Vikki C.

Morningfall I wake, anxious for first milk, the logistics of things I cannot keep. For you on another timescale, halving passion in unequal twos. Spitting its black-eyed seeds in the drain, instead of back to jewelled earth. I worry how you've not written first. How the world eats at our private amber. We’re conditioned to suffer widely, to help the on-screen casualties, but cannot handle the small griefs. Interior winds burying our heads deep into the valley’s neck. I am afraid of turning away from hyacinth and hope. From all that spoils without attention. I cannot come nearer than the fox to the lilac bed, hungry but aware of the latest rage. I’m afraid of straying while men break bread, scheming big wars. Fear easy extinction, like those I hold—whom I’ve never told I am holding. On the river that silvers through, none notice the salmon rush towards joy. My copper-clay coat, warm with potential. Yet sorrow has my tail and snow buries the shortest path to you. Honey hardens in airtight jars. The sweet life, still unreachable as ice freezes the limbs, the tongue. Hear the fridge's dull anthem hum. Its nightly glow on my salty cheek. What preserves longer than God intends? You have not let me go and I fear this extended light will start a new devotion.

"I’m afraid of straying while men break bread, scheming big wars."

'Morningfall' – published at The Book Bag: Poetic Voices.

My thanks to @paulwritespoems.bsky.social for the feature & the honour of this poem being nominated for the @forwardprizes.bsky.social🙏

paulwritespoems.com/category/the...

Thank you for your kindness, Beth ❤️

God, but this is good.

This is such a wonderfully perceptive review. I'm honoured. Thank you so much.

Morningfall I wake, anxious for first milk, the logistics of things I cannot keep. For you on another timescale, halving passion in unequal twos. Spitting its black-eyed seeds in the drain, instead of back to jewelled earth. I worry how you've not written first. How the world eats at our private amber. We’re conditioned to suffer widely, to help the on-screen casualties, but cannot handle the small griefs. Interior winds burying our heads deep into the valley’s neck. I am afraid of turning away from hyacinth and hope. From all that spoils without attention. I cannot come nearer than the fox to the lilac bed, hungry but aware of the latest rage. I’m afraid of straying while men break bread, scheming big wars. Fear easy extinction, like those I hold—whom I’ve never told I am holding. On the river that silvers through, none notice the salmon rush towards joy. My copper-clay coat, warm with potential. Yet sorrow has my tail and snow buries the shortest path to you. Honey hardens in airtight jars. The sweet life, still unreachable as ice freezes the limbs, the tongue. Hear the fridge's dull anthem hum. Its nightly glow on my salty cheek. What preserves longer than God intends? You have not let me go and I fear this extended light will start a new devotion.

"I’m afraid of straying while men break bread, scheming big wars."

'Morningfall' – published at The Book Bag: Poetic Voices.

My thanks to @paulwritespoems.bsky.social for the feature & the honour of this poem being nominated for the @forwardprizes.bsky.social🙏

paulwritespoems.com/category/the...

Thank you very much, Carmella! 💐

Thanks so much, Rosanna!

Thank you so much, Sam!

It's an amazing poem, Matt. Truly well deserved.

Thank you so much, Lee! 😊

Thank you, Rachel! xo

I'm honoured to be nominated with two wonderfully talented poets!

A huge honour and lovely surprise! I'm so grateful to @paulwritespoems.bsky.social and The Book Bag: Poetic Voices for nominating 'Morningfall' for the @forwardprizes.bsky.social 🔥 🙏

And in amazingly talented company too! Congratulations all round 🎉

#poetrycommunity #WritingCommunity

Thank you so much, Paul. I'm totally honoured. And huge congratulations to @matthewmcsmith.bsky.social and @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social 🔥

It is with great honour I can name the @forwardprizes.bsky.social nominees from The Book Bag: Poetic Voices.

Congratulations 👏

@matthewmcsmith.bsky.social
@thepaulconnolly.bsky.social
@vikkicwrites.bsky.social

File #447-B: Investigation into Artifact “The Poem” – Joshua Walker THE ARTIFACT — JOSHUA WALKER The ArtifactDownload My Dearest … An Audio Letter Author Statement This piece began as an essay, transitions into a prose narrative of found notes, culminat…

Today at PROCESS series welcome bigjosh84.bsky.social
Joshua Walker with a complex hybrid work involving text, sound and image.

