Rick Dove
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rickdove.bsky.social
Rick Dove
@rickdove.bsky.social
Poet | UK Poetry Slam Champion 2021 | Creative Writing Workshop Facilitator | Activist 🏳️‍🌈♿️ ☮️ | 🔗 https://linktr.ee/rickdove |
As a Londoner (with familial roots back to the 19th century), I’m finding it *extremely* difficult not to take the co-ordinated right-wing defamation of my home VERY personally, so the other social media apps are now intolerable.

London is not perfect, but it is a beacon of multicultural hope.
November 15, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Got my contributor’s copy of Class Lines & Red Lines, a poetry anthology from Left Cultures. Such an honour to have my dark little fable alongside such talented comrades.

Thank you Left Cultures and @janinebooth.bsky.social

Onwards ✊🏾

#Poetry #PoetsLife #BookPostIsTheBestPost
November 3, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Been busy on other platforms of late so if we know each other IRL and you’ve snuck on here without me noticing, give me a shout.
March 17, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Playing my first full feature set of 2025 at the brand new, Words at The Glitch poetry open-mic night.

11th March 2025

It is a gorgeous LGBT+ space, intimate and central (Waterloo, London).

Come through!

#PoetsOfBluesky #Poetry #PoetsLife
February 24, 2025 at 10:44 PM
In spite of being treated in hospital three times already this year, poetry wise it is already an improvement on last… Really excited about that last booking. Will update as soon as allowed.

#PoetsLife #ChronicIllness #DisabilityArts
January 27, 2025 at 7:07 PM
After a celebratory supper I am mainly drafting poems and savouring a Christmas present, and “an honest friend” 😉

#PoetsLife #BurnsNight
January 25, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Whisky incoming…
January 25, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Just had nine tubes drawn to check to see which of two in patient treatments will be most effective/least detrimental…

Looking like either plasmapheresis or immunotherapy in the coming months. Not thrilled but ever hopeful.

#ChronicIllness #SaveOurNHS
January 21, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Time for another introductory post, I think (Welcome, new defectors).

I am a progressive poet and activist based in London, with publications and performances going back nearly ten years.

A selection of which can be found via the link in my bio.

Art is work, and The Great Work is for us all.
January 19, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Poetry begets poetry, and a society full of poetry is a society full of introspection, empathy, and those prepared to listen, and a society that has these things is better inoculated against bigotry. #WhyIWrite
January 7, 2025 at 12:07 PM
I have no words… but I am STILL never using Gen AI to write some.
December 3, 2024 at 11:30 PM
Post a non-religious photo you think of as holy.
November 24, 2024 at 3:09 PM
Incomprehensible and monstrous you say?

There is only one thing I could possibly write about with that prompt.

A poem for my dad in the new anthology of Kaiju writing, Devastation Songs from @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social It means more than I can put into words.

Thank you, Aaron and Alex 🙏🏾
November 18, 2024 at 1:06 PM
Not sure if I am going to post poetry samples on here much. I feel there may be an audience for it, but similarly, I would like social media to go back to being more social and less promotional and transactional…
November 17, 2024 at 11:07 AM
Post a picture of yourself to show the newbies what they’re dealing with.
November 15, 2024 at 2:22 PM
As someone with vision issues, I have never loved Instagram, but the way it became the de facto promotional platform for poetry (an art form of words) always seemed a little perverse to me…

Hoping BlueSky can be *the* poetry platform.
November 13, 2024 at 2:56 PM
For context, I gave up an X account of over 7,000 followers, built over 12 years.

Starting again is going to be hard work, but if the poets and progressives are here, I am sure we will find each other.
November 13, 2024 at 2:09 PM
As someone who came to prominence performing poetry to pissed up punters, people problematically put aside my poetry placed in publications…

2024: A selection (not exhaustive).
November 12, 2024 at 11:03 AM
A picture from your gallery but make it black and white.
November 9, 2024 at 1:57 PM
Bestie being accidentally brilliant #PoetsLife
October 18, 2024 at 8:29 PM
Hello to all recent arrivals. BlueSky is edging ever closer to critical mass. I remember the early days of Twitter, it’s a lot like that, except this time we have a blueprint for keeping things cordial… hopefully…

*meme as tithe.
October 18, 2024 at 3:25 PM
If you write, paint, draw, play, or sing, but don’t want to devote your life to gaming algorithms or paying billionaire owned corporations for exposure, your work simply isn’t being seen. Mutual aid and sharing help, but don’t be fooled, *art* is being squeezed out… and it’s deliberate.
August 18, 2024 at 9:10 AM
Lots of new arrivals, so I guess we should all be doing the introductions thing again.

Hi, I’m Rick, a writer, workshop facilitator, performance poet, and activist from London.

I am left of centre, love museums, movies, and mythology, but not Musk… never musk.

#Poetry #SocialJustice #StopTheWar
August 11, 2024 at 9:53 AM
We need to bring back the idea that it okay to not know everything.
August 10, 2024 at 6:24 AM
Rocking the full-on 1970's revolutionary look at Wrestival on Friday. Can confidently add rabble-rousing hype man to my resume now. 🤣
May 7, 2024 at 7:37 PM