Ink Sweat & Tears
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Ink Sweat & Tears
@inksweatandtears.co.uk
Online poetry magazine posting daily. We publish & review poetry, prose, filmpoems, word & image and print publish as IS&T Press. Editing internships. Posts by Sairah Ahsan & Kate Birch.
Paula R. Hilton's 'Eating Apple Pie with Louisa May Alcott' is a comedy of desire and memory.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/paula-r-hilt...

#InkSweatAndTears #Poetry #LouisaMayAlcott
December 6, 2025 at 10:00 AM
In Lee Campbell's 'ONE DAY', hope builds and builds, embodied by pistachios, for future happiness.

Watch it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/lee-campbell/

#FilmPoem #InkSweatAndTears
December 5, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Alice Huntley's 'The tenderness of beans' is an intimate and sensual reflection on shelling beans from a pod, which evokes a tenderness usually reserved for infants.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/alice-huntle...

#InkSweatandTears #PoemOfTheDay #Gardening
December 5, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Rhonda Melanson's 'Holy Ground' meditates on gardening, particularly the more spiritual fruits of labour and earth.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/rhonda-melan...

#InkSweatandTears #Gardening #NatureWriting
December 4, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Clive Donovan's 'Three Winds' explores space and the emotive, even transformative, force of nature.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/clive-donova...

#FeaturedPoem #InkSweatandTears #NaturePoetry
December 3, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Gary Akroyde's 'Cracks in the Concrete' looks at urban scenery with the intent of finding beauty in the mundane and dirty.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/gary-akroyde/

#InkSweatandTears #UrbanNature #Poetry
December 2, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Revisiting 'Reconnaître', exquisite Word & Image from Helen Pletts and Romit Berger originally published on IS&T in November 2017 and this time accompanied by a fine translation by Ma Yongbo. @mayongbo.bsky.social

inksweatandtears.co.uk/helen-pletts...

#InkSweatandTears #WordandImage #Translation
December 1, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Borrowing its title from the PhD of Brian May, Nathan Curnow's 'A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud' marries the wonder and vertigo of scientific discovery with that of music making.

inksweatandtears.co.uk/nathan-curnow/

#InkSweatandTears #SciencePoetry #BrianMayQueen
December 1, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Mic drop! Heading into December, we look back at our winning September and October Picks. You can now hear Clara-Læïla Laudette read 'The purpose' at inksweatandtears.co.uk/september-20... and we've a fine recording of @tadhgcarey.bsky.social's 'Pivotal' here inksweatandtears.co.uk/october-2025...
November 30, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Paul Short's 'Midnight Swingball' captures the vertigo and shape of the restless unease before sleep arrives. @paulwritespoems.bsky.social

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/paul-short/

#Insomnia #InkSweatandTears #Poetry
November 30, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Ash Bowden's 'Composting' introduces magic and conspiracy to the ordinary scene of a compost bin. @ashbowpoet.bsky.social

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/ash-bowden

#Composting #FeaturedPoem #InkSweatandTears
November 29, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Mallika Bhaumik's 'In search fo a tawaif's tale (Dilli love)' represents the city as a mosaic of the traditional, inspirational, modern and mundane.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/mallika-bhau...

#Poetry #FeaturedPoem #InkSweatandTears
November 28, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Jena Woodhouse's 'The Kelpie' uses myth and memory to make sense of present-day suffering and illness.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/jena-woodhou...

#ChronicIllness #Poetry #InkSweatandTears
November 27, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Kate Bailey's 'Us and Them' satirises a contemporary hostility to our neighbours.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/kate-bailey/

#Poetry #InkSweatandTears #FeaturedPoem
November 26, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Ibrar Sami's 'Return' explores the theme of resurgence in both its destructive and constructive iterations.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/ibrar-sami

#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #FeaturedPoem
November 25, 2025 at 10:00 AM
We are now open for Submissions for our annual '12 Days of' feature. @helenivory.bsky.social will be looking at your poetry and short prose, while Sairah Ahsan wants to see your word & image and filmpoems. More at inksweatandtears.co.uk/submissions/

#InkSweatandTears #TwelveDaysofChristmas #Slanted
November 24, 2025 at 4:01 PM
In Anyonita Green's 'Examining clots', the mundane and bodily become the lynchpin for fascination and existential reflection.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/anyonita-gre...

#Poetry #InkSweatandTears #Period
November 24, 2025 at 2:00 PM
'Beautiful, subtle merging of that moment of sporting destiny and the creative process'

Huge Congrats to @tadhgcarey.bsky.social whose poem 'Pivotal' is our #PickoftheMonth for Oct 2025. To revisit the poem & for more voters' comments go to inksweatandtears.co.uk/october-2025...

#InkSweatandTears
November 23, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Soledad Santana's 'Kamila' juxtaposes a sorrowful interruption of childhood naivety with the joyous discovery of young love.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/soledad-sant...

#InkSweatAndTears #FeaturedPoem
November 23, 2025 at 4:15 PM
In Claire Harnett-Mann's 'Common Ground', decay and growth are simultaneously captured in a snapshot of an urban scene. @clairehmwriter.bsky.social

Read it here: : inksweatandtears.co.uk/claire-harne...

#InkSweatandTears #UrbanPoetry #NaturePoetry
November 22, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Hedy Hume's 'Manchester Piccadilly -> Wolverhampton' laments over a moment of alienation on public transport.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/hedy-hume/

#FeaturedPoem #InkSweatandTears #TrainPoetry
November 21, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Jo Bardsley's micro-fiction 'A letter C' is a tale of deception and revenge which builds slowly.
@jobardsley.bsky.social

inksweatandtears.co.uk/jo-bardsley/

#Microfiction #InkSweatandTears #ShortStory
November 20, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Matthew F. Amati's 'Hands Said To Head' is a hilarious personification of different body parts as they try to attribute blame to each other

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/matthew-f-am...

#Poetry #Humour #InkSweatandTears
November 19, 2025 at 4:11 PM
This hurts. 'A Cry' from Mariam Saidan, a response to female singing as a ‘forbidden act'(Article 638 of the Islamic Penal Code).

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/mariam-saida...

#InkSweatandTears #Poetry
November 18, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Meg Pokrass's 'Cat Swarm' is a meditation on the way we regard the ageing population, rife with playful feline imagery.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/40966-2/

#InkSweatandTears #Poetry #Cats
November 18, 2025 at 11:16 AM