Caleb Parkin
@CalebParkin
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PhDing Exeter🌿ex-Bristol City Poet🦄 'Mingle' Oct '24 @NineArchesPress ☣️ 'The Coin' @brokensleep 🪙 biodiversity🦋writing for wellbeing🐩DJs🪩he/they🌈
Bristol, England
Joined March 2009
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Pinned Tweet
☢️ *MINGLE* HAS MANIFESTED ☣️
First sighted at the book stall at the
@poetryschool
SUMMIT in Leeds!
Looking forward to receiving my copies this week 🍸
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@samlwalton
Why would wishing someone well be rude?
I think, "Thanks" can be well pass aggy.
Also, just starting with someone's name makes me think I'm being told off.
Often I've been signing off, "Solidarity, fortitude & poetry" - which actually is what I want to give people.
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Hold on tight,
#Bristol
- from October, I'll be your City Poet :-)
@Vanessa_Kisuule
has done an amazing job & set the bar very high.
I hope to *listen a lot*, celebrate what's *gorgeous* about our city & ask lots of *cheeky questions*.
Let's dance!
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Official confirmation received, so time to announce:
*I've been awarded a fully-funded practice-as-research PhD studentship at Exeter!*
It's part of RENEW, a biodiversity renewal initiative.
Very excited to fling myself into interdisciplinary creaturely ecopoetics🐙🕷️🐸🪱😍
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OK, this is all moving in a very fascist direction, fast.
How do we make it known that trans people are not an "issue" to be agreed with or not? How do we make sure the BBC realises swiftly how totally fucked up this is?
#TransLivesMatter
#TransRightsAreHumanRights
Exclusive: BBC staff have been banned from attending LGBT pride events and told they could be suspended if they breach the new rules. David Jordan, the head of editorial policy and standards, took the decision on Wednesday.
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Excited to announce🍾Mingle☢️- due October '24.
A gnarlier, spikier bunch than Fruitybody, collection two explores toxicity in its various manifestations: personal, bodily, national, more-than-human.
Excited to share it (& associated cocktails) with you 🍸☣️
And also in October 2024,
@CalebParkin
publishes a second collection of poems. Mingle exposes the copious toxicities in landscapes and bodies, through poems bubbling with the intoxications of hyper-wealth and climate nationalism. /10
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Official publication day for 'This Fruiting Body' from
@NineArchesPress
I'm off to work in a primary school, but repping the badge & mask merch, made by my amazing mum 🧵✨
So excited (& a little nervous) for people to read my post-human lyric disco of a book 🕺🐙🍄
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I'm delighted to be publishing my debut collection, 'This Fruiting Body', with the wonderful
@NineArchesPress
in October 2021!
Their poets & publications have been really influential in my development, so it's a joy we'll be working together on my ecoqueer book 🌍🍄🐠🌵🐙
Absolutely thrilled to announce our stellar 2021 list & 100th publication today
@thebookseller
! 📚🎉
12 books & an extraordinary list of poets for 2021, looking ahead with adventurous, thought-provoking & vital new poetry our readers will love too.
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Delighted to be longlisted for the
@laurelprize
for ecopoetry! 🌍🪲🦀🐙
We're delighted to announce our 2022 longlist! There are some outstanding poets on this list!
Ceremony happening Friday 9 Sep
@bbccslfest
, & they'll be a poetry day
@YSPsculpture
on Friday 16 Sep. 🌿
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Woop woop! Delighted to be Highly Commended in the Ginkgo Prize this year, my first time on the list 😃 Congratulations to everyone, nice to see poetry pals also present ✨️
We've released our longlist! Congratulations to all the brilliant poets! Don't miss our ceremony where we'll announce winners & you'll hear many of the longlist read their work (
@southbankcentre
's Poetry International Fri 21 Jul 6pm BST, sign up: )💥
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Delighted to report I'm one of the
#DYCP
recipients in this round! It'll create time, space, a residential retreat, festival events & mentoring towards my first poetry collection, around queer
#ecopoetry
&
#ecosexual
themes. VERY excited & hugely appreciate the support 🌍 🌈 ♥
💥 Round 5 of our
#DYCP
fund has just awarded over £850k to 98 applicants.👏 Take a look at what we funded 👉
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Our border terrier Barney was run over (slowly) by a pick-up truck while away on Monday - *but miraculously* has been scanned & seems only to have sustained bruising 🤕😬 Further evidence that border terriers are actually made of titanium. Here is recuperating:
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Tried my super slo-mo out on the bats up at the field & am pleasantly surprised by the results 🦇😃
#bats
#wildlifephotography
#wildlife
#Bristol
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My debut collection, 'This Fruiting Body' is available to pre-order today! With limited offer of free UK postage.
