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Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

Hi Victoria,

I’ve not been doing any poetry, been reflecting on the art-form, personal experience & what can lie behind the beauty on the page…so it was nice to see this intriguing prompt & have a go.

This Poem

This poem is syntax below the
radar

This poem melted before the heat
of scrutiny even deigned to inspect

This poem is early in the day
too hopelessly late for effective

This poem finally articulated
beautiful depth at the limits of syntax

but forgot to press save

This love found itself as worthless
and disposable as a poem

Matt Guntrip

( #promptcombo )

December 1, 2025 at 8:33 AM

Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

Time…

November 19, 2025 at 10:05 PM

Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

Thank you Eve
The rehearsal was good at least and the band really did well learning new material for them, including a nice new song due out 19 November, ‘Alors’. They really made it beautiful..

Art work for a new single “Alors” by Matt Guntrip. Blue marble background. There’s a dark blue wall dividing two silhouettes of a woman and a man.
On the right the man is sitting on a dark blue floor that runs across the image forming a low band. He is facing away. On the other side a woman on her phone leans back to the wall one foot on the ground her other foot heel to the wall.
In the low floor band it says FEATURING Ed iGroover, Gus Guntrip and Dan Thorpe.

At the top of the wall it says ‘Alors’ and underneath ’Matt Guntrip’

October 27, 2025 at 4:42 PM

Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

This won’t go far but~

If you’re anxious abt #poetry submissions here’s a relevant but hard read

1) do your research on who you’re submitting to
2) prizes or an excessive publication list does not make a decent human being

Talking xenophobic #narcissist here. Personal experience
#writingcommunity

If you’re a poet or writer anxious about submissions. Research before you submit.

The other day I saw a call on another platform from an Ice publisher for submissions, I think on other worlds. Great guy I’m sure.

His girlfriend & muse though, is the most toxic narcissist I’ve ever met.

Back in Dec 2019 we connected on X & over 4 years she policed my every post excoriating every female creative I interacted with. The vindictive was humiliating and often racist. I blocked several times but she’d make up by email.

She was unpublished back then and I took it that it was part her desperation to be a recognised & published author (a title she now uses) & part some kind of possessive jealousy. Turned out she was sexting & writing erotic novellas with the publisher muse for at least half time she spent policing me and raging that she would not be a ‘back up’. I didn’t understand what she meant but apparently narcissists accuse you of what they’re already doing.

My humiliation’s fair enough, my problem, I should’ve walked away on day 2 after that first DM vent arrived about a poem I replied to by Lisa Alletson.

Over four years on a site built for interaction any interaction I had with female creatives triggered an outburst.

Examples

‘Old hag’ about a prompt host she used at the time
‘Old trout’ about a published poet
‘White bitches’ some poets in the US in a compilation she wasn’t selected for
‘Whores’ all women posting selfies on X

Surprised she’s on Instagram, given her views; but maybe success & her muse mellowed her outlook. Maybe success will bring a form of equanimity to the new-found power of acceptance, or rejection.

Not sure a leopard can change her spots, he will want to please his muse as well, but the point is here, before you submit to publishers, do some research. A long list of accolades or awards can be deceptive.

Be careful who you bare your spirit to; in her case I’d expect ideas to be lifted (based on some private feedback) & the vitriol & contempt I witnessed doesn’t bode well for any rejection letter, which if it came, would offer precious little encouragement & likely intrinsic slight.

If this saves a single writer then it’s worth it..

October 22, 2025 at 7:41 AM

Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

Eleven years and three quarters of an hour late two sons and a granddaughter said goodbye to the other half of Capt. JJ Guntrip’s ashes.

My daughter was dancing & auditioning in Europe during the funeral. We thought dad would want her to keep dancing. An honest mistake, so this day was cathartic.

Hurricsne Gate Guardian Memorial Duxford

Hurricsne Gate Guardian Memorial Duxford with flowers

Photos of Flt Lt JJ Guntrip including one “The Right Stuff Style” marching in front of his huge Vulcan Bomber with his crew.

October 22, 2025 at 7:31 AM

Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

I need to let go but under the weight of imaginary clamour; here’s a poem for Tuesday from a no-books no best-of-anything, not spiritual poet, (least I don’t excoriate writers privately or control behaviour).

