Kathryn Gray
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kathryngray.bsky.social
Kathryn Gray
@kathryngray.bsky.social
1.1K followers 870 following 200 posts
Poet. Film fanatic. Editor @badlilies.bsky.social. Hollywood or Home, a Sunday Times Poetry Book of the Year, out now: https://www.serenbooks.com/book/hollywood-or-home/ and https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hollywood-Home-Kathryn-Gray/dp/1781727120
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kathryngray.bsky.social
Marty Supreme! What a film—fantastic.
January 25, 2026 at 5:44 PM
kathryngray.bsky.social
Painting one’s toenails in January is an embrace of the coming spring.
January 18, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Reposted by Kathryn Gray
andrewjamesneilson.bsky.social
I have a book out in a couple of months. It's only taken me 50 years to get there. So of course I have been mired in total lethargy as I regard its emergence on the event horizon.

Then I fixed a toilet lid yesterday and now I am all POETRY ACTION. #DIYDONTDIE
January 17, 2026 at 8:09 PM
Reposted by Kathryn Gray
ravoon.bsky.social
Very grateful for this generous and perceptive review from Jade Cuttle - observer.co.uk/culture/book...
Confessions of a parish priest | The Observer
In frank, witty, soul-searching poems, clergyman turned archaeologist Graeme Richardson draws on both strands of his career for his debut collection Dirt Rich
observer.co.uk
January 6, 2026 at 10:50 AM
kathryngray.bsky.social
‘Tis the season to flog my poetry. Hollywood or Home—a Tinseltown of the mind. An unusual stocking filler for the cinephile in your life.
Cover: Hollywood or Home by Kathryn Gray. Inspired by the film Sunset Boulevard, this is a Gloria Swanson pop portrait of her in a yellow dress walking out for her " Comeback " while her lover is drowning in the swimming pool. It's an oil and acrylic on canvas.
December 20, 2025 at 10:26 AM
kathryngray.bsky.social
It’s my 28th year in London. In 1997, I turned up with a suitcase and no prospects but for the kind loan of a friend’s room while she was on the other side of the world. I thought it would likely be a momentary adventure. It became my life.

Here’s my favourite view.
A lush green hillside overlooks a city skyline under a bright blue sky with wispy clouds, creating a serene and expansive view.
December 19, 2025 at 10:25 AM
kathryngray.bsky.social
So incredibly sad about Rob Reiner.

