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gillbarr.bsky.social
Gill Barr
@gillbarr.bsky.social
230 followers 280 following 130 posts
Derry girl, Dorset woman. Debut Poetry Collection (Cinnamon Press) 2025, Arts Council Award 2024. Website: gillmbarr.wixsite.com/gillbarr
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Reposted by Gill Barr
paulwritespoems.bsky.social
Tickets are now live 🫣
paulwritespoems.bsky.social Paul @paulwritespoems.bsky.social · 1d
Back for Session 2 in January.

Who’s in?

Tickets 🎟️ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-book-b...
November 21, 2025 at 7:29 PM
gillbarr.bsky.social
Chilly, sharp, bright day at West Bay.
November 20, 2025 at 3:02 PM
gillbarr.bsky.social
Delighted that my poem Headspace inspired by Paul Klee has been selected for After… 2026. So many thanks to @markantonyowen.com
November 19, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Reposted by Gill Barr
merrildsmith.bsky.social
Such a wonderful open mic, Paul! Thank you for your warm and supportive hosting! 🌟 I'm so pleased to have been at the first Book Bag Open Mic!
November 9, 2025 at 9:13 PM
gillbarr.bsky.social
At home on the Foyle…
November 10, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by Gill Barr
victoriaspires.bsky.social
Brilliant Book Bag open mic tonight, warmly hosted by @paulwritespoems.bsky.social. Please do another one in the new year, Paul! 😁
November 9, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Reposted by Gill Barr
paulwritespoems.bsky.social
November 9, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Reposted by Gill Barr
paulwritespoems.bsky.social
Thank you to all who made tonight’s first Book Bag Open Mic Session. Absolutely stellar poetry throughout with incredible support and encouragement 🙏.

@gillbarr.bsky.social
@alanparrywriter.co.uk
@helenlaycock.bsky.social
@jahshabby.bsky.social
@markantonyowen.com
@victoriaspires.bsky.social
November 9, 2025 at 9:05 PM
gillbarr.bsky.social
November butterfly…
November 1, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Reposted by Gill Barr
victoriaspires.bsky.social
"a saint's eye unbuttons, / spilling bees" 👏🏼
fiftywords.bsky.social Fiftywords @fiftywords.bsky.social · 26d
For @victoriaspires.bsky.social thanks for the #promptcombo on #dreamlogic as it got me to rewrite this
Beetles Dream of Saints after Bunuel the mouth begins / no tongue, pulse. milk curdles. throat. small black punctuation, moving. beetles dream of saints who dream of salt, (saints of beetles dream) dream of memory. light stumbles, spills into the wound of a word that forgets its shape. language twitches gone. saints dream of beetles, of beetles dream saints, each prayer a chitin echo. silence breathes through bone: sweet, obscene, holy. a saint's eye unbuttons, spilling bees. I write / no write / only the slow crawl of meaning leaving. dust hums the last prayer. letters collapse into smell. everything holy rots to hate Sulphur & Osmogenesia.
October 27, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Reposted by Gill Barr
racheldeering.bsky.social
Goodnight.
🖼️ Edna Eicke, New Yorker October 27, 1945.
The image is the cover of The New Yorker magazine from October 27, 1945, illustrated by Edna Eicke. The cover art depicts a Halloween scene where three children, dressed in white ghost costumes, are opening a decorative wrought-iron gate. They appear to be trick-or-treating, with bags in hand, and are about to walk down a path toward a large, spooky-looking house visible in the background. The house is surrounded by a dense, dark forest of tall, bare trees, and a light shines from its windows.
October 27, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Reposted by Gill Barr
merrildsmith.bsky.social
I'm so thrilled to be nominated by The Chaos Section Poetry Project for my poem, "Emerging from the Penumbra." Thank you!
October 27, 2025 at 4:07 PM
gillbarr.bsky.social
Holly with… apple
October 27, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Gill Barr
rhonagreene.bsky.social
⚡️🥳⚡️🥳⚡️🥳⚡️
Overjoyed to see our beautiful Storms Issue V bursting into the world! It’s a real stunner and I’m so proud and grateful to have been a part of this wonderful adventure. Celebrations galore now! Thank you Damien, and all you super Stormers you are amazing! 🥳⚡️🤩 👏💖⚡️
eatthestorms.com Damien B Donnelly @eatthestorms.com · 26d
The 5th Storm has landed, the printed journal of poetry, prose & visual art featuring 89 star Stormers & cover art by Brian Malachy Quinn is supported by @dublincityoflit.bsky.social @fingal.ie