A pointless ripple lost in the best of net show for the day. Voila
#poem #poetrycommunity

Captive

Today
there will be eloquence
glittering in the light
floating on affluence and leisure

A muse
will gallop in
fuelled by this morning’s
erotic motion clip
tropical light
dancing on her pale canvass
and scatter confetti effusive praise
behaviour-compliant

The narcissist
pushing all the right buttons;
the mannequin dances
captivated,
controlled

Matt Guntrip

October 21, 2025 at 6:55 AM

Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

Sorry, I meant #smallpoemsunday

I can’t read the iphone screen in poor light..

Ombre

In the drive for recognition
her poetry spreads like frost
over marcescent leaves
rotten underneath,
but beautiful.in the cold
until the light reveals truth

Matt Guntrip

October 19, 2025 at 7:01 PM

Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

Today will be full on.
Fittingly, if time allows, moments on a last album track, Daji. A friend told me the story of Daji, a Chinese fox-legend who tempted and destroyed an Emperor.

Even lowly fools can fall lower…

Anyway; here’s ombre for #smallpoemsundqy

October 19, 2025 at 8:57 AM

Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

Apropos 0 requests a poem 4 Tuesday; making sense of a narcissist policing 4 yrs of posts on X; I gave up. My weakness; but should’ve walked away each time her spleen vented at creative sisters. Psychopathic? Turned out 1/2 the time erotic poetry collaborations were underway with her ice muse
#poem

Skerries

Today
there will be wafting among skerries
as if equanimity of success
might elevate sinkable to serene

There will be eloquence
polished
the “backup” muse
time-zone alerted
will gaze upon a morning selfie
soft light, on pale skin
before leaping in to heap
pre-rehearsed gushing endorsement

There will be cool, or blanking
of sisters enthused by her intellectual
sleight of vocabulary,
completely unaware
what you think of them
or what you used to call them
when preoccupied
policing me

Matt Guntrip

October 13, 2025 at 10:59 PM

Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

For #smallpoemsunday a reflection and experimentation..

Après..

Après

After
is the monument of Aphrodite
crumbling
foundation up
After
is exquisite prose and art
rendered worthless
the poison behind the pen
too toxic for breath

Matt Guntrip

October 12, 2025 at 5:24 PM

Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

I’ve lost my faith in poetry, a personal experience, yet when I saw this brilliant prompt #imperfectme from @thebrokenspine.co.uk & host @alanparrywriter.co.uk it triggered something; so here’s a contribution. It opened it door & could start an avalanche; tread softly..

Je vous remercie
#poemsabout

Track

Another mistake
along the vinyl groove
destination certainty
as if the end will beat
a rhythmic slow-clap
to every personal error
the flawed shoe-string songs
squeezed out of economy-size mediocrity

Errors, meanness, naivety
deficits of courage in adversity
and a few words harvested
from barren rocky soil
too many degrees south
of arable pasture

Matt Guntrip

October 10, 2025 at 9:21 AM

Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

It was difficult, checks empty in-tray, but after such overwhelming persuasion, I succumbed & submit another poem for Tuesday, to absolutely no one.

Destination..

#poetry #tuesday #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #poem #narcissist

Destination

Today
colour regardez-moi
Those raged-for accolades
showered at your feet
by sisters unaware,
your excoriating contempt
and other humiliations

Half a planet away
from paradise-peninsula
and multinational conglomerate wealth

mediocrity stands under the sun

It is gentle
fading,
like me
so tired of unfolding adversity
and failure

No courage to emulate
Hannah’s* flight
the destination is still the same

Matt Guntrip

*Hannah Northedge; singer, actor, director

October 7, 2025 at 2:12 PM

Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

Post gig pit stop…
#polesdenlacey
Beautiful breeze and light
Ladybird haven today

View from a bench under trees into the valley at Polesden Lacey. Clear blue sky

View of the hedge border at the bottom of the lawn at Polesden Lacey. Over the hedge you can see the other side of the valley dotted with oak trees. Pale blue sky, wispy clouds. Green lawn in front of the hedge.

Sunlight through the trees bending over the curves of the hill and a bendy path at Polesden Lacey.

October 6, 2025 at 2:40 PM

Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

A #poem for #smallpoemsunday after all the Saturday highs have dissipated..😬

Save me..

Save me

Sunday
Four hotel walls
post-gig blues
Plath poetry
someone save me..