So excited to release my "post-human lyric disco" into the wild, "generous, monstrous & inspiring" as it is.
"You'll get a bit dirty, but you won't be sorry!"
Thrilled to open This Fruiting Body by
@CalebParkin
for pre-orders. Secure yours now, type FREEUK at the checkout for a ltd offer of free UK postage. Line up this fabulous debut; its exhilarating, generous, monstrous, inspiring and ecstatic: Out 14 Oct
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The face of one who met his book for the first time during a workshop at Winchester Poetry Fest, wearing his matching bomber jacket. Small stash of books sold out right away, but here it is for pre-order next to Paul Muldoon 💅✨🍄
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Poets with pamphlets, or in process of putting one together:
What piece of advice or golden wisdom would you give yourself/another poet, going through this process?
(NB: You might get quoted in a course I'm writing - but wil check & see if you want it credited or not!)
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Been working bloody hard lately, so I bought myself some gold shoes & I regret nothing ✨😍
#NoFilter
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Delighted the closing piece from my
@NineArchesPress
collection 'This Fruiting Body' is
@guardian
Poem of the Week!
Thanks Carol Rumens for 'getting' this walrus-metamorphosis so much in her close reading.
(Portrait or larger screen for long lines!)
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@pronounced_ing
If I explain what British democracy should look like, could he build a more functional Lego stand-in, please? Asking for 68M or so friends.
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It's my pamphlet! What a lovely Saturday delivery 😍
Here being used to hide my tied-back Saturday bike ride hair. See: it already has many uses.
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TWITTER POETS: How do you deal with strings of disappointments / career knocks? Not even submissions, I feel like they don't even count & just bounce off! I feel heavy & rather stuck.
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My mum's just discovered that after a long, gnarly treatment for bone marrow leukaemia, she's now got 100% my uncle's blood from transplant & so is free of cancerous cells 😯😀
She's such an inspiration & it's another reason to celebrate Addenbrooks & our wonderful
#NHS
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Just for fun, here's the mindmap I had under the screen during my interview for Bristol City Poet.
It's a wonder my head didn't explode, Eraserhead style - and it actually helped!
It is, after all, colour coded 🌈
Such is my busy 🧠
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#Berlin
Central Station, lit up in the colours of the Ukrainian flag, opposite the big welcome marquee, with high-vis people everywhere & ready to help. This is how it should be done.
#UkraineWar
#RefugeesWelcome
#ToriesOutNow
#PritiPatelResign
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My mind is blown that one of my poems, 'Shrinking Violets', will be on a billboard for
#NationalPoetryDay
2021 - in extraordinary company too 🤯 Looking forward to sharing it with
#Bristol
& beyond.
.
@PoetryDayUK
has commissioned billboards in five UK cities to feature poems from local poets, with
@Idharker
,
@CalebFemi_
,
@CalebParkin
,
@marvinjthompson
and Warda Yassin! Find out more here:
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Found this hat in the shape of a spiral shell in a charity shop & because I have a poem called Spiral Shell in the book, I bought it. And now I might have to wear it while reading the poem - which, if I had any credibility, might potentially damage it 😅🐚
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If you're still seeing yoga instructor online, keep doing so! But if you've had to cancel (income, Zoom fatigue, etc.) then
@yogawithadriene
has amazing free library of classes. Just done a 30m one in garden: she's clear, friendly & fun. Also, Benji ❤️
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My guest slot on
@bbcpoetryplease
goes out on
@BBCRadio4
tomorrow 16.30.
Was a huge pleasure to select these fabulous creaturely & planetary poems from the requests 🌎🐙🐦🐘🐒🌎
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@robinmarceline
Thanks for the very informative thread. Can you write a book please? There is so much here that would be useful to take on the (other) archaic & ill-informed folk out there!
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My new
@brokensleep
pamphlet 'The Coin' is officially released!
"Parkin writes with originality and depth, tackling big subjects like cancer, death and identity with intelligence and skill." -
@wondykitten
Order here (or a signed one, DM me):
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Last night I finished this by
@claudiapineiro
& it's been on my mind all day. A "crime novel" that is also/actually an affecting, engaging account of women's experiences of health, illness (esp Parkinson's), physicality & caring. Really recommended.
