Bill Herbert

Bill Herbert

@billherbert.bsky.social

Visitor, scriever, ex-prof/-makar/-you name it, loser. Still seeking your poems for endlessly subdividing online/print projects: Ghost Furniture Catalogue; New Boots and Pantisocracies (Art Sonnet Chain); New Gude & Godlie Ballatis (Dundee Renga), etc.

274 followers148 following549 posts

Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

#DundeeIsReadin

Andy Jackson@azjackson.bsky.social

A few places are still available for the new term of Dundee’s Bitesize Book Club - 5 sessions of reading for pleasure…with guaranteed no homework. Come and enjoy the pleasure of reading with no pressure in a supportive and enthusiastic environment. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bitesize-b...

eventbrite.co.ukBitesize Book ClubA five-week course with Andy Jackson. 11th November - 9th December 2026. Wednesday mornings. 10 a. m. - 1 2 p. m.
Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

More Ivory Cutlery for #NationalPoetryDay! Apparently the #SelectedPoems is out today - ie you can wander into a shop* and order a copy (the actual copies will follow shortly). Here’s the back cover. (Text of the blurb in thread.) *Preferably a bookshop. #IvorCutler

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Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

‘The poems concentrate his gift for gentle absurdism into glimpses of a quite contrary cosmos. His sharp eye for our hypocrisies, his unique ear for the comic phrase, and his cautious delight in the sheer strangeness of things, mark him as both fundamentally oppositional & entirely original.’

Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

‘This selection from thirty years of his verse confirms Cutler’s inimitable and indispensable genius.’ #IvorCutler #SelectedPoems #HoorgiΗοuse #NationalPoetryDay

Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

More Ivory Cutlery for #NationalPoetryDay! Apparently the #SelectedPoems is out today - ie you can wander into a shop* and order a copy (the actual copies will follow shortly). Here’s the back cover. (Text of the blurb in thread.) *Preferably a bookshop. #IvorCutler

Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

‘ #IvorCutler ‘s poems are distilled miniatures of the qualities we find in his stories and songs. Filled with highly uncertain narrators, eloquent, often moody creatures, and unsettling takes on domesticity, they brilliantly reproduce his distinctive cadences on the page.’ #NationalPoetryDay

Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

What’s this? It appears to be some sort of volume. Yes. That was a rhetorical question. Is it obtainable? Yes, and soon! How soon? Possibly tomorrow. You can check with the publisher. _You_ can check with the publisher. Yes. Let’s do that. Fine. You first. No, after you. #IvorCutler #HoorgiHouse

Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

@sophieherx.bsky.social’s #Collage sonnets continue to deliver what we at #NewBootsAndPantisocracies like to call ‘the goods’: The/very Saints call for perfect illusion solidity, accuracy, clouds, waves, ruins frills and ribbons - the whole vista more real than the power of Reason. #ArtSonnetChain

Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

I like the way the linebreak reconfigures what began as an innocuous statement: ‘the hidden laws of family/money’: a true artist leans on an old violin, or Perhaps the hidden laws of family money while bandits glorify the sheen of wealth and luxury the nude and War @sophieherx.bsky.social

Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

These sonnets by @SophieHerx.bsky.social exemplify #Collage’s ability/duty to redirect its source’s meanings, here re the role of art & the artist: We have beliefs we are not aware of no way is without its dangers. ugly snobbishness as smooth and cold as glass. the chilling atmosphere of museums.

Bill Herbert reposted

Andy Jackson
@azjackson.bsky.social

The Scottish Poetry Library kindly selected a poem from my new collection Disco Biscuits to feature in today’s Scotsman newspaper as poem of the week! Thanks to them and to Rob Mackenzie at Blue Diode and Stephen Watt at Nutmeg magazine, where it first appeared. @ByLeavesWeLive

Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

Nancy’s sonnet focusses on #NancyHolt’s film ‘Mangrove Ring’, both an artwork and the only surviving document of a land art sculpture of the same name by her husband, #RobertSmithson: newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2026/08/22/a... #ArtSonnetChain #NewBootsAndPantisocracies (2/2)

newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.comArt Sonnet Chain, 14: Nancy CampbellNote: In 1971 Nancy Holt (1938–2014) was working in Summerland Key, Florida, with a new Bolex camera. Her film Mangrove Ring documents a sculpture of the same name by her husband, Robert …
Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

This post on my Tumblr site* contains a group poem by #VaneWomen & friends, and a link to the #NurdleHunt website also given in the Comments below, plus good advices by Supernurdleman, Mark Husmann: www.tumblr.com/billherbert2... *’What’s Tumblr, Bill?’ ‘I don’t rightly know, please stop asking!’