Matt Guntrip

October 5, 2025 at 5:52 PM

Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

A #poem for Sunday. Stuck in a hotel with Plath thinking.
Taking a knife to the knots of narrative; you to the art form itself is truth...but at least you won’t read it.

Esher

#poetry #poetrycommunity #writing #writingcommunity #narcissist

Esher

Esher, post-gig hotel
your old poetry haunts
halcyon, elite education

A shared city, never met
just a toxic app
and toxic you, now I know duplicity

I accept, your manipulation
controlling each reply or post
I reject, all your daily venting
at sisters, for writing beautifully

Recognition craved, was no excuse
Accolades at your feet now
one hundred yet?
Spiritual poet they say,
dark make up selfies for awards

..and yet you called them whores
for sharing just a smile
all the while, ice back-up on the side

The darkest part of the spleen ?
I loved your prose from day one,
witnessing that psychopathic cruelty
behind your art
destroyed my faith in poetry itself

Then again I’m just a burnt-out accolade
that never was

Matt Guntrip

October 5, 2025 at 6:50 AM

Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

For #nationalpoetryday some poems deleted when I left X thanks to that salute & a writer, almost as toxic.

Here by zero demand 🙄
#poetrycommunity #poetry

Vapour

Soft water-blanket
Nature’s gift
all around, but out of reach
As if like love itself
Cool mist
Still sky
This is how we wonder, isolated
until light from a star
burns water vapour
into cloud candy
Raindrop kisses
waiting to fall

Matt Guntrip

Final score

I drag lyrics
kicking and screaming
from the grip
of a talentless vacuum
Beside me
your eloquent verse
where accolades swoon at your feet
endorsements sought,
like moths to a flame
And I know,
even without
one more mediocre slingshot
across the staves of limited opportunity
that I am beaten

Matt Guntrip

Legacy

Nothing makes sense
even after accumulation
reflection and distance
Inexorable
the falling grains of sand
through the glass flute
crafted as if the flow
accelerates,
in proportion to declining stock

You are history now
like a dark age
Yet how long
the shadow of your reach
like a wall or ceiling stain
a daily reminder
the failures of aspiration
or the damage of love

Matt Guntrip

Oubliés

I am
irrelevance
forgotten history, of no consequence
I am
deleted collaborations
lining your trash, echoes on my Macbook
I am
unwanted submissions
outside the allure of sensual sophistication

I am
the wound
you left behind, still congealing
I am
the left-for
you gloated at, posting Jenny Xie

Someone told me you were cruel,
and that that, was deliberate

I am
that “knot of narrative”
almost written to equanimity now
I am
the exhausted ballad
several days short of unfinished rejection
I am
closer to peace
still tangled up, in the chronology of you

Matt Guntrip

October 2, 2025 at 8:06 PM

Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

Thanks Ju !
I have managed to herd just one cat to tonight’s rehearsal for Saturday’s gig 🤪

I will see if I can record his keyboard playing for a final single; about time I had my brother on a track..

September 30, 2025 at 9:00 AM

Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

A poem for the indifference of Tuesday..’Back up’

#poem #poetry #Tuesday #poetrycommunity #writing #writingcommunity #narcissist

Back up

Today the spotlight of elevated host
moves on
There will be
sophisticated eloquence
dictionary-busting mystique
born of dazzling, elite, private education

And in between
those indelicate private exchanges
the “back up” gallivanting in
hooves thrashing up effusive praise

Mine was your imagination
but a narcissist will always accuse
their own duplicities

I, like a foolish US Democrat
trading trust,
within a framework
rotten to the core

Matt Guntrip

September 30, 2025 at 8:25 AM

Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

For #smallpoemsunday I hope this late contribution is ok - “Hem”.

Two photos for context..

Hem

Old friends
Indignities of time
skirted over
with other preoccupations
These days, the hem-line
below the knee..

Matt Guntrip

Hem

Old friends
Indignities of time
skirted over
with other preoccupations
These days, the hem-line
below the knee..

Matt Guntrip

Hand build working model of the last steam train built in the UK - the Evening Star

September 28, 2025 at 7:47 PM

Matt Guntrip

@matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social

For #poemsabout #neveragain a late contribution, a bit personal and a little off the theme but maybe it’s that “taking a knife to the knots of narrative” (Jenny Xie I think).
Will try to catch up here soon.