youtu.be/c9imHz0nBd4?...
Stand By Me — Deer
YouTube video by wheel
youtu.be
December 15, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by Kathryn Gray
kathryngray.bsky.social
Amazing to me, but @andrewjamesneilson.bsky.social and I began @badlilies.bsky.social five years ago this coming spring. Five years! A lockdown project of optimism in a sad time. The world continues to disappoint. Bad Lilies keeps going. Explore our archive: www.badlilies.uk/issues
Issues — Bad Lilies
Issues of Bad Lilies, a digital poetry journal.
www.badlilies.uk
December 6, 2025 at 5:46 PM
kathryngray.bsky.social
Amazing to me, but @andrewjamesneilson.bsky.social and I began @badlilies.bsky.social five years ago this coming spring. Five years! A lockdown project of optimism in a sad time. The world continues to disappoint. Bad Lilies keeps going. Explore our archive: www.badlilies.uk/issues
Issues — Bad Lilies
Issues of Bad Lilies, a digital poetry journal.
www.badlilies.uk
December 6, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by Kathryn Gray
kathryngray.bsky.social
Here’s the latest poetry collection from John Stammers—his first in fifteen years.
Cover: The Colossus (also known as The Giant), is known in Spanish as El Coloso and also El Gigante (The Giant), El Pánico (The Panic) and La Tormenta (The Storm).[2] It is a painting traditionally attributed to Francisco de Goya that shows a giant in the centre of the canvas walking towards the left hand side of the picture. Mountains obscure his legs up to his thighs and clouds surround his body; the giant appears to be adopting an aggressive posture as he is holding one of his fists up at shoulder height. A dark valley containing a crowd of people and herds of cattle fleeing in all directions occupies the lower third of the painting. Legend: Queries on Death, the Infinite and Irrational Numbers
November 28, 2025 at 12:07 PM
kathryngray.bsky.social
Here’s the latest poetry collection from John Stammers—his first in fifteen years.
Cover: The Colossus (also known as The Giant), is known in Spanish as El Coloso and also El Gigante (The Giant), El Pánico (The Panic) and La Tormenta (The Storm).[2] It is a painting traditionally attributed to Francisco de Goya that shows a giant in the centre of the canvas walking towards the left hand side of the picture. Mountains obscure his legs up to his thighs and clouds surround his body; the giant appears to be adopting an aggressive posture as he is holding one of his fists up at shoulder height. A dark valley containing a crowd of people and herds of cattle fleeing in all directions occupies the lower third of the painting. Legend: Queries on Death, the Infinite and Irrational Numbers
November 28, 2025 at 12:07 PM
kathryngray.bsky.social
Something strange happens to time when you get older. Over the past few days, it’s dawned on me that Roddy Lumsden has been dead six years this coming January. A poem I wrote about incorrigible Roddy—my early mentor, my friend, and then not my friend, but always my friend.
Slightly, a Lost Boy Not that my heart is a stopped clock. Not that I even think of it at all, come to think of it. To tell the truth, I've long since regarded such things as more or less inevitable, particularly at three in the morning. There is, quite naturally, the perambulator to consider, and the smallness of you tumbling out of time so long ago, it might as well have been yesterday, for what that means... That sort of set-up can make you emotional. But my ways are logic, lately. I tell myself you are happy with your gift. I see you, there much pleasure in your flute, fashioned from a branch, and you are dancing! Dancing to your self! You are merry, and you are grateful for that tree. I don't think you are lonely, not especially. Truly—I don't. You have company. I don't think you give much thought to it, quite honestly. Still, I ponder the story, its radical departure. Maybe someone is sleeping on the job. I've thought of that. A lacuna in my heart, this morning night. The boys stay lost, but not really, not really when you come to think of it, which mostly I do not. It's just that it's three in the night of morning, and I do that hauntological thing with the pages. I guess this is what happens when you get to my age. Not that I miss you. Not even, Slightly.
November 23, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Reposted by Kathryn Gray
badlilies.bsky.social
We have now reached 2,500 unique visitors for our latest issue! Read it here: badlilies.uk/issue-twenty-two
Issue twenty-two — Bad Lilies
badlilies.uk
November 21, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Kathryn Gray
badlilies.bsky.social
OUT NOW. Issue Twenty-Two: 'Ghost Ship'. badlilies.uk/issue-twenty-two
Issue twenty-two — Bad Lilies
badlilies.uk
October 31, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Reposted by Kathryn Gray
aawriting.bsky.social
Grateful to @kathryngray.bsky.social and @andrewjamesneilson.bsky.social for including my narrative poem "Dissent at the Temple of Gemini" in the new issue of Bad Lilies. Enjoy, and please do yourself the favor of reading the full issue!

