John Looker

For the record, here’s my poem in Artemis’s 50th anniversary anthology on the theme Origins launched with US Poet Laureate Arthur Sze on Sept 5th. “A Child of the Neolithic Let us picture the child, this little apprentice human, naked but for a piece of hide …” #poetry

Here, Benjamin Zephaniah use analogy, irony, & plain speech to question the authority of those who claim to know what is best for the oppressed Whose interests are being served when freedom is denied? The final 3 lines encouraging activism, not rhetoric #poetry #poemoftheday #blackhistorymonth

Still time to enter the National Poetry Competition. Deadline: 31 October. npc.poetrysociety.org.uk

If you’re a Brit and, like me, you long to see the UK back at the heart of Europe, you might like to check out this link and add your name. www.europeanmovement.co.uk/join_eu_by_2...

What is it about woodland paths? Is it simply their beauty or do they trigger a metaphor alert in the mind? #nature #autumn #poetry

Another truth for our times from 19th century George Eliot: "He loved money, but he also loved to spend it in gratifying his peculiar tastes, and perhaps he loved it best of all as a means of making others feel his power more or less uncomfortably." #books #literature #rereading #Middlemarch

Some thoughts about the musicality of William Blake's "Night": edmundprestwich.co.uk?p=2952

How to be a (Roman) man Cicero’s ideal of manly virtue stressed the performance of self-control and bravery, not boastful egotism and domination by Catharine Edwards aeon.co/essays/the-p... Books by Cicero at PG: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho... #books #literature

I’m rereading George Eliot’s Middlemarch. She’s just introduced a horse dealer who ‘appeared to give forth his ideas without economy’ and who ‘regarded horsedealing as the finest of the arts and might have argued plausibly that it had nothing to do with morality.’ Remind you of anyone? #books

This is not my view. While I don't want poetry that sets out to make me change my mind I do welcome poems that open new vistas on life.

Louise Glück, U.S poet and Nobel Laureate, passed away on this day in 2023.🤍 We are offering £2 off a selection of her Carcanet collections, to commemorate her life's work and enable readers to continue exploring her writing. Use the code GLUCK2026: www.carcanet.co.uk/author/louis...

This statue of the Greek goddess Artemis is from Cyprus. Whilst she is portrayed typically in the garb of a huntress, she also sports a Parthian cap which shows the eastern influence in Cypriot sculpture (also seen in the style of the statue). 🕰️c450-50BC 🏛️BM 📷mine

A lone magpie takes an evening stroll among the pine trees on the extinct volcano that is Mount Franklin, Victoria. #photography #trees

Don’t you just love charity bookshops? They have some riveting books to read. #books

Some Anne Carson

'Bold and inventive' Canadian poet Anne Carson wins Nobel Literature Prize #poetry #literature #books

You have until midnight tomorrow to get 25% off ANYTHING on the Carcanet website. Go poetry mad: www.carcanet.co.uk Code: POETRYWEEK ✒️

Just think of all those AI agents trawling through Jeffrey Archer's novels to learn how to write fiction!

"Our age needs men and women who have the courage to do good even when it comes at a cost. Draw close to those who are alone, support those who are weary, and seek out those who have drifted away. Have the courage to forgive, to begin again, and to engage in dialogue." (Pope Leo XIV)

. Without Form It is noisiest here in this middle place, cries of despair and those of praise, yet you might close your eyes and begin to walk forward. This must be how the first god did it. It was back at the beginning, and he began to sing, though the light – which was there – showed nothing.

Roman wax tablets and metal stylus. I knew that Romans used wax tablets but had not seen one : until recently in the castle museum in Passau, Germany. I wonder how easy it was to read writing inscribed in wax, and whether it was hard to write without spoiling the surface? #RomanEmpire #writing

Staff picks for National Poetry Day! Michael, our Publisher and Managing Director, chose these three collections. To celebrate #NationalPoetryDay, we are having a 25% flash sale across our entire website! Use the code POETRYWEEK at checkout: www.carcanet.co.uk/

One of my standbys when I’ve finished a novel and don’t feel ready to start the next.

And today’s another *Day* !