tumblr.comPost by @billherbert23 · 1 image💬 1  🔁 0  ❤️ 0 · Contra Nurdles When the horrendous intrudes into our would-be peaceful routines, we ought to be (but rarely are) shaken enough to note that it is neither the horror nor the peace…
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Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

Advices (part 2): If you don’t have your own brush & pan, there are several nurdle stations on North Tyneside beaches where you can borrow them. Put the nurdles plus sand & seaweed into a mesh bag (also provided) and either shake out the sand (if dry) or wash it out in the sea… #ContraNurdles

Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

Advices (part 3) …Take out as much seaweed as possible and leave on the beach. Put the nurdles into the special nurdle bins provided. Wash, rinse, repeat ad nauseum… (Thanks again to Mark Husmann) #ContraNurdles

Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

This post on my Tumblr site* contains a group poem by #VaneWomen & friends, and a link to the #NurdleHunt website also given in the Comments below, plus good advices by Supernurdleman, Mark Husmann: www.tumblr.com/billherbert2... *’What’s Tumblr, Bill?’ ‘I don’t rightly know, please stop asking!’

tumblr.comPost by @billherbert23 · 1 image💬 1  🔁 0  ❤️ 0 · Contra Nurdles When the horrendous intrudes into our would-be peaceful routines, we ought to be (but rarely are) shaken enough to note that it is neither the horror nor the peace…
Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

‘At 30,000 feet we are absconding from mortality by skirting the inferno, watching wildfires racing to the lakes near Perpignan as though to douse themselves since we cannot. We seem to recognize the sorrow of the elements. We must be mad.’ #SeanOBrien #NewBootsAndPantisocracies #EuropeIsBurning

Bill Herbert reposted

Andy Jackson
@azjackson.bsky.social

Great to have something rather special from Sean O’Brien on New Boots and Pantisocracies today…

Bill Herbert@billherbert.bsky.social

Fire, sleepwalk with me, as Europe’s politicians say. #SeanOBrien’s new poem contemplates a continent dazed by its entirely predictable new reality but carrying on carrying on anyway. newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2026/08/15/s... #NewBootsAndPantisocracies #EuropeIsBurning

newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.comSean O’Brien: What We Did on Our HolidaysAt 30,000 feet we are absconding from mortality by skirting the inferno, watching wildfires racing to the lakes near Perpignan as though to douse themselves since we cannot. We seem to recognize th…
Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

Some favourite lines from the 10th sonnet in our #ArtSonnetChain by Emily Haworth-Booth: I have not made any art because I woke late and the light was gone. The bed was hard. The pillows were soft and didn’t support my neck. I didn’t sleep. I slept too well… #NewBootsAndPantisocracies (1/2)

Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

…Seemingly overnight I went mad. I have plenty of ideas but I have run out of paint. I find myself in possession of money and wish to go out and spend it instead of painting. (Emily Haworth-Booth) Read the whole sonnet here: newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2026/06/27/a...

newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.comArt Sonnet Chain, 10: Emily Haworth-BoothIt’s possible both certainties are true: I have not made my art todaybecause art can contribute nothing to solving urgent social problemsand I have not made my art today because I am a victim of ch…
Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

Vote for your favourite Invertebrate of the Year! (An ephemeral reaction to the Clacton by-election. With thanks to @imogenforster.bsky.social for pointing me to several of the invertebrates concerned.) www.tumblr.com/billherbert2... #NewBootsAndPantisocracies

tumblr.comPost by @billherbert23 · 1 image💬 0  🔁 0  ❤️ 0 · (with apologies to the Lord Howe Island stick insect) Invertebrate of the Year While not a perfect rhyme for ‘Clacton’ if I could I’d rather vote for plankton than the pink-tre…

Bill Herbert reposted

Vik Shirley
@vikshirley.bsky.social

I participated in an art sonnet chain and wrote a poem inspired by Tanaka Atsuko’s Electric Dress!💡⚡️ 🌈 ♥️

Bill Herbert@billherbert.bsky.social

We’re all lit up (particularly the electric triskodekaphiliacs among us) to welcome @vikshirley.bsky.social as our 13th sonneteer with this brilliant poem about #TanakaAtsuko: newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2026/08/08/a... #NewBootsAndPantisocracies #ArtSonnetChain

newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.comArt Sonnet Chain 13: Vik ShirleyAfter Tanaka Atsuko’s Electric Dress, 1956 In my head, my hands; it’s all connected, bone on bone,bulb on bulb, light-tier wrapped in fluorescent tubes:stripped lacquered circuit, a neon kimono.I b…
Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

@vikshirley.bsky.social’s sonnet figuratively/literally electrifies the #ArtSonnetChain as we approach its end with a tribute to #TanakaAtsuko: Bulb on bulb, light-tier wrapped in fluorescent tubes: stripped lacquered circuit, a neon kimono. I blink in sparks; breathe in particles.

Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

While between #ArtSonnetChain sonnets, we at #NewBootsAndPantisocracies sit, inert as hollow persons, heads stuffed with strawdust, but occasionally we get caught up in rewriting the lyrics of ‘Andy Warhol’ for #DailyReckless as follows: newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2026/08/01/a...

newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.comAndy Burnham/Devolute!In this chance collaboration with the excellent Daily Reckless, we have a glimpse into the mind-melting and/or -melding mandorla formed by overlapping ‘Devolute!’ by the late Mark E. Smith with ‘An…
Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

Manchesterism meets Salfordismo in this mash-up of the unutterable Fall and hunky Bowie: Andy Burnham had a dream Listening to The Fall: Andy’s PM, Andy’s lean King North to rule them all… #NewBootsAndPantisocracies #DailyReckless #TheFall #DavidBowie

Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

#AndyBurnham to the tune of ‘Devolute’ by #TheFall cut with #Bowie’s #Warhol: wonderful and frightening, all on a #FallFriday too.

Tommy Mackay@tommyreckless.bsky.social

Well, I gave it a shot. Quite the mindfuck. #fallfriday

dailyreckless.comAndy Burnham Devolute | Daily Reckless...english glasnost... ...from the mouths of those.... ...who use air rifles on their friendly.... ...why is the truly skint never ssssss-scotch ridden... ...embrace...negate... ...how does... ....dev...
Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

I like how Keren Macpherson’s riff on #TraceyEmin’s allegorical rollercoaster arranges the consonants in its final couplet to judder to a halt: ‘I lean into the framework, feel the bolts groan. In my head, my hands; it’s all connected, bone on bone.’ #ArtSonnetChain #NewBootsAndPantisocracies

Bill Herbert reposted

Lydia Kennaway
@lydiakennaway.bsky.social

Honoured to have a poem in this series. Thank you, New Boots and Pantisocracies.

Bill Herbert@billherbert.bsky.social

The latest in our intermittent #FallOfAmerica series is @lydiakennaway.bsky.social’s reworking to moving effect of Whitman’s ‘I Hear America Singing’: newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2026/07/18/l... #NewBootsAndPantisocracies

newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.comLydia Kennaway: I Hear America WeepingAfter Whitman,‘I Hear America Singing’ I hear America weeping, the terrible laments I hear,The bailiffs and the sales assistants, each weeping as they must           insist…
Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

Love the way Lydia Kennaway has redirected the endlessly opening (and thus energising) syntax of Whitman’s poem - that ‘barbaric yawp’ - to such strong and current effect: ‘I hear America weeping, the terrible laments I hear, The bailiffs and the sales assistants, each weeping as they must…’ (1/2)

Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

Mind, it wouldn’t be ‘intermittent’ if you sent us your excoriating satires and laments on the disastrous reign of #Trumpo! (Follow then DM us to get in touch.) #TheFallOfAmerica #NewBootsAndPantisocracies

Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

I really like how the sense of this sentence twists across the lines of Denise Saul’s sonnet, no.11 in our #ArtSonnetChain: …in this world, I change my mind often about what cannot be seen in the light without a presence of the divine. #NewBootsAndPantisocracies

Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

More for the ever-expanding Bouncy Gormenghastly Castle that is the #GhostFurnitureCatalogue - with kind regards to noted psychic furniture-watcher, @wrathofgodherself.bsky.social, for pointing out such stuff/kelpie-hair stuffing as these images appear to be made of.

Nina Antonia @ninaantonia13.bsky.social

More Accursed Furniture. Some like ghost hunter/author Elliott O'Donnell blamed the wood for having absorbed evil influences, prior to purchase.

Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social

Thon coneheid disease fae Glescae Toun has arrehved in the ancient city of Dundee afflictin oor central statuary which thae heroes thole withoot a soun… www.tumblr.com/billherbert2... #InformationistDundee #Dundee

tumblr.comPost by @billherbert23 · 1 image💬 0  🔁 0  ❤️ 0 · Thon coneheid disease fae Glescae Toun has arrehved in the ancient city of Dundee afflictin oor central statuary which thae heroes thole withoot a soun fae Admirable Duncan tae…