David Harrison Horton
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unionherald.bsky.social
David Harrison Horton
@unionherald.bsky.social
1.8K followers 2.4K following 460 posts
Artist, curator, editor, and writer based in Beijing. Author of Necessary (Downingfield, 2025), Model Answers (CCCP Chapbooks, 2024) and Maze Poems (Arteidolia, 2022). Edits poetry zine SAGINAW.
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unionherald.bsky.social
David Harrison Horton @unionherald.bsky.social · Jul 27
My second full-length poetry book, Necessary, is out today from Downingfield Press. I am really very excited about this. If you’re interested in reviewing it please DM me. downingfield.com/book/necessa...
The cover of David Harrison Horton’s Necessary. The cover shows colorful geometric patterns with minuscule mythical figures among them. David Harrison Horton’s Necessary is a poetic exploration of time, place, and connection. Drawing on sources as diverse as Babylonian creation myths, Carolingian history, Marco Polo, Paul Éluard, Elizabeth Willis, and Xinran, Horton layers fragments and imagery into a contemporary meditation on how we come to understand our place within inherited and unfolding narratives. Structured in a fixed nine-line form, each poem places these elements in dialogue with the movements and longings of a recurring figure, Mr Lusk. As he walks the ‘well-beaten path’, Mr Lusk confronts the weight of history and heritage, echoing the universal need to reckon with what has come before. With laconic precision, Horton’s voice allows each fragment to resonate, inviting readers to draw their own meaning from the intricate weave of past and present. Necessary is a compelling inquiry into how stories shape us – and how we, in turn, shape them.
unionherald.bsky.social
It’s a top selling poetry book. I saw him on Jimmy Kimmel promoting it. Is it any good?
Cover of Matthew McConaughey’s book Poems & Prayers. It has a sepia tone photo of the author seated and looking to the right.
December 11, 2025 at 3:19 PM
unionherald.bsky.social
Got the first stew of the season going on the stove.
December 10, 2025 at 5:45 AM
unionherald.bsky.social
I love it when my small neighborhood cinema in Beijing shows random treats like 1957’s Witness for the Prosecution for no apparent reason.
Three men in a lawyer’s office.
December 9, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Reposted by David Harrison Horton
jordandavis.bsky.social
It really is a beautiful book.
luaz.bsky.social Kyla Houbolt @luaz.bsky.social · 8d
#Poetry #booksky
My lovely publisher made these postcards to help promote my book. If you had one, you could get your library to order a copy! Plus they make nifty bookmarks. If you'd like one, or a couple to share, DM me your mailing address and I'll send you a Happy Holiday card! (US only.) 📚 ❤️‍🔥 📬
Image of postcard picturing blue book cover with yellow type, and on reverse some text about the book. Becoming Altar, New and Selected Poems, Kyla Houbolt.
December 8, 2025 at 5:55 PM
unionherald.bsky.social
Movie you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no star wars or trek, LOTR, Marvel, Potter, Disney or Pixar.
December 8, 2025 at 12:46 AM
unionherald.bsky.social
Je hais le mouvement qui déplace les lignes,
Et jamais je ne pleure et jamais je ne ris.

Charles Baudelaire, La beauté
achillesthe2nd.bsky.social Achilles Micawber @achillesthe2nd.bsky.social · 7d
Which lines of poetry live rent-free in your head?
December 7, 2025 at 3:37 AM
unionherald.bsky.social
胡格吉乐图(Hugejiletu) and Dasom Baek @ Traverse. Horsehead fiddle and flute avant improv. So glad to see music like this live in Beijing.
Hugejiletu and Dasom Beak play horsehead fiddle and flute in a small warehouse setting. Hugejiletu is sitting to the left playing the horsehead fiddle. Dasom Beak is standing on the right playing a long wooden flute. You can some seated audience members in the bottom foreground.
December 5, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Reposted by David Harrison Horton
henryghenrik.bsky.social
I've just published a new poetry pamphlet, titled THE MOUSETRAP. It's the 10th in a chapbook sequence, provisionally titled SHIELD OF MNEMOSYNE.
www.lulu.com/shop/henry-g...
The Mousetrap
THE MOUSETRAP is a set of poems, comprising the 10th section of a work-in-progress, tentatively titled SHIELD OF MNEMOSYNE.
www.lulu.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:48 PM
unionherald.bsky.social
The bookstore in my neighborhood had this today. They don’t usually carry English language books outside of old school classics (think Dante, Dickens and Hemingway and you’ll get the idea). I’ve never read this, so it’s a nice unexpected treat.
Cover of Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red
December 4, 2025 at 8:38 AM
Reposted by David Harrison Horton
robmclennan.bsky.social
the usual reminder that @periodicities.bsky.social is open to submissions of previously unpublished poetry-related reviews, interviews, essays and translations; yes, please!
periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2020/03/subm...
submissions
periodicities is open to submissions of previously unpublished poetry-related reviews, interviews and essays. Please send submissions as .d...
periodicityjournal.blogspot.com
November 30, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Reposted by David Harrison Horton
six18sfoundry.bsky.social
He literally has no comeback
Japanese man in 1940s taking a verbal blow from wife in traditional black robe w sash. She says “You don't think about anything important.” Jubilation Street Kinoshita
December 1, 2025 at 11:08 PM
unionherald.bsky.social
Second hand find. How some learned English around these parts 50 years ago. To be fair, it’s at a fairly advanced level. Looking forward to reading it.
A copy of the script for Lenin in 1918 (Peking Foreign Language Institute, 1975). Very plain cover with an official circular red stamp on it.
November 30, 2025 at 3:55 AM
Reposted by David Harrison Horton
robmclennan.bsky.social
newly posted at @periodicities.bsky.social : Chris Stroffolino : A Note on The Title: The Word Medi(t)ation
periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2025/11/chri...
Chris Stroffolino : A Note on The Title: The Word Medi(t)ation
“a person (the poet) has no irreducible, ahistorical, unmediated, singular, eternal identity.”— Lyn Hejinian Meditation is the actio...
periodicityjournal.blogspot.com
November 3, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Reposted by David Harrison Horton
jordandavis.bsky.social
A poet is not responsible for their poems prompting in other people the wish to write poems themselves. Except that that’s what poetry is — the continuing of a conversation, with the probable consequence of the conversation being continued later on by someone else.
November 27, 2025 at 1:50 PM
unionherald.bsky.social
An envelope of goodness from @allisonanne.com. Really great collage zines.
Two zines and two postcards Allison Anne.
November 28, 2025 at 11:34 PM
unionherald.bsky.social
An envelope of goodness from @allisonanne.com. Really great collage zines.
Two zines and two postcards Allison Anne.
November 28, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Reposted by David Harrison Horton
upfromsumdirt.bsky.social
A DIRT SALE.

