John White
@johncraigwhite.bsky.social
🇺🇦 Poet, nature lover, Oxfordshire-based, County Derry native.
Magma Poetry Prize 2024, Commended.
iOTA Shot Awards Winner 2023 for Attachments (Templar, June 2024): https://templarpoetry.com/collections/templar-pamphlets-1/products/attachments
Magma Poetry Prize 2024, Commended.
iOTA Shot Awards Winner 2023 for Attachments (Templar, June 2024): https://templarpoetry.com/collections/templar-pamphlets-1/products/attachments
Reposted by John White
Today's column is about the government's huge, unprecedented assault on nature ... and about the eerie, astonishing silence of the big nature groups. The RSPB, National Trust, Wildlife Trusts have 7.5m members between them. A vast force, completely unmobilised. 🧵
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Wage war on nature to build new homes: that’s Labour’s offer, but it’s a con trick | George Monbiot
The government’s new planning bill is tearing down environmental protections to benefit developers. This nation of nature lovers won’t stand for it, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
www.theguardian.com
October 16, 2025 at 5:52 AM
Today's column is about the government's huge, unprecedented assault on nature ... and about the eerie, astonishing silence of the big nature groups. The RSPB, National Trust, Wildlife Trusts have 7.5m members between them. A vast force, completely unmobilised. 🧵
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by John White
This is great to see, but Ed Miliband and the whole of government now need to stop using Elon Musk’s hellsite bsky.app/profile/matt...
Ed Miliband turns on Elon Musk. “He incites violence on our steeets. He calls for the overthrow of our government. He disseminates disinformation. He thinks he can tell us how to run Britain. We have a message for Elon Musk: ‘Get the hell out of our politics and our country!’”
October 1, 2025 at 10:22 AM
This is great to see, but Ed Miliband and the whole of government now need to stop using Elon Musk’s hellsite bsky.app/profile/matt...
Reposted by John White
🔴 NEW - Why you should leave X
Here’s the sad truth: Twitter no longer exists. X is something else entirely. It’s a megaphone for extremism, controlled by a deranged oligarch.
📝 latest Substack 👇🏻
Here’s the sad truth: Twitter no longer exists. X is something else entirely. It’s a megaphone for extremism, controlled by a deranged oligarch.
📝 latest Substack 👇🏻
Why you should leave X
A rallying cry to progressives everywhere...
writesbright.substack.com
September 14, 2025 at 5:27 PM
🔴 NEW - Why you should leave X
Here’s the sad truth: Twitter no longer exists. X is something else entirely. It’s a megaphone for extremism, controlled by a deranged oligarch.
📝 latest Substack 👇🏻
Here’s the sad truth: Twitter no longer exists. X is something else entirely. It’s a megaphone for extremism, controlled by a deranged oligarch.
📝 latest Substack 👇🏻
Reposted by John White
The title of John White's #ekphrastic poem deceives. Is it about office life? Or just life?
'We floated, avatars of the open plan,
by night rehearsing in the snooker dens
each with a cue trained over a pack of Bensons
like an extension of him, holding a heron ... '
afterpoetry.com/poem/sep-07-...
'We floated, avatars of the open plan,
by night rehearsing in the snooker dens
each with a cue trained over a pack of Bensons
like an extension of him, holding a heron ... '
afterpoetry.com/poem/sep-07-...
Read New Ekphrastic Poem 'The Inexorable
Sadness of Pencils' by John White exclusively in After... | Poems Inspired By Other Art
afterpoetry.com
September 7, 2025 at 8:05 PM
The title of John White's #ekphrastic poem deceives. Is it about office life? Or just life?
'We floated, avatars of the open plan,
by night rehearsing in the snooker dens
each with a cue trained over a pack of Bensons
like an extension of him, holding a heron ... '
afterpoetry.com/poem/sep-07-...
'We floated, avatars of the open plan,
by night rehearsing in the snooker dens
each with a cue trained over a pack of Bensons
like an extension of him, holding a heron ... '
afterpoetry.com/poem/sep-07-...
