomous, arrogant and cantankerous.’

Terry Eagleton on Schopenhauer’s pessimism.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Terry Eagleton · Pregnant with Monsters: Schopenhauer makes a stir
Schopenhauer has long held the title of gloomiest philosopher in history. He sees human existence not as grand tragedy...
www.lrb.co.uk
December 3, 2025 at 12:26 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
Following up on our Monday post, here’s #WilliamBlake in the #GhostFurnitureCatalogue, with a transcription and, instead of a biog, a true & splendid account by co-editor @sophieherx.bsky.social of a visitation by WB over cake (coffee & walnut):

ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/12/02/w...
William Blake: from ‘Jerusalem the Emanation of the Giant of Albion’
What are those golden builders doing? where was the burying-placeOf soft Ethinthus? near Tyburns fatal Tree? Is thatMild Zions hills most ancient promontory; near mournfulEver weeping Paddington? i…
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
December 3, 2025 at 10:37 AM
billherbert.bsky.social
The thought drifted back & forth between ghost, furniture, and catalogue that it would be good to mark #WilliamBlake’s birthday somehow in the #GhostFurnitureCatalogue…

Imagine our delight when we stumbled upon this verse paragraph from ‘Jerusalem’ only barking our shins slightly!
December 1, 2025 at 5:02 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
This week’s post is #RogerRobinson’s almost Platonic ideal of a #GhostFurnitureCatalogue poem in that it features both a ghost and furniture, and is, as you might expect, a deeply moving poem (from his 2009 pamphlet, ‘Suckle’ - link in post):

ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/11/27/r...
Roger Robinson: Gramps
In the dream there was a knocking at our doorI opened it and you were in your vestwith blue chequered shorts and no shoes.You say, They’ve stolen all my furniture! and Isay, Don’t worry gramps I ha…
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
November 28, 2025 at 3:30 PM
billherbert.bsky.social
Another magisterial piece by @jamesmeek.bsky.social applying both investigative journalism and historical perspective to a very British crisis of economy, identity, and, yes, spirit, in the NE town of Blyth.
lrb.co.uk London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · Nov 24
‘It’s always been odd that Faragism, a tendency that is bound to make small gods out of Nelson and Raleigh, should have such a hysterical loathing of wind power.’

@jamesmeek.bsky.social on Reform and the green energy transition, published online early:

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
James Meek · Ten-Foot Chopsticks: The North-East Transition
The ghost of the industrial revolution haunts Britain. The language of today’s politicians, of unlocking and...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 12:49 PM