Gareth Prior
@garethprior.bsky.social
Poet. By day, Bursar at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, and trustee at The Poetry Society.
I’ve always been a sucker for a casual memento mori while crossing an international border.
August 31, 2025 at 4:06 PM
I’ve always been a sucker for a casual memento mori while crossing an international border.
The ticket inspector on the Rome-Milan train just got excited at this and started talking to us about medieval manuscripts. I love this whole region...
August 30, 2025 at 1:55 PM
The ticket inspector on the Rome-Milan train just got excited at this and started talking to us about medieval manuscripts. I love this whole region...
Second iteration of a new invention: “Tagliatelle alla Laura in Trastevere” (slow-cooked aubergine; garlic; Gorgonzola piccante; tuna; basil).
It’s a thing.
It’s a thing.
August 28, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Second iteration of a new invention: “Tagliatelle alla Laura in Trastevere” (slow-cooked aubergine; garlic; Gorgonzola piccante; tuna; basil).
It’s a thing.
It’s a thing.
Roman pigeons rocking the moody album-cover vibe…
August 26, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Roman pigeons rocking the moody album-cover vibe…
Early morning run…
August 26, 2025 at 6:49 AM
Early morning run…
In my third year as an undergraduate, I shared a bathroom overlooking the dome of the Radcliffe Camera and assumed that this was the most ridiculous position of unearned privilege in which I would ever have cause to wash my hands. As usual, I was wrong.
August 21, 2025 at 3:37 PM
In my third year as an undergraduate, I shared a bathroom overlooking the dome of the Radcliffe Camera and assumed that this was the most ridiculous position of unearned privilege in which I would ever have cause to wash my hands. As usual, I was wrong.
A fascinating revelation of staying in old Siena is seeing that the background effect in 13/14th century frescoes where the city looks like a pile-up of houses with no perspective isn’t because the painters hadn’t yet discovered vanishing points, but because that’s what they actually look like.
August 20, 2025 at 10:53 AM
A fascinating revelation of staying in old Siena is seeing that the background effect in 13/14th century frescoes where the city looks like a pile-up of houses with no perspective isn’t because the painters hadn’t yet discovered vanishing points, but because that’s what they actually look like.
The view from our apartment at night looks like a De Chirico painting.
August 19, 2025 at 10:05 PM
The view from our apartment at night looks like a De Chirico painting.
Immersing myself in Siena…
August 19, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Immersing myself in Siena…
“Quel giorno più non vi leggemmo avante…”
August 10, 2025 at 12:32 PM
“Quel giorno più non vi leggemmo avante…”
Looking back through old photographs I stumbled across these from May 2021 and remembered the days when it felt as though we’d never be able to go to a restaurant again, and home cooking went a bit silly.
August 9, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Looking back through old photographs I stumbled across these from May 2021 and remembered the days when it felt as though we’d never be able to go to a restaurant again, and home cooking went a bit silly.
“Even the orchestra is beautiful…”
June 25, 2025 at 9:01 PM
“Even the orchestra is beautiful…”
Spot the difference…
June 19, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Spot the difference…
I’m very grateful to Ange Mlinko for publishing my sonnet on @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social’s Odyssey in the latest issue of Subtropics.
June 6, 2025 at 9:05 AM
I’m very grateful to Ange Mlinko for publishing my sonnet on @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social’s Odyssey in the latest issue of Subtropics.
Forget arguments over liturgy, social teaching, and the ontology of the priesthood: anxious Catholics the world over (me included) can breathe easily because the new pope likes raw fish…
May 8, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Forget arguments over liturgy, social teaching, and the ontology of the priesthood: anxious Catholics the world over (me included) can breathe easily because the new pope likes raw fish…
Little Haven in Pembrokeshire is not only a chain-reaction of childhood memory and the best cooking location in the world; it has the added bonus of coming back to your final-night lobster sauce to find that the sea has disappeared. But the impossible mystery of the tide never gets old…
April 3, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Little Haven in Pembrokeshire is not only a chain-reaction of childhood memory and the best cooking location in the world; it has the added bonus of coming back to your final-night lobster sauce to find that the sea has disappeared. But the impossible mystery of the tide never gets old…
“The western wave was all aflame,
The day was almost done;
Almost upon the western wave
Rested the broad, bright sun…”
The day was almost done;
Almost upon the western wave
Rested the broad, bright sun…”
March 28, 2025 at 6:44 PM
“The western wave was all aflame,
The day was almost done;
Almost upon the western wave
Rested the broad, bright sun…”
The day was almost done;
Almost upon the western wave
Rested the broad, bright sun…”
(Also a great excuse for a memorable lunch at Terminus Nord before catching the train home)
March 20, 2025 at 2:33 PM
(Also a great excuse for a memorable lunch at Terminus Nord before catching the train home)
Astonishingly good Suzanne Valadon exhibition at the Pompidou today: if anyone still doubts Valadon’s place in the history of modern art, this exhibition is definitive proof that they’re wrong. Well worth getting up at 04h15 to get here in time from Oxford…
March 20, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Astonishingly good Suzanne Valadon exhibition at the Pompidou today: if anyone still doubts Valadon’s place in the history of modern art, this exhibition is definitive proof that they’re wrong. Well worth getting up at 04h15 to get here in time from Oxford…
The cat asked what I thought about Henry James, and I said…
…”why the protracted claws?”
…”why the protracted claws?”
February 26, 2025 at 8:07 PM
The cat asked what I thought about Henry James, and I said…
…”why the protracted claws?”
…”why the protracted claws?”
Guilty pleasure…
February 15, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Guilty pleasure…