Jac Forsyth
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jacforsyth.co.uk
Jac Forsyth
@jacforsyth.co.uk
SFF writer. Advocate for gender diversity in sci-fi. Author of Ørma: The Song of the Lark. A soft sci-fi about a feather, a bunch of celebrity soldiers and an enemy too familiar to remember.
#vss365
jacforsyth.co.uk
Pinned
Sunday
is a gothic novel
on the dry riverbed

a haunted castle,
for a water #wraith
to roam

among the sticks
and storms of trespass
that carved a scar
of dust, pale as milk

where the sun casts her runes
in the space between leaves

and my shadow
is a nightdress
made of silk

#vss365
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
We’re excited to announce the Bookshelfie Awards — a new book award celebrating the best in independent publishing! We’re looking for books that take risks, break moulds, and showcase brilliant writing.

Submissions open now! Winners to be announced late December.
May 15, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
This is a couple of days late. My firstborn graduated this weekend and there's been a lot going on for that! 🌟🎉

I'm catching up today. Here's my poem "Wrap" #PoemsAbout #NeverForget @brokenspinearts.bsky.social @alanparry83.bsky.social
May 18, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
I dream in the old language
The one my father would sing in
when he didn’t want us to know
he had been crying
from a world that liked to break him like cheap porcelain
Swept up in sunshine
mended at night
only to be broken again
the next day
May 17, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
my coat pocket
contains a smaller version
of Tuesday

#poetry #haiku #micropoetry
May 16, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
In a town no bigger than a sigh, the #wraith of Margaret Gill rang the church bell at noon on Saturdays.

No one asked why; they nodded while whittling their wood, accepting that some secrets belonged to the town, watching the shadows stretch into the afternoon like truths too long untold.

#vss365
May 18, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
#vss365
In The Mist Of Life We Are

A wraith
stitched from fog and fret
slips through the floorboards
toothless,
tongueless,
it feeds on wallpaper stains,
drinks light from the kettle’s hiss,
wears my name like
a borrowed book,
then folds into the mirror,
exhaling a
moth-bitten
sigh.

#wraith
May 18, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
Yesterday,
when I was thinking of you,
I caught myself
holding hands
with your #wraith.

#vss365
May 18, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
My mother would see them. A #wraith. A forewarning. Thinking of those soon to be left behind, she would whisper her news, and give a chance to say last words and speak of love. They took her from me for it. Now when I see the not yet dead, I turn my back and pretend they are simply shadows. #vss365
May 18, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
Wraith

As I sit lonely on the shore
A silk wyrmed veil descends
A gentleness of turning mist
And as it bends I see
The faces of forgotten friends
Smiling down
Lovingly
Untill the wind
Across the sea
Softly
Stirs
The ghost
Of me

#vss365
May 18, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
and the trees
spoke their quiet
into the boneyard beneath
while the crows gathered dire
and daring upon the heath

and the wind
threw its tenacious tail through
the dour heart of the woeful wood
certain its magnificent mischief
would lead to some good

#poetry ⬇️
May 17, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
Like a boat without a sail
I sigh to no avail

Lost in time & space
I search for his face

With teetering faith
I fall a miserable #wraith

In agony I know I’m a curse
No kindness left to disperse

My Romeos body forever asleep
I have no time to weep

#vss365
#pic MCNY org
May 18, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Sunday
is a gothic novel
on the dry riverbed

a haunted castle,
for a water #wraith
to roam

among the sticks
and storms of trespass
that carved a scar
of dust, pale as milk

where the sun casts her runes
in the space between leaves

and my shadow
is a nightdress
made of silk

#vss365
May 18, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Doubt is so at home with uncertainty, it has its own duvet. But doubt isn’t the same as uncertainty, it’s a response to uncertainty.
Read why it matters, and why doubt can help us as writers.