Reposted by John White
Postscript by Seamus Heaney who died twelve years ago today
August 30, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Postscript by Seamus Heaney who died twelve years ago today
Reposted by John White
This week's column. The details will make you gasp and rage. This massive desecration of nature is almost unbelievable, but it is happening in the UK right now.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Bluefin tuna are miraculously returning to UK shores – only to be tormented for ‘sport’ | George Monbiot
A tournament in Cornwall will pit anglers against these magnificent creatures, as part of a rising trend for so-called ‘sportfishing’, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
www.theguardian.com
August 28, 2025 at 7:17 AM
This week's column. The details will make you gasp and rage. This massive desecration of nature is almost unbelievable, but it is happening in the UK right now.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by John White
Extract from 'No one wants what I want' by @troycabida.bsky.social , published in Issue Seven. Read the full poem here: andotherpoems.com/2025/08/04/n... #poetry #poems #poemoftheday
August 16, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Extract from 'No one wants what I want' by @troycabida.bsky.social , published in Issue Seven. Read the full poem here: andotherpoems.com/2025/08/04/n... #poetry #poems #poemoftheday
Reposted by John White
Extract from 'Way of Going' by @johncraigwhite.bsky.social , published in Issue Seven. Read the full poem here: andotherpoems.com/2025/08/04/w... #poetry #poem #poemoftheday
August 8, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Extract from 'Way of Going' by @johncraigwhite.bsky.social , published in Issue Seven. Read the full poem here: andotherpoems.com/2025/08/04/w... #poetry #poem #poemoftheday
Reposted by John White
Issue Seven is now live! We are so excited to share this brilliant issue with you all. Thank you to all the poets who submitted. Read the full issue here: andotherpoems.com/issue-seven/ #poetry #poems
August 4, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Issue Seven is now live! We are so excited to share this brilliant issue with you all. Thank you to all the poets who submitted. Read the full issue here: andotherpoems.com/issue-seven/ #poetry #poems
Some really good stuff in the latest edition of Acumen (112), including this one from my old colleague from Oxford Stanza 2 and Poetryworthhearing - Kathleen McPhilemy.
July 23, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Some really good stuff in the latest edition of Acumen (112), including this one from my old colleague from Oxford Stanza 2 and Poetryworthhearing - Kathleen McPhilemy.
I'm grateful that @atriumpoetry.bsky.social have accepted one of my poems, due to be published in December. I always enjoy reading Atrium poems as they appear through the year. Thanks for big the support to poetry offered by @clairewalkerpoetry.bsky.social and @hollyannepoet.bsky.social
July 22, 2025 at 10:04 PM
I'm grateful that @atriumpoetry.bsky.social have accepted one of my poems, due to be published in December. I always enjoy reading Atrium poems as they appear through the year. Thanks for big the support to poetry offered by @clairewalkerpoetry.bsky.social and @hollyannepoet.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...
Every so often Carol Rumen, for her weekly Guardian column, comes up with a poem that blows my mind. She's done it again this week ...
Every so often Carol Rumen, for her weekly Guardian column, comes up with a poem that blows my mind. She's done it again this week ...
Poem of the week: Salt, Snow, Earth by Naomi Foyle
The relentless cycle of human violence plays out as a brutal symbolic game
www.theguardian.com
July 22, 2025 at 7:58 AM
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...
Every so often Carol Rumen, for her weekly Guardian column, comes up with a poem that blows my mind. She's done it again this week ...
Every so often Carol Rumen, for her weekly Guardian column, comes up with a poem that blows my mind. She's done it again this week ...
My copy of Issue 35 of Under the Radar just popped through my letterbox, and there it is, in print, to lift the spirit. And among such good company!
July 21, 2025 at 1:12 PM
My copy of Issue 35 of Under the Radar just popped through my letterbox, and there it is, in print, to lift the spirit. And among such good company!
Really pleased to get one of my own pieces into this edition, a poem about the day my mother died. Many thanks to the team at Under the Radar.
July 16, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Really pleased to get one of my own pieces into this edition, a poem about the day my mother died. Many thanks to the team at Under the Radar.
Reposted by John White
Under the Radar Issue 35 is printing as I type, so line up your 'hot off the press' copy now: ninearchespress.com/shop#!/Under...
A digital copy straight to your inbox is also available.
Or consider taking out a subscription?
Thanks to all our contributors, reviewers and readers.
A digital copy straight to your inbox is also available.
Or consider taking out a subscription?
Thanks to all our contributors, reviewers and readers.
July 15, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Under the Radar Issue 35 is printing as I type, so line up your 'hot off the press' copy now: ninearchespress.com/shop#!/Under...