starting December 1st, the pdf for my first collection, Deifying A Total Darkness, will be available for FREE (or, yaknow, "paywhutchalike") through gumroad.com/upfromsumdirt ... the paperback will be a slender $10.

discount will end on my birthday, January 21st, 2026.
photo of the white paperback bookcover for my poetry collection with an illustrated figure dressed in red shirt & black jeans, with blue sneakers & baseball cap. he holds a black & gold sword while standing over a subdued (if not dead) lion with a severed front paw. a sun with the stylized facial features of african art shines down from above.
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
unionherald.bsky.social
Going through the IWW’s Big Red Songbook and love how the songs list the lyrics and then the forgotten tune that is meant to supply the music, like “The Workers, So They Say” is set to the tune of “The Bird on Nelly’s Hat.”
November 25, 2025 at 11:33 AM
unionherald.bsky.social
Going to say once again for clarity: I’m here for poetry, small press stuff, stuff where that might be adjacent. If you’re a human and don’t want to be blocked, DM me and etc. Getting too many robots this week
November 21, 2025 at 12:20 PM
unionherald.bsky.social
Li Biao Percussion Group @ the Egg. Easily in my top 5 of performances I’ve seen here. At one point, they were playing tinfoil and bottle brushes (pic). Steve Reich, Xenakis, even Bach on the program. Glad the NCPA put this on. Easily the closest to avant I’ve seen in concert hall officialdom here.
Li Biao Percussion Group sitting on the concert hall floor in a semi circle playing household things like tinfoil and bottle scrubbers as instruments
November 20, 2025 at 11:55 PM
unionherald.bsky.social
Look what my friend and fellow poet, Dom Armstrong, did. It’s a pretty great chap.
Cover of Dom Armstrong’s chapbook How I Saved David Horton’s Life in 9 Different Ways Blurb: In How I Saved David Horton’s Life in 9 Different ways, Dom Armstrong delivers a darkly comic exploration of friendship, futility, and the fragile theatre of redemption. The Koi Pond A sliver of a crescent moon above the surface, the pond held its liquor better than we could. We leaned too far over the dark, whispering fish. He said, “They look like ghosts rehearsing.” I said, “They’re waiting for reincarnation.” He tipped, I caught, gravity reconsidered. The koi kept circling, unbothered. He laughed, half water, half whisky. That was the first time he let me save him.
November 19, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Reposted by David Harrison Horton
robmclennan.bsky.social
Elizabeth Robinson, vulnerability index / @nupress.bsky.social ;
robmclennan.blogspot.com/2025/11/eliz...
Elizabeth Robinson, vulnerability index
Meth-filled rage that makes the man’s screams audible over a two-block range. Rage that enables him to heave a heavy rock overhead int...
robmclennan.blogspot.com
November 18, 2025 at 1:34 PM
unionherald.bsky.social
SAGINAW has nominated pieces by @billymills.bsky.social, Stephen Ratcliffe, Katie Coy, @dangodston.bsky.social, and
@thedaybooks.bsky.social for the Pushcart Prize.
November 12, 2025 at 6:17 AM
unionherald.bsky.social
Kyla Houbolt's book came in the mail today. I read it earlier this year to rightly praise it. Now, I am going to re-read it over a cup of beautiful longjing tea. You should get a copy if you haven't already.
The cover of Kyla Houbolt's book Becoming Altar: New and Selected Poems.
November 12, 2025 at 6:12 AM
Reposted by David Harrison Horton
allisonanne.com
mutable edge // handcut paper collage with graphite on recycled paperboard, november 2025

#collageart #abstract #collage #queerart #artist
semi-abstract sectioned paper collage with bird stamps, minerals, clouds, curtains
November 11, 2025 at 1:58 AM