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Back from a very full day at the
@CheltLitFest
to find my official Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes MSc certificate has arrived in the post. So good to feel I'm using it on Beyond Words & that the skills it developed permeate all the other work I do 🖋🕸 😍
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I'll be
@bbcpoetryplease
guest later in spring!
Looking forward to choosing poems & chatting to Roger McGough about recent & older work.
Do you have something you'd love to hear? If so, please drop them a line:
I'd love some recent favourites!
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Just finished 'Lanny' by
@maxjohnporter
& well bloody hell 😭
Most extraordinary, spacious, intense & elegant writing. Whizzed through & wish I could read it for the first time, again.
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It's a shame the press only notices the occasional higher-profile poetry spats that happen.
Because what I see day-to-day are poets being kind, generous, friendly, thoughtful, supportive & inspiring to one another.
All of which very much on show at
@VervePoetryFest
💚
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Yesterday's launch for 'This Fruiting Body' from
@ninearchespress
- aboard the Flower of Bristol. What a way to launch my book into the world! 🌊 Thank you to all who attended, guest readers
@samlwalton
&
@JMDemus
, new & old friends, poets & sparkly people all. What a joy 🐙❤️
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Very happy to be handing on the City Poet tiara to the splendid Kat Lyons
@Words_and_weeds
😃👑
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'Wasted Rainbow' launch is go: Pls RT!
LGBT+ History Month / V-Day queerly romantic open mic + guest readers:
@keithjlondon
@purple_feminist
Sonya Smith &
@RachaelClyne1
Saturday 13th Feb, 19.00 - 20.45 (with a break + 90s pop music)
Sign ups here:
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Just finished second series of
#DerryGirls
- which is absolute genius. Very few programmes can make me go from giggling to weeping in about five seconds of dialogue 😂😭
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I had the good fortune to meet & work with
#SisterWendyBeckett
for a day. She was charming, humble, twinkly. Her passion & devotion towards her art & spiritual practices remain an inspiration.
Art historian Sister Wendy Beckett dies aged 88
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Arrived in lovely
#hebdenbridge
!
I think it's nearly 10 years since I was last here, on my 30th birthday (also a heatwave) when I'd just decided to take poetry more seriously.
So it's especially lovely returning here to tutor on an
@arvonfoundation
residential 🥰
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Worm Moon (March's full) tonight & clocks have changed to mark Spring's arrival.
Here's my poem which mentions that moon - 'All the chipshops I have ever been to' - a commission for the 40th anniversary of the
@PoetrySociety
National Poetry Competition.
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@NegroAphrodite
Yup, we've been together over 16 years. Been civilly partnered (had the option of marriage, but chose CP) since 2016. Here we are at 4,000m in the Himalayas!
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Radio listeners -
@BBCRadio3
Breakfast Show is broadcasting from
#Bristol
tomorrow...
And at around 7.45am, they'll be featuring my poem 'If the Earth is My Mother' from
@NineArchesPress
'This Fruiting Body'.
Hope you can tune in!
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Here's my poem 'Shrinking Violets' in amazing company, on the
@guardian
😍
Happy
#NationalPoetryDay
Folx!
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Impeccable Green vibes getting vote out in
#Bristol
#BristolCentral
today! I'm so excited for
@carla_denyer
to represent our city in Parliament. Excellent energy at my polling station too.
Get out &
#vote
folks! Especially
#votegreen
ofc but you do you 💚💚💚✅️✅️✅️🌈🌈🌈
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Didn't win Rialto Nature & Place competition, *but* both my entries were longlisted - as were all three of them last year. So that's something - a 100% longlist hit rate?
Just got to figure out what Ingredient X is so I can start adding it into my poems...Anyone? 🤔😅
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POETS: It's
#NaPoWriMo
starting on Wednesday...Now I've got professional Zoom, would anyone be up for a weekly catch-up workshop online? I could host and we can spend some time writing, some time sharing, maybe some critique if useful?
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This morning, I stayed in bed to finish reading this - it's taken me ages! The language & narratives are so dense & intricate.
Totally, utterly worth the effort - never read anything like Milkman. Full of wit & anger & absurdity.
Who else has else read it?
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Here's most (not all) publications I've published in, or been involved editing & producing as poet-educator.
Underneath, my first single author publication - 'Wasted Rainbow' launching tonight!