www.badlilies.uk/austin-allen-2
Austin Allen — Bad Lilies
A poem by Austin Allen
www.badlilies.uk
October 31, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Reposted by Kathryn Gray
kathryngray.bsky.social
We’ve a beautiful new @badlilies.bsky.social landing on Halloween! Expect poems that will stay with you at this time of the thin veil between worlds.
badlilies.bsky.social Bad Lilies @badlilies.bsky.social · Oct 24
Proofs to contributors are being prepared...our cracking new issue is out for Halloween in a week's time 👀👻⚓️ badlilies.uk
Issue Twenty-Two: Ghost Ship
October 25, 2025 at 8:06 AM
kathryngray.bsky.social
We’ve a beautiful new @badlilies.bsky.social landing on Halloween! Expect poems that will stay with you at this time of the thin veil between worlds.
badlilies.bsky.social Bad Lilies @badlilies.bsky.social · Oct 24
Proofs to contributors are being prepared...our cracking new issue is out for Halloween in a week's time 👀👻⚓️ badlilies.uk
Issue Twenty-Two: Ghost Ship
October 25, 2025 at 8:06 AM
kathryngray.bsky.social
Going on a Stevie Smith pilgrimage tomorrow. 🌸
October 17, 2025 at 5:52 PM
kathryngray.bsky.social
Not been well all week. Feeling a bit better. But ailing, I never noted that Hollywood or Home turned the grand old age of two a few days ago. Thank you to everyone who bought her and who said nice things. I appreciate you hugely, more than you will know (and so does Norma Desmond!).
Norma Desmond, yellow dress and heels. She has curlers in her hair and wields a cigarette. Drowned man to her left. Pure Sunset Boulevard.
October 4, 2025 at 2:16 PM
kathryngray.bsky.social
Sunday evening. A small poem from Hollywood or Home about art, lost love, and reversal of fortune. Guest stars the marvellous Alvin Pleasant Carter, a patriarch of the legendary Carter Family, who pioneered country music. I’ve never performed it at readings. Must fix that.
Songs Alvin Pleasant Carter was a man who knew— a pilgrim of the ultimate tune. A.P. at his counter, hefting over the sacks of brown sugar— years after the road, when he'd lost his Sara, and a man can measure the weight of forever... A.P. knew, stood in that general store, we never hear the songs we are listening for.
September 21, 2025 at 4:17 PM
kathryngray.bsky.social
Sunday night poem from Hollywood or Home. E.T./The Goonies meets mortality. And, oddly, probably the nearest I’ll ever come to an ecopoem, as it dawns on me now.
The Adventurers Out from the drives we join, one by one, and do not ask where the grown-ups have gone. Almost-spring is here again, lovely against our cheeks in the evening air. We have our sweaters on. We do not ask why we are here why tonight. The streamers from my handlebars—so free, so light! Look how big the moon is! someone shouts. Everyone is out. Everyone is out from the drives, even the kids who could never, who could never waggle their way to propulsion, whose mothers cared too much— asthma or dietary problems or one cliché after another serving as the explanation. All are out, as the streetlamps tick and fizz. We could fly! We could do anything! Remember what it's like or never was? Of course, there are the bad guys. Bad guys are everywhere, out of sight, but they are not us. And something not good bleeds from a pipe on the edgelands. Something long suspected by us, but missed by the good, gone grown-ups. The bad guys listen in the dark-windowed vans of the mind you can't see. Now, we must speak softly. We are out for treasure. We are out for trees, and the big moon. A shy boy has a plan and a map. We must be careful of the vans. We have a boy with a plan. We came equipped with torches, the requisite peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches. The bikes slip from our grip. The bikes pile up. The shy boy puts his finger to his lips. Something is moving, he wants to say. Our round, credulous faces burn and thin to the summation of meaning— the beautiful horror, the mangled wonder.
September 7, 2025 at 9:03 PM
kathryngray.bsky.social
One of my all-time favourite tracks from the Boss. Tunnel of Love is one banging and beautiful album all round.

youtu.be/_91hNV6vuBY?...
Bruce Springsteen - Tougher Than the Rest (Official Video)
YouTube video by BruceSpringsteenVEVO
youtu.be
September 6, 2025 at 10:28 AM
kathryngray.bsky.social
Unsure what it says about modern life, but the first thing on a social feed of mine this morning was a clip of the Brookside moment when Barry Grant finds his mum, Sheila, in bed with Billy Corkhill. “It’s the most natural thing in the world,” she claims. Brookie is not the Chekhov I remember.
August 31, 2025 at 6:40 PM
kathryngray.bsky.social
Old photos. My grandmother comforting her little brother, my great uncle Danny, after the Commonwealth Games 1958 cycling road race. He came 8th—pretty darn great. Both of them gone to light now. Amazing people. ❤️
My nan wears a mac. She has a short 1950s do. Danny wears a blanket. He looks dejected, but shouldn’t.
August 30, 2025 at 6:03 PM
kathryngray.bsky.social
Reality Bites. Still iconic.

youtu.be/SQVw58aDt3Y?...
My Sharona - Reality Bites (3/10) Movie CLIP (1994) HD
YouTube video by Movieclips
youtu.be
August 30, 2025 at 9:11 AM