Tarn MacArthur
banner
tarnnation.bsky.social
Tarn MacArthur
@tarnnation.bsky.social
Poems forthcoming in: London Review of Books, Free Bloody Birds & The London Magazine.
Poems appearing in: Times Literary Supplement, New Statesman, New Republic, Poetry Review & Poetry London.
https://linktr.ee/tarnmacarthur
Pinned
My poem ‘Climbing to Seefin Passage Tomb on Summer Solstice’, which is an homage to my late mentor John Burnside, has just been published in the Times Literary Supplement. Please have a read. www.the-tls.co.uk/literature/o...
'Climbing to Seefin Passage Tomb on Summer Solstice' by Tarn MacArthur
i.m. John Burnside No one knows what calls us, days like this that seem to stretch all sense of reason: the hillside scrub abuzz with silver-washed and dark green fritillary, the red grouse and hare, ...
www.the-tls.co.uk
Reposted by Tarn MacArthur
I don't do this so much these days but a poem for a Sunday. Leaves by Derek Mahon, from this beautiful book.
November 16, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Toonie needs to go. Blame Finn as the easy way out but no team meltdowns like that if they’re coached well.
#scoarg
November 16, 2025 at 5:04 PM
You can’t have this much lack of mobility at the back and expect to win against such a fluid counter attack. Defense is all over the shop. #GRESCO
November 15, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Reposted by Tarn MacArthur
These are some quite heartbreaking stories and, as Holly Greenberry-Pullen comments in the piece, really illustrates the perverse absurdity of deeming trans teens to young to even get blockers but being fine with intersex kids getting horrifically drastic full-on bodily surgery as *toddlers*.
‘I don’t want anyone to suffer like I did’: the intersex campaigners fighting to limit surgery on children
What should be done about the small proportion of babies born with genitals that are neither typically male nor typically female? Many of those affected believe parents and doctors are often too quick...
www.theguardian.com
November 12, 2025 at 6:17 AM
A cracking Declan Ryan poem in the new @newyorker.com issue:

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
“Modern European”
“Although we speak, now, to each other in new ways / we can still meet here, I think. We always have.”
www.newyorker.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:28 AM
A contemporary great!
🏆 The WINNER of the 2025 Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry is ...

✨ WELLWATER by Karen Solie! ✨

🔗 Learn more about WELLWATER here: https://houseofanansi.com/products/wellwater #GGBooks #GGBooks2025
November 6, 2025 at 3:32 PM
The UK has donated £7.5m in emergency funding to Jamaica. Kylian Mbappé has donated £20m. Wtf is wrong with this country?
November 5, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Tarn MacArthur
When I worked in WaPo Opinions in 2017-2018, senior editors specifically told junior editors not to factcheck Marc Thiessen and other MAGA columnists, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to publish anything by them at all, and “we need them for intellectual diversity.”
It’s very telling that opening your publication to MAGA “thought” requires a massive downgrade in quality control.
October 30, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Reposted by Tarn MacArthur
"Is the Nazi MP who says she's driven mad by TV adverts full of Jews a racist or realist? How many people of Jewish heritage would the German National People’s Party expel? And should Germany be selling tanks to Yugoslavia?"

Join LIVE from the Weimar Republic in the year 1931 🇩🇪
Is the Reform MP who says she’s driven mad by TV adverts full of Black & Asian people a racist or realist? How many migrants would the Tories expel? & should the UK be selling fighter jets to Türkiye?

Join LIVE at 9PM on X & YouTube or on ITV1 at 1045PM 📺

#Peston
October 28, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Reposted by Tarn MacArthur
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...
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
Thank you to Stephen Sexton and @poetryireland.bsky.social for publishing this itinerary poem.
September 20, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Interesting—the oldest university in UK announces AI platform through open ai day after the ceo has dinner with the king.
September 19, 2025 at 7:02 PM
It’s been over a year since I stopped eating meat and has been so much easier than I thought it would be. Not certain I will but can see myself going vegan, because a lot of my meals already are. If anyone has been thinking of cutting meat from their diet give it a shot, it’s easier than you think 🌱
September 15, 2025 at 8:21 AM
I know England are the better team here but come on, coming back for the upright tackle and not the tackle off the ball—Scotland player nowhere near engaging in that ruck surely.
September 14, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Not normally a big ‘acceptance’ announcer, but I somehow have a poem forthcoming in the London Review of Books. Miracles do happen, apparently, right out of the slush!
September 8, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Reposted by Tarn MacArthur
If Farage wins the next election, it will be down to one person. His name is Keir Starmer.
This thread explains why.
1. Destroying faith in democracy. The UK decisively voted out the Tories, only for Starmer to give us a Continuity Tory government, shamefully beholden to economic power.
🧵
September 7, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Women’s rugby, men’s rugby, sevens, fifteens, doesn’t matter… everybody loves some Fiji 🏉 🇫🇯
September 6, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Tarn MacArthur
Reposted by Tarn MacArthur
The parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine have sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, alleging that ChatGPT contributed to their son’s suicide, including by advising him on methods and offering to write the first draft of his suicide note.
Parents of 16-year-old sue OpenAI, claiming ChatGPT advised on his suicide | CNN Business
The parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine have sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, alleging that ChatGPT contributed to their son’s suicide, including by advising him on methods and offering to write the firs...
www.cnn.com
August 27, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Reposted by Tarn MacArthur
I don’t want to be too shrill about this but I think the BBC, ITV and Sky have disgraced themselves in their coverage of the anti-refugee protests. A massive failure of judgement. But now we know the next time a progressive protest “isn’t news” that it’s nothing to do with numbers
August 24, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Reposted by Tarn MacArthur
A reminder of how the nation’s broadcaster views calls to end genocide.
August 25, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Reposted by Tarn MacArthur
“He was asking what he had done wrong for this to happen to him and if the teachers don’t like him,” said his mother Anne.

Jake said he was planning to avoid using the toilet at school by limiting the amount he drinks
https://bit.ly/3JwjYBT
‘What have I done wrong?’ Trans kids go back to school bathroom bans in Scotland
Councils rushing to put policies on school bathrooms in place leave trans children facing confusion, distress and the risk of being outed.
goodlawproject.org
August 25, 2025 at 6:51 AM
Good morning from Montreal and my mother’s balcony.
August 23, 2025 at 10:34 AM