A5 page. 2 poems. 10pt Times New Roman.
That’s the formality.
Everything else? Break it.
Rip up the rulebook. Burn the workshop.
Write it like it matters.
#PoemsAbout #LiftToTheSky #PoetsOfBluesky #WednesdayWIPs #Poetry #SubmissionWindow
Well this is annoying!
Alt Text: A person stands in low, warm light wearing a yellow sleeveless bodysuit. Their arms are tattooed, and they hold a pineapple at their lower torso. Their head is slightly bowed, expression unreadable.
😂
Small Prophets is the first time I've been able to concentrate on a TV show since last October, & fuck me was it good! Tender and beautifully funny with an outstanding cast!
Love an acceptance email on a Monday evening! 🥳
A poem I wrote for #PoemsAbout will be on #BBC #Upload Thursday night.
Thank you so much @adamcrowther.bsky.social for choosing it and @alanparrywriter.co.uk for prompting it! ❤️ #poetry #writing
whenever someone talks about line breaks online someone always shows up and says something like LINE BREAKS ARE ONLY THERE FOR BREATHS and I just can't imagine saying you love poetry while hating it so much
Thrilled to have a dark little poem in this upcoming anthology. Some cracking company and oh how I love naming the grim on occasion. Thanks @alanparrywriter.co.uk
My #LiftToTheSky today goes to the amazing @onlypoemsmag.bsky.social, a place I go when I feel the need to discover and read stunning poets and poems and know I'll never be let down! 🙏💜
@thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk
onlypoems.com
So I’ll pick poems I actually love, pay poets actual cash, and refuse the lie that this “means” anything more than that. If that makes people uncomfortable: good.
#TheBrokenSpineAward #ByPoetsForPoets #PoemsAbout #LiftToTheSky
But I won’t do that. Not because prizes are sacred — they aren’t — but because this money was raised with you, for you. Workshops. Open mics. Community labour. Peer to peer.
That’s not a meritocracy. It’s theatre. Prestige laundering. Authority by vibes. And indie presses aren’t innocent — some are worse because they know better and do it anyway.
Here’s the truth: I could pick the three worst, most technically clumsy poems in the pile and they’d still be “award-winning”. That’s how empty the prize logic is. Slap a badge on anything and watch it float.
As editor + founder, I’m tired of presses cosplaying “community” while using prizes as sales funnels. It’s nefarious, it’s cynical, and everyone knows it. We just don’t say it out loud.
#TheBrokenSpineAward #ByPoetsForPoets #PoemsAbout #LiftToTheSky
Hey @robinince.bsky.social, thanks for the follow!
#NewYear brings new beginnings? Anyone else stepping into their #crone era? Leaving something behind? Starting a #ThirdAct? Send me links to your work! Here’s mine: www.amazon.co.uk/Trilogy-wido...
Sent into the world thanks to the fabulous @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk
Can’t wait!
Close-up of a fresh red tattoo on Mrs P showing two interlinked, hand-drawn hearts on skin. The ink is glossy and slightly raised. A tattoo artist’s purple-gloved hands are visible below, resting on protective paper marked with red and purple ink. The heart design is inspired by Vivienne Westwood’s heart-shaped handbag.
Close-up of my left ankle showing a matching black linework gravestone tattoo engraved with the words “IN HELL.” The gravestone appears cracked and weathered, with grass drawn at the base. My ankle sits above a black sock and a black Dr. Martens boot with yellow stitching, completing the complementary tattoo pair.
Close-up of my daughter’s left ankle resting on a black tattoo chair. A small black linework tattoo shows a gravestone engraved with the words “SEE YOU,” surrounded by simple grass lines. She is wearing leopard-print Dr. Martens boots, patterned socks, and brown corduroy trousers slightly rolled up.
Family day out at the tattooist’s 🖤 Three of us. One studio. No overthinking, rather meaning made permanent. At Amethyst Ink, tattooed by Z. Clean lines. Solid trust. No bullshit. Memory. Mischief. Love. Ink well spent.
Also featuring @katiejenkinspoet.bsky.social!!!
Submit your work 🫶🏼
I have opened this with immediate effect, submit people! Those waiting on responses ought to get them this week, for past calls.
So, just read that there are other An American Tail movies that were straight to video releases, and I am now desperate to see them!
Also, kind of fancy a Fievel tattoo 😂😂😂
Didn’t expect to be swooning over Kelly Jones in leather or adding Geronimo to the shag playlist — but here we are.
Came for the nostalgia, left a sweaty, grinning mess.
My review’s live at The Broken Spine:
🔗 thebrokenspine.co.uk/2025/12/17/s...
Dave Hill's Slade 2025 line-up
Gig review:
Still Crazee After All These Years: Slade, Dave Hill, and the Politics of Joy
thebrokenspine.co.uk/2025/12/15/s...
'Everyday when I′m away
And there's been a few
Every land I need a hand
To help me come through.'
Slade were a lot of fun, review incoming.
vm.tiktok.com/ZNRFLrDPB/
A black background displays a white serif-font poem titled “With a Lover (after Love And Affection – Joan Armatrading).” The poem is arranged in short, staggered lines with large vertical spacing. It reads: “we could say anything do anything start a war or a religion with our hands play with firebugs small mercies dress shop in shared heat & borrowed fabrics with Charlie’s girls anything really rock really roll really reel i am open to persuasion”
Tonight’s writing session spat this out, With a Lover (after Joan Armatrading). A poem about saying anything, doing anything, & meaning it.
Dropping it here before I overthink it.
Guestlist for Slade tomorrow, & Stereophonics on Tuesday sorted! #Exciting
open.spotify.com/track/3ODxqN...
Thank you so much. I think I've just about taken it in! Been on cloud 9! Still am.
Email saying I've had a poem accepted by Purple Ink Press, I don't even recall sending it out. Good times!
Thank you so much to @alanparrywriter.co.uk, @thebrokenspine.co.uk, for choosing my novella-in-flash as one of the three winners in the Summer 2025 Competition. I've been working on The Knack of Gaining Entry for years and have never given up on it. Now it has found a perfect home. I'm thrilled.
