Produced by the stunning artistry of Eleanor McDowall. Original music by Phil Smith. @fallingtreeprod.bsky.social

Happy launch day to @antoshwojcik.bsky.social

Here’s one of my favourite poems from his new collection ‘Suburban Locust’

‘This poem is me at my beast’

Huge congratulations to all the winners and shortlistees (is that a word?) for the @forwardprizes.bsky.social. The readings last night were a triumph.

I love this poem from Isabelle Baafi’s ‘Chaotic Good’ (winner of best first collection)…

‘They eat their oats in their sleep’

I love this prose poem by Rita Dove

‘Your father’s father’s father
poisoned a beautiful horse’

- Dane Holt

I really admire this poem by Dane Holt. He takes that particular ‘flatness’ of grief and finds a playfulness within it… which is so hard! How on earth do you play with flatness? Like this:

‘Tonight I lingered over your name’

-Naomi Shihab Nye

Some stunning line-breaks here…
by Denis Johnson

‘It must be Friday by now’

- a little Monday poem by Anne Sexton

‘We work in this building and we are hideous’

- Denis Johnson

‘I spent a year inside the word
GOD like a budget hotel room’

- Amelia Loulli, from her excellent collection ‘Slip’

‘It’s hard to mourn in shorts’

- Stephen Sexton

‘The telephone
fell from my shoulder, a black parrot repeating’

- Nick Flynn

‘At first, the scissors seemed perfectly harmless’

- Marie Howe

‘until the town becomes a cinema’

from John Burnside’s last book, ‘Ruin, Blossom’

‘I’ve never actually even seen the sky’

Hello, just trying this place out. Here’s the first blue sky related poem I could think of. By Natalie Shapero.