Today is #NationalPoetryDay. It’s also #BlackHistoryMonth This reminds us that poetry is not an abstract art form - but something lived, overheard, dug up, carried, and spoken. Poetry belongs to everyone It is community, witness, survival. It is interest in one another. #poetry #poemoftheday

It’s definitely been our day today. In retirement, my wife and I routinely share a couple of poems with our morning coffee. And today is #nationalpoetryday in Britain, #internationalcoffeeday and #internationalolderpersons day. Just made for us. I suppose tomorrow will be another day. 

Happy National Poetry Day! 📚 We're offering 25% off EVERYTHING, all week! Head to our website checkout and use the code POETRYWEEK: www.carcanet.co.uk/search-resul...

BIG NEWS! I am launching a new podcast together with colleagues from the Cluster of Excellence on Cross-Cultural Philology here at the LMU in Munich. It's called Pages of History and will appear once a month, following today's initial launch with three episodes. pagesofhistorypodcast.net

bookmarks.

This I understand! "Though the aim of legal documents is persuasion not truth, the revision habit acquired in drafting them accompanied my attempts to write poetry." Dan Burt talking with Sasha Dugdale in PNR 291. For me it was 40 years in the Civil Service. @pnreview.bsky.social #poetry

Light and Landscape David Blackburn

I came across this riveting description of WB Yeats reading his poetry to a small group (in London around 1905 as remembered by Stefan Zweig). Note the altar candles and stagey setting, the deep melodious voice. Compare and contrast with poetry readings today! #poetry #literature #Yeats #Zweig

"People who spout their emotions like blood exhaust me" — Rilke, speaking to Stefan Zweig as recalled by Zweig in his autobiography. “When he entered a room full of company, he did it so quietly that hardly anyone noticed him.” #Rilke #Zweig #poetry #literature #poets #writers #literature #books

I find it extraordinary to hear e.e.cummings read this poem. I discovered his poetrywhen I was young and loved it. I would never have imagined this poem spoken the way he enunciates it himself.

It's European Day of Languages, so here are some of our favourite untranslatable and wonderfully-specific words from across Europe that we wish we had in English ✨

We were in Passau last week, the Dreiflüssestadt, the city built at the confluence of three rivers. From left to right you can see the Ilz, the Danube and the Inn, each a different colour. There must be other confluences of three rivers in the world but I don’t recall visiting any. #travel #nature

The book before the film. Always. We took a look at our first edition of Sense and Sensibility from 1811 ahead of the film hitting UK cinemas today📖 Be honest: are you book or film first?

Lessons for the 21st century from a 200‑year‑old book by ‘Frankenstein’ author Mary Shelley by Eileen Hunt theconversation.com/lessons-for-... The Last Man by Mary Shelley at PG: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18247 #books #literature #postapocalypitic

The scene, by the way, is the Danube. #poetry #verse #equinox #autumn

Here you are, a bit of verse for the autumn equinox: Summer ends today; The lens on the cellphone Swings grimly from selfie To forward focus. And perhaps a photo will underscore the mood: #poetry #verse #equinox #autumn

Three resounding cheers for Vàclav Havel! I once heard him address a small meeting in Prague while he was President. We need such people today. I believe they exist.

The view from Robert Frost's second-story window, across the eastern valley of the White Mountains to the Franconia Range.

So, is the Danube blue? Occasionally, yes, as here last week under a blue sky. More often it’s green, but mostly grey. Always beautiful. And so highly charged with history. #travel #Danube #Strauss

Posting early, tomorrow I'll be in the Adriatic beyond the the reaches of the world wide Web 😁❤️🚢🚫🌍🕸️ Most war poems are really peace poems On the International Day of Peace Carol Ann Duffy, nodding to Owen, runs those old images backwards, unwinding the horror of the trenches #poetry #poemoftheday

Glückliche Erinnerungen. A week ago we were in Vienna, and on the Danube. #travel #photography

Beyond excited to have Rachael Clyne / @rachaelclyne.bsky.social Highly Commended for the Forward Prizes 2026 #BestSinglePoemWritten for her poem 'Homeland' which was published on IS&T and #PickoftheMonth for June 2025! #HighlyCommended #ForwardPrizes #ForwardBook2027 #Faber #PoetryAnthology