Speak, reader, and the lines will answer.
The air between letters is older than the world.
Step lightly, for the ink remembers.

icefloepress.net/2026/03/04/f...

Thanks Sam!

💙💙

Thank you, dear Susan! x

Thank you, Paul!

I'm honoured and so grateful to be featured as the March Poetic Voice at The Book Bag 🔥

A huge thank you to @paulwritespoems.bsky.social for inviting me, and curating this showcase, which includes 3 brand new poems over the coming month. Please do take a read 🙏

paulwritespoems.com/2026/03/01/t...

The Book Bag: Poetic Voices – March 2026 It's March already. Spring approaches with pace, clocks are changing this month and I fell like time is something we can't grasp both figuratively or metaphorically. As we slide gently into the (hopefully) warmer months, it's my pleasure to bring you another Poetic Voice. I first encountered this poet on social media and was startled at the beauty and elegance of language used in poems that always include multiple layers and deep emotional connection with readers. I feel very lucky to be able to share original work from this tremendously talented writer.

As we slip gently in to the (hopefully) warmer months, meteorological Spring begins today. The Book Bag: Poetic Voices also has a new featured poet and I feel lucky to be sharing original work from a tremendous talent...

Click to find out who the new Poetic Voice

'The Problem of the Lantern' from After Image by Jenny George.

Reflecting on February's mood with Jenny George's beautiful After Image (@coppercanyonpress.bsky.social) 🤍

#poetry #poetrycommunity #death #grief

Six Poems after Remedios Varo – Catherine Graham Seers as Birds or the Quest for Essential Materials after Remedios Varo To be a bird from a Varo painting is to be unlike other birds. Our vivid assembly of fine feathers operates outside laws you …

On our Process series 6 new poems by Canadian poet/novelist Catherine Graham after paintings by surrealist Remedios Varo w/ a visual poem by @rfredekenter.bsky.social

o be unlike

other birds.

icefloepress.net/2026/02/25/s...

Oh those final words.

From Ursula K. Le Guin's Collected Poems.

#poem #booksky #writing

Grace Periodic No one comes with outstretched hands. So I store up more soft wisdom, kernels sticky with amnesia. Who will remember this burial by next fall? I’ve wandered remotely from the magnolia, and now we’re over. Gathered oats and half-truths that fit loosely into some other life. Roofs mistaken for shelter and windows for privacy. There are things I let slip downstream, pretending they don’t belong. Cedar ash. A deer’s beige muteness. Dripping aspens—a glamour I thought I didn’t need. When the current takes, I resume my piety, as you place me back between velvet heads that burgeon to explode. A red fragrance ensnares, the harsh elements shuffling to forget. Through rain-screens, migratory birds circle like fighter jets. When the lead bird divebombs, a cloud frissons over the peach trees as if nectar were enough for those who avoid common speech. They perch on black lines. Leaning in like figures in burgundy caves. The space between lips, diminished by night-ink. Many ask what I’ve achieved in becoming? So I raise the air where my arms were and wait for ice to lacquer the lake. I lean in to look, and though I’m unable to tell, I kiss what I see—sometimes gently—before losing this virtue. In the study of evolution, I leave the stray light and easy blues for the unborn. They know to bless what I abandon. For this, I have practised all my life.

Honoured to have a new poem 'Grace Periodic' out in Issue 16.1 of TIMBER Journal, which is run by MFA candidates out of the University of Colorado-Boulder.

Beautiful boundary pushing work in this issue: timberjournal.org/archive?cate...

My thanks to EIC Hannah Olsson 🌹

Alt text included below.

from THE SECRET LIFE OF PLANTS – Beatriz Hausner & Rik Lina THE SECRET LIFE OF PLANTS MOVING IN The house had remained empty for what seemed like several eternities, despite its prominent location in the centre of Paris. It was as if the walls had signed a …

This week Ice Floe Process series begins w/ extraordinary feature from 2 leading contemporary surrealists in collaboration: Chilean/Canadian #poet Beatriz Hausner & influential Dutch surrealist #painter Rik Lina.
Enjoy these evocations of interior alternative worlds
icefloepress.net/2026/02/23/f...

Thank you so much, Sam!

Thank you so much, Robert! Appreciate your kindness and lovely comments.

Thank you so much for such a beautiful comment and share. And happy that magnolia line stood out for you. Ancient flower, as ancient as the heart...