#WritingCommunity
#Writers
#WritersLife
Writers and the Four Horsemen of Doubt: how certainty, truth, approval and belief might be working against you
Gallop into a writers relationship with doubt and discover how magical things like certainty, truth, approval, and belief may be hindering your writing journey.
www.jacforsyth.co.uk
May 16, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
#vss365 #prompt #clarity

Greetings wordsmiths! For the next two weeks I hope you find clarity in the words I offer.

#Clarity – Clear understanding or sharpness in thought, vision, or truth

I look forward to reading all of your lovely writing!
May 16, 2025 at 5:59 AM
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
#vss365 #prompt #immunity

(Origin, Latin – "exemption, protection")

On #WorldFamilyDay, a shield—built by love, or from it.

What no longer reaches you?
What do you choose to keep out?

Last prompt for this fortnight.
Over to @katrevier.bsky.social from tomorrow

Stay well, Adios.
May 15, 2025 at 5:30 AM
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
#HIRAETH

The Moon is too close
for most
to feel the effect;
home hangs in the sky,
its mass tugging
on lunar soil
and human hearts.

But Mars gets queasy;
the pale blue dot
brings tears
even to adventurous eyes.

At Jupiter,
cosmic hiraeth unbearable,
from outer limits,
we return.

#vss365 134/365
May 14, 2025 at 8:38 AM
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
Rory couldn’t remember the last time he had spent so long away from the game, but he had agreed to accompany Katie to this wedding.

Still, the sense of #hiraeth for a place that didn’t, strictly, exist, burned within him. He longed to return to the game world, but he smiled and bore it.

#vss365
May 14, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
Inbetween these city walls
When it rains, petrichor
Floods my senses
Sky whispers
In my mother tongue

You be a mountain girl
You be a gypsy
Up in mountain top clouds
Around pine you did play

And my heart pangs beats
Of memories— #hiraeth

#vss365 #mytruestory 📸 mine
May 14, 2025 at 6:28 AM
You returned from America
a mermaid, with a tale
made of mountains

and a strange
fascination
with your feet

the cold cut of liberty,
tied and bound
to the sirens that call
on the streets

and a #hiraeth that you swore
could be found on the shore
of a canyon selling hotdogs
and sweets

#vss365
May 14, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
#vss365 #prompt #hiraeth

(Origin, Welsh – "a deep, unplaceable longing")

A home you never had, but always missed.
Where does your yearning live?

🌀 Theme 4: Release

Also please join in me welcoming @katrevier.bsky.social as our incoming host from May 16. Do follow her and enjoy her prompts.
May 14, 2025 at 5:30 AM
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
#vss365 #prompt #eclipse

(Origin, Greek – "abandonment, obscuring")

Darkness doesn't always mean ending.
What did the light leave behind?

I hope we heal with good memories and not only sad ones of pain and loss.

I dont see people healing, lets call this part of : Theme Remembering 🎗️
May 11, 2025 at 5:30 AM
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
Societal acceptance

Scars I bear
Marks of disfigurement
Deformity and flaws
Judged by societal standards
Never the beauty
Never perfection
Always trying to fit in
Assimilation to norms
Assimilation to society
The wrong path

The genuine path
Is a lonely path

#vss365 #poetry #poem #scar
May 10, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Reposted by Jac Forsyth
We The People
Will no longer
Be fodder
For your wars

We refuse
To till your fields
And to bear
Your branding scars

Dear dictators
And oligarchs
We see you
All the same

While we reject
Your dark rule
We demand
A future, sane

And since there’re
Many more of us
Pay heed
When we complain
#vss365
a purple sign says the will of the people is stronger than the noise of politicians
ALT: a purple sign says the will of the people is stronger than the noise of politicians
media.tenor.com
May 10, 2025 at 9:19 AM
This is Havisham. She has a deep, unsettling #scar that stretches back through all nine lives and ten thousand generations, back through tiger and sabre and primordial slime to the dawn of time,

when creation was a desolate and empty bowl,
that was still half full.

#vss365
May 10, 2025 at 8:35 AM