It's taken years of hard work to get here, so it's cause for celebration 🌈❤️🎉
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Quite a gorgeous evening of pamphlet launching. I have a great many feelings. It was so lovely to share a poetry & then dancing space with my queer/kin via the Zoomosphere. It's so amazing to have a publication out there at last & I'm very proud of Wasted Rainbow 🌈 !
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Here's my second City Poet commission for the State of the City address 👇
For the poetry geeks amongst us, it's yer actual Shakespearean sonnet (although hopefully doesn't sound too much like one when read aloud...)
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I know the world is a proper mess, but I just put on this scarf with this shirt & it definitely helped, just for a moment 👍
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Well this has brightened a slightly gloomy Tuesday: my print-on-demand t-shirt of
@brokensleep
'The Coin' cover!
I can now *wear my last three book covers* & do a kind of pass-the-parcel poetry burlesque during readings 📦📦📦😅
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Delighted my poem was selected winner of
@WinPoetryFest
prize 2017 by
@luckyflowerhowe
& is title of anthology 😎 What a holiday gift!
Our prizewinners anthology 'Somewhere to keep the rain' is named after
@CalebParkin
's winning poem.
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Signing pamphlets in gold sharpie - too much? Or enough much? ✨
(They've got lovely black pages front & back, so it'll look lovely)
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New author shot for Barney.
In this house, we believe in the dignity of our companion animals.
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Parcel from mum this morning, who's been shielding for months after leukaemia treatment - but producing endless textile wonders. She's made us two, reversible masks *each*, which fit properly & have bendy nose fittings. Throughout all of this, she's always thinking of others ❤️
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Today I ordered some cornflower blue corduroy dungarees, which I'm going to be wearing from when they arrive until forever.
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#NewProfilePic
by
@SamCavender
- from the Lit Sync on Sunday. I like the sequin / eyeliner / cheeky grin combo!
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I love
@poetryschool
courses, because one can discuss with absolute conviction things like: What kind of punctuation would clouds use? Is my poem molluscy enough? Which animals are 'we' (plankton, obvs) and which are 'I' (dogs, obvs)? Thanks
@SuzannahEvans
- great fun :-)
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Delighted to have been shortlisted in the 2018
@BridportPrize
- down to 180 poems from about 5,500 entries 😀 (It's a peculiar piece, too!) Congratulations to all the winners this year 🎉🏆
The 2018 results can now been seen at Huge congratulations to all our winners and hearty thanks to our fab judges
@kamilashamsie
Daljit Nagra & Monica Ali and our
#Novel
award partners
@TLCUK
&
@AMHeathLtd
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Tomorrow we're headed to Nepal - Kathmandu, Yolmo & Pokhara - for a month 🙀 🇳🇵
I'll be writing every day in April, as I always do, mostly poems & a travelogue. Taking some critiquing & reading to do.
If you could sort the UK by the time we return that'd be 👍🏼
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Awoke to an acceptance of two poems with a journal who actually *pay* to print them 🙀😁
Further springy vibes. Off out for a walk as the fog (of winter) evaporates ☀️
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Just put a deposit on a cabin next to Loch Eck in the Trossachs, with its own tiny sauna, for the end of June 😍 Taking doglets & canoe & am so very excited. Lovely to have something to look forward to, up in the miniature Highlands 🏔️🏞️🛶
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In which the poet dresses as Elton John & embraces disco very literally.
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Delighted to share
@jazward66
's divine biomorphic collage, for the cover of my debut collection, 'This Fruiting Body'!
@JohnMcCullough_
describes the book as, "Generous, monstrous and inspiring".
Prepare for some generous, monstrous inspiration on October 14th :-)
It's a thrill to reveal the cover of This Fruiting Body by
@CalebParkin
, publishing this October: "Generous, monstrous and inspiring" says
@JohnMcCullough_
of this exhilarating, full debut collection.
Marvellous artwork by
@jazward66
- enjoy.
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Train manager just asked people "not to accumulate in the vestibules" & it's the best phrase I've ever heard.
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Huge thanks for the random act of kindness by girl at Paddington who took my Santander bike to put it away so I didn't miss my train! Bless her. I hope she did, I intuitively trusted her cry of "Go! Get your train!" 😂 What a hero 🌟
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Just sent off my first abstract for an academic symposium, as a postgrad researcher. A good step!
Winter low-mood & burnout kicked my arse for several months this year. But April means brain is back online after winter - I'm feeling a lot lighter & getting a great deal done :-)
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My first poetry reviews are in this edition, as well as a poem from 'Mingle' (arriving October 24th!).