A digital copy straight to your inbox is also available.
Or consider taking out a subscription?
Thanks to all our contributors, reviewers and readers.
A digital copy straight to your inbox is also available.
Or consider taking out a subscription?
Thanks to all our contributors, reviewers and readers.
I have just listened to a Marvel Comic cut-out, Pete Hegseth, declare that no other country on Planet Earth could have conducted that military operation yesterday. What other planet might he have in mind? I think we should be told.
June 22, 2025 at 12:43 PM
I have just listened to a Marvel Comic cut-out, Pete Hegseth, declare that no other country on Planet Earth could have conducted that military operation yesterday. What other planet might he have in mind? I think we should be told.
I've just discovered the joys of the Merlin app (birdsong identifier) ... that's my Saturday morning taken care of! The sky here is filled with magpies, rooks and red kites, but there's all these other little creatures chirping away all around us, a right parliament of them.
April 19, 2025 at 8:21 AM
I've just discovered the joys of the Merlin app (birdsong identifier) ... that's my Saturday morning taken care of! The sky here is filled with magpies, rooks and red kites, but there's all these other little creatures chirping away all around us, a right parliament of them.
Reposted by John White
I don't know how likely this unfolding is, but everyone should read it and decide for themselves. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
medium.com/@aletheisthe...
medium.com/@aletheisthe...
On April 20th, 2025, the United States will Cross the Point of No Return.
That’s the day Donald Trump’s advisory committee is expected to release its findings on whether he should invoke the Insurrection Act — a move that would allow him to deploy the military domestically…
medium.com
April 15, 2025 at 4:21 PM
I don't know how likely this unfolding is, but everyone should read it and decide for themselves. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
medium.com/@aletheisthe...
medium.com/@aletheisthe...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
... an interesting article, this. Though he doesn't mention it, I can't help thinking it's author must also have read Les Murray's great poem, 'The Quality of Sprawl'.
... an interesting article, this. Though he doesn't mention it, I can't help thinking it's author must also have read Les Murray's great poem, 'The Quality of Sprawl'.
What does Maga-land look like? Let me show you America's unbeautiful suburban sprawl | Alexander Hurst
I drove 2,000 miles with a French friend across my home country – and saw the endless nowhere land that is the crucible of Trumpism, says Guardian Europe correspondent Alexander Hurst
www.theguardian.com
March 19, 2025 at 8:06 AM
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
... an interesting article, this. Though he doesn't mention it, I can't help thinking it's author must also have read Les Murray's great poem, 'The Quality of Sprawl'.
... an interesting article, this. Though he doesn't mention it, I can't help thinking it's author must also have read Les Murray's great poem, 'The Quality of Sprawl'.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...
This is a great listen - the author of 'Being a Beast' (Charles Foster) turning his attention to human society, and how/when we got it wrong. The answer: a very long time ago!
This is a great listen - the author of 'Being a Beast' (Charles Foster) turning his attention to human society, and how/when we got it wrong. The answer: a very long time ago!
Charles Foster,
Podcast Episode · New Books in Psychology · 29/12/2024 · 1h 2m
podcasts.apple.com
March 16, 2025 at 6:16 PM
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...
This is a great listen - the author of 'Being a Beast' (Charles Foster) turning his attention to human society, and how/when we got it wrong. The answer: a very long time ago!
This is a great listen - the author of 'Being a Beast' (Charles Foster) turning his attention to human society, and how/when we got it wrong. The answer: a very long time ago!
Am I alone in finding it nrar-impossible to concentrate on poetry, with the growing threat of WW3 bulldozing on? We're in late 1930s territory now. How do we respond, and stay relevant?
March 1, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Am I alone in finding it nrar-impossible to concentrate on poetry, with the growing threat of WW3 bulldozing on? We're in late 1930s territory now. How do we respond, and stay relevant?
Reposted by John White
Digging through some of my former scribblings last night, I found a completed attempt at an old Welsh verse form with the most prescriptive / insane syllable count: each stanza went 1-3-9-5-7. It also rhymed, of course: aabbx. Does anyone know what the form is called, or was I just a little mad?
February 28, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Digging through some of my former scribblings last night, I found a completed attempt at an old Welsh verse form with the most prescriptive / insane syllable count: each stanza went 1-3-9-5-7. It also rhymed, of course: aabbx. Does anyone know what the form is called, or was I just a little mad?