Now available to buy at our online shop eatthestorms.com/the-storm-sh...
October 27, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Reposted by Gill Barr
eatthestorms.com
The 5th Storm has landed, the printed journal of poetry, prose & visual art featuring 89 star Stormers & cover art by Brian Malachy Quinn is supported by @dublincityoflit.bsky.social @fingal.ie

Now available to buy at our online shop eatthestorms.com/the-storm-sh...
October 27, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by Gill Barr
andywilliamson.com
Getting my head back into writing after the school holidays, so a quick first draft of a poem for this week's #PromptCombo #DreamLogic. Thanks @victoriaspires.bsky.social for hosting! #poem #poetry
In darkness there is us as I close my eyes to see a future that might have been a house on the shore waves lapping against soft sand warm ocean breath there is life love, laughter children playing around us when my eyes open sand has become walls the horizon a small window in a city I can’t escape where are you now what might have been
October 27, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Reposted by Gill Barr
jburroughs.bsky.social
I'm pleased that two of my poems will appear in North Coast Voices 2025: Poems of the Great Lakes, edited by Chuck Joy and M Scott Douglass for Main Street Rag Publishing. So many good poets between these covers. Advance sale discount price is only $10 at mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/nort...
October 27, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Reposted by Gill Barr
rburrows.bsky.social
Hi @victoriaspires.bsky.social and the #promptcombo team. Thank you for the prompt #DreamLogic. Here is my recollection of the febrile hours/days of malaria when I was 19. I was nursed back to health by the inimitable Sister Pat, a septuagenarian nun - and very dear friend. #poetry
October 27, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Gill Barr
bethbpoet.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/bethbroo...
On the joys of publication, the demise of poetry presses and a small confession.
Last week I had the joy of being published in an e-journal that I really like.
open.substack.com
October 26, 2025 at 6:51 PM
gillbarr.bsky.social
Ginko to go…
October 22, 2025 at 9:37 PM
gillbarr.bsky.social
Delighted to be reading at East Coker Poets this evening at 7.30 pm in the brilliant Village Café. Reading from A Wide River Divides Us #CinnamonPress @ArtsCouncilNI @PaulWritesPoems @blackbough #southwest #poetry @LitWorks
October 21, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by Gill Barr
vikkicwrites.bsky.social
The @bridportprize.bsky.social
2025 results are officially out. Congrats to the winners & highly commended.

Honoured to be shortlisted (top 3% of entrants from around the globe), & in great company too.

My first time entering, so am very grateful 🙏 Full results:
bridportprize.org.uk/results/2025
October 18, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Reposted by Gill Barr
catherinekay.bsky.social
This is a lovely article, Gill. My heart broke at Palmer’s moon - lyrical and poignant.
October 19, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Reposted by Gill Barr
paulwritespoems.bsky.social
It’s here. The Book Bag with @gillbarr.bsky.social collection A Wide River Divides Us published by Cinnamon Press

Plus news & opps including;

@blackboughpoetry.bsky.social
@frazzledlit.bsky.social
@eatthestorms.com
paulwritespoems.bsky.social Paul @paulwritespoems.bsky.social · Oct 19
The Book Bag is here. This week we cross A Wide River Divides by Gill Barr, published by Cinnamon Press.

One of the top ten books I've read this year.

Read my thoughts here.

Also news, opps and the regular playlist.
The Book Bag: A Wide River Divides Us By Gill Barr
Welcome back to The Book Bag. I hope you’ve had a poetic week. It’s been a productive week in the allotment with strawberry runners being planted, the fruit cage being finalised and the cold frame started. Things are taking shape. Last Sunday we went to Wallington, a National Trust property not far from Morpeth. It was a perfect day for a long autumn walk. We also got to take in the photography exhibition dotted throughout the East Wood. I may write an ekphrastic piece about one of the images. The below, I took on my phone.
paulwritespoems.com
October 19, 2025 at 7:19 AM