Under The Radar, the Journeys Issue has arrived. Featuring
#poetry
, short fiction and reviews. What will you discover?
Buy a single copy or opt for a subscription:
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Delighted to see oceanic poems from my
@NineArchesPress
collection 'This Fruiting Body' mentioned, in splendid company, here:
"The synthetic and the organic flow into one another [...] The force underpinning all life, Parkin reminds us, is desire."
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Unboxing new
@brokensleepbooks
pamphlet 'The Coin' 🪙
& received contributor copy of 'After Sylvia'
@ninearchespress
Looking forward to reading latter & reading from former 😍
'The Coin' soft launch = Weds 26th Oct, Satellite of Love, on John Sebastian lightship 🪙 ❤️ 🚢
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It's 4pm on a Thursday & I'm drinking a Negroni at my desk & it's absolutely the right self care decision.
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@DrDjemal
Ha, this happens the other way around for us! We use partner rather then husband.
But why can't people just respect and stick to the term you've self-identified and used? (See also: pronouns.)
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My new pamphlet, 'The Coin', is available to pre-order from
@brokensleep
now 🪙 & out in early October.
My collected Bristol City Poet work, 'All the cancelled parties' will also be out in the same week 🤯
A bumper autumn for publications! Look forward to sharing them with you
PREORDER: 30.10.22
The Coin focuses Caleb Parkin's poetics on his matriarchal line, cancer in the family, class, place, and other themes with moments of lyrical intensity and clarity.
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'Wasted Rainbow', my debut pamphlet, is available for pre-order from
@LighthouseTall
here:
It'll be launched in February, which is also LGBT+ History Month :-)
Please RT & stand by for further info on online launch event!
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Lately I've been thinking about class: I don't identify as "working class", but nor do I fit many "middle class" identifiers.
What are some more nuanced ways of thinking about or describing social class?
I don't think there are just three!
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"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies - God damn it, you've got to be kind."
- Kurt Vonnegut
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Told the bakery it's my bday & got a free cake, so now I'm gonna tell *everyone* & see what else I can cadge.
Have I mentioned:
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@ThomasWPenny
Thanks for posting this, Thomas - it's beautiful. Where did this poem arise from? A workshop, or a resource I made?? I am intrigued.
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Down at the
#MuseumoftheMoon
@BristolCathedra
before
@LuminousJune
& I perform our 'Almanac of Lunar Songs' at tonight's launch.
Then it'll be printed on floor stickers, guiding visitors round the moon itself, with songs of human & nonhuman lunar influence 🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘🌙🌚❤️
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Love how unintendedly gay this mural at
#Exeter
St David's Station is:
"What shall we do today, babe?"
"I mean, I'm super busy reading this Ottolenghi recipe rn but we can go out after maybz."
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Oh
#Bristol
, with blue skies, a twinkle of water & a sprinkle of spring - this is one of your best looks 😍
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POETS: poems which are written in the format of a screenplay...Do you know of any? Is it a Thing?
I'm wondering if there's an equivalent to 'Poet's Theatre', which uses stage script format...
Wondering about unfilmable, errant, poetic screenplays.
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Lovely trip to campus today, meeting fellow
@RENEW_nature
PhDers, then a lively supervision session, plus online meet with postgrad creative writers. Full of ideas of local, global poetics of biodiversity, of queer ecogothic aesthetics & more. Got my student railcard too 🔥😍
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*Trend Forecast*
OUT: Having to write emails to people in salaried jobs, explaining why you can't offer yet more unpaid labour (no matter how worthwhile their project).
IN: Fees stated upfront when emailing professional freelancers.
Simple, right?
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On a park bench with coffee, Scruffs & my contributor copy of
@LighthouseJrnl
- a wonderful edition & v much enjoying it.
Here's my poem, second part of a two-part howl for the Section 28 era of education. We haven't talked about it enough. There are yet to be any apologies.
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Having some Aldi champagne in preparation for online launch of my new
@brokensleep
pamphlet, 'The Coin' 🪙
While wearing my cover artwork t-shirt ✨️
Looking forward to reading & hearing from all the other excellent new releases 🥰
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Particularly enjoying this combo of jellyfish t-shirt & new (ebay) cardigan. Hair is now its own entity & making its own choices, we just vaguely share a body.
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When you get the Winter
@PoetrySociety
newsletter & there's a little picture of you, in very humbling company, on the cover 🎄💚✍️
Best get writing that commission then...
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