Ian Duhig
@ianduhig.bsky.social
'An Arbitrary Light Bulb' the Poetry Book Society Winter 2024 Choice: "some of the most moving, restrained, memorable and technically adroit poetry of our times" --- TLS, 3/25
Reposted by Ian Duhig
it's little christmas, or as it's known here in ireland 'nollaig na mban', where irish women roam the countryside in feral gangs, pillaging leftover lidl stollen and using the power tools they got you for christmas which you'll never use to fix that shelf to terrorise anyone who stands in their way
January 6, 2026 at 11:09 AM
it's little christmas, or as it's known here in ireland 'nollaig na mban', where irish women roam the countryside in feral gangs, pillaging leftover lidl stollen and using the power tools they got you for christmas which you'll never use to fix that shelf to terrorise anyone who stands in their way
Reposted by Ian Duhig
Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, when God realised he could get the novel out of it's 19th century hole by inventing James Joyce.
January 5, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, when God realised he could get the novel out of it's 19th century hole by inventing James Joyce.
Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, when God realised he could get the novel out of it's 19th century hole by inventing James Joyce.
January 5, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, when God realised he could get the novel out of it's 19th century hole by inventing James Joyce.
"It's the way he just stands there playing air piano -- you don't think he could be Liberace's ghost do you, Chuck?
January 4, 2026 at 7:35 AM
"It's the way he just stands there playing air piano -- you don't think he could be Liberace's ghost do you, Chuck?
"And here's a poem you wrote when you were fourteen . . ."
January 3, 2026 at 7:06 AM
"And here's a poem you wrote when you were fourteen . . ."
When she tells you she hates the way you read 'Beowulf' aloud to her.
January 2, 2026 at 8:28 AM
When she tells you she hates the way you read 'Beowulf' aloud to her.
Best day of the year so far!
January 1, 2026 at 7:05 AM
Best day of the year so far!
But if we must, have a happy one
December 31, 2025 at 5:15 PM
But if we must, have a happy one
"New Year is nothing more than the continuation of Xmas festivities by other means."
-- Santaclausewitz
-- Santaclausewitz
December 30, 2025 at 11:45 AM
"New Year is nothing more than the continuation of Xmas festivities by other means."
-- Santaclausewitz
-- Santaclausewitz
When some English ignoramus made a negative comment about Baltimore's urban violence based on . . . watching 'The Wire', a Baltimorean replied that if you take your information unquestionably from TV programmes, you would expect English villages to be swimming in blood.
December 30, 2025 at 7:20 AM
When some English ignoramus made a negative comment about Baltimore's urban violence based on . . . watching 'The Wire', a Baltimorean replied that if you take your information unquestionably from TV programmes, you would expect English villages to be swimming in blood.
Reading Meyrink's novel so I am a Golem
Well, now I'm an English professor...
December 30, 2025 at 6:39 AM
Reading Meyrink's novel so I am a Golem
How I feel every year by this point. It's like Kafka and M.R James collaborated on a Christmas story with Eliot for this time and they made it symbolise our spiritual and mental emptiness. trapping us in it's endless Monday forever.
December 29, 2025 at 8:28 AM
How I feel every year by this point. It's like Kafka and M.R James collaborated on a Christmas story with Eliot for this time and they made it symbolise our spiritual and mental emptiness. trapping us in it's endless Monday forever.
Blind Jack's at Xmas, the presiding spirit of my book 'The Blind Roadmaker', where among other things he represents immigrants and lovers, moving hopefully onto new ground without seeing where our choices lead. I invoke him as we head blindly toward New Year, but I hope for you all it's great one.
December 28, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Blind Jack's at Xmas, the presiding spirit of my book 'The Blind Roadmaker', where among other things he represents immigrants and lovers, moving hopefully onto new ground without seeing where our choices lead. I invoke him as we head blindly toward New Year, but I hope for you all it's great one.
Just put the finishing touches to my 2026 List of the Most Influential People in Poetry.
Not sharing it with you losers obvs.
Not sharing it with you losers obvs.
December 28, 2025 at 5:51 AM
Just put the finishing touches to my 2026 List of the Most Influential People in Poetry.
Not sharing it with you losers obvs.
Not sharing it with you losers obvs.
Advice from Winnicott
December 27, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Advice from Winnicott
Reflecting the current debate about post-literacy
December 27, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Reflecting the current debate about post-literacy
The Christmas tradition of concluding the seasonal celebrations with families being torn to pieces by a dragon fell out of popularity after the Victorian era.
December 27, 2025 at 7:09 AM
The Christmas tradition of concluding the seasonal celebrations with families being torn to pieces by a dragon fell out of popularity after the Victorian era.
On St Stephen's Day, the straw man wins the argument
December 26, 2025 at 4:11 PM
On St Stephen's Day, the straw man wins the argument
As the holidays wear on, I always eventually recall this Strabane graffiti that uniquely captured such seasonal ennui
December 26, 2025 at 2:23 PM
As the holidays wear on, I always eventually recall this Strabane graffiti that uniquely captured such seasonal ennui
Happy #StStephensDay. I have a poem about my father being a wrenboy but reading it once, I was surprised that members of the audience congratulated me on my bravery in doing so. Finally, I learned they thought I'd said he'd been a rent boy.
UCD Folklore Archive photo of Limerick wren boys
UCD Folklore Archive photo of Limerick wren boys
December 26, 2025 at 6:44 AM
Happy #StStephensDay. I have a poem about my father being a wrenboy but reading it once, I was surprised that members of the audience congratulated me on my bravery in doing so. Finally, I learned they thought I'd said he'd been a rent boy.
UCD Folklore Archive photo of Limerick wren boys
UCD Folklore Archive photo of Limerick wren boys
Bramantino's 'Madonna delle Torri' (tempera on panel c.1505-19) illustrates the moment when she asks St Ambrose of Milan what she's supposed to do with his Xmas gifts of a naked bishop's corpse and an enormous dead toad.
December 25, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Bramantino's 'Madonna delle Torri' (tempera on panel c.1505-19) illustrates the moment when she asks St Ambrose of Milan what she's supposed to do with his Xmas gifts of a naked bishop's corpse and an enormous dead toad.
I always liked Vernon Watkins' 'The Ballad of the Mari Lwyd' which gives full value to its confrontation of this world and the next, the living and the dead, where the chosen weapon for their duel is poetry:
grumpyoldwitchcraft.com/tag/vernon-w...
photo: Wendy Dove
grumpyoldwitchcraft.com/tag/vernon-w...
photo: Wendy Dove
December 25, 2025 at 11:50 AM
I always liked Vernon Watkins' 'The Ballad of the Mari Lwyd' which gives full value to its confrontation of this world and the next, the living and the dead, where the chosen weapon for their duel is poetry:
grumpyoldwitchcraft.com/tag/vernon-w...
photo: Wendy Dove
grumpyoldwitchcraft.com/tag/vernon-w...
photo: Wendy Dove
This is my only Xmas poem, a carol inspired by sitting up all night to watch the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners in the 2010 Copiapó accident after 69 days in what seemed like a miracle to me as slowly the darkness gave way to dawn.
December 24, 2025 at 3:39 PM
This is my only Xmas poem, a carol inspired by sitting up all night to watch the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners in the 2010 Copiapó accident after 69 days in what seemed like a miracle to me as slowly the darkness gave way to dawn.