Lynn Valentine

Yes and it’s brilliant 🦉

Beautiful Achnahaird Beach

Not a bad spot to be in, sequencing poems for my next collection at the shores of Loch Broom (collection will be published by Cinnamon Press in Spring 2026)

North Sea Poets announcement image with sunset beach background.

Introducing North Sea Poets. We run online masterclasses, workshops and webinars for poets and readers in the UK and Ireland (and for early birds and night owls planet-wide).

We look forward to meeting you online soon.

northseapoets.com 🌊
Follow @northseapoets.bsky.social

#NorthSeaPoets
#Poetry

RIP Michael Longley. I'd known him for over 40 years when he taught an Arvon with Paul Muldoon. I always said Paul supplied the genius, but Michael the magic: how else would a classicist write 'Ceasefire', an intervention into a vicious war admired by both sides? Ave atque vale.

Michael Longley: Acclaimed NI poet dies at 85 Belfast-born poet Michael Longley dies aged 85, his family says.

Such sad news - a truly lovely man and a favourite poet of mine. I met him when he was guest reader at Moniack a good while back - he talked long into the night alongside his wife Edna. Was also lucky to see him read at a past StAnza. The poetry world has lost a great. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Another top Zoom writing hour from @clareshawpoet.bsky.social & @kimmoorepoet.bsky.social and these borrowed books arrived in the snowy post - some of the poets that were discussed in writing hours. Thank you Scottish Poetry Library ❤️📚

A beautiful walk at Achnahaird Beach - Assynt is so lovely especially with the mountains dusted with snow ❤️

Having a wee break at the shores of Loch Broom - it’s a beautiful winter wonderland - snow still falling ❄️❤️

A wonderful night with @helenlaycock.bsky.social @dizzylynn.bsky.social @liffyeliskelly.bsky.social
@suewatling.bsky.social @paulwritespoems.bsky.social
@coliverpoet.bsky.social @elcurwen.bsky.social
@corinnaboard.bsky.social yesterday. Absolutely breathtaking poetry. Thank you to all who came!

Beautiful Ben Wyvis, my neighbour mountain in the Scottish Highlands - sunrise and sunset today ❄️

It’s my birthday, so you have to read my poem. I don’t make the rules. ‘Elderflower Cordial’

These two books on my wee current reading pile are perfectly paired - owls, blackbirds and so much more - memoir and poetry - thank you for nourishing my brain @wendypratt.bsky.social and @pollyrowena.bsky.social

Thought for the day:

Join me and this host of amazing poets @wendypratt.bsky.social @dizzylynn.bsky.social @janeburn.bsky.social @corinnaboard.bsky.social @suewatling.bsky.social @helenlaycock.bsky.social @elcurwen.bsky.social Paul Short, Elisabeth Kelly www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/human-natu... Warm up your winter! Free!

Oh, @wendypratt.bsky.social @corinnaboard.bsky.social @dizzylynn.bsky.social Paul Short, Elisabeth Kelly @suewatling.bsky.social are a poetry feast and I am delighted to say that @helenlaycock.bsky.social and @elcurwen.bsky.social will also be joining us to read on the night of Thursday 12 December.

Discoveries 2025 Calling all unpublished women writers! The Women’s Prize Trust, Audible, the Curtis Brown literary agency and Curtis Brown Creative have partnered to run the Discoveries novel-writing development prog...

The Discoveries writing development programme and prize for unpublished women writers in the UK accepts novels in any genre of adult fiction, with entrants invited to submit the first 10,000 words of their novel and a synopsis

It is Fibonacci Day - here’s a wonderful poem by Michael Donaghy

And what can be better than books and dogs

Read New Ekphrastic Poem 'Falling quietly: Moscow, 1999 by Ankh Spice exclusively in After... | Poems Inspired By Other Art Read New Ekphrastic Poem 'Falling quietly: Moscow, 1999 by Ankh Spice exclusively in After... | Poems Inspired By Other Art

In the sideways light off the sea today, I saw a Vrubelesque shimmer, something falling. & time rewinds: the Tretyakov gallery, the painting that inspired this poem, the brave ?human who slipped me a note on the Moscow metro. I still wonder what happened to him

www.afterpoetry.com/poem/nov-13-...

I shall live beyond death, and I shall sing in your ears Even after the vast sea-wave carries me back To the vast sea-depth. I shall sit at your board though without a body, And I shall go with you to your fields, a spirit invisible. I shall come to you at your fireside, a guest unseen. Death changes nothing but the masks that cover our faces. The woodsman shall be still a woodsman, The ploughman, a ploughman, And he who sang his song to the wind shall sing it also to the moving spheres. Kahlil Gibran The Garden of the Prophet

~Khalil Gibran - in 1933

I’ve had curly hair all my life despite not eating the crusts 😂, I don’t know where I’d be without Frizz Ease (other hair products are available) Hope you love your new do

A yellow Labrador in thick snow in the Scottish Highlands

Woke up in Narnia aka the Black Isle #snow #highlands

Hi Jo, can I be added, ta

Snow in garden with sun rising

Good morning from the snowy Highlands ☃️❄️

The Two-Headed Calf by Laura Gilpin Tomorrow when the farm boys find this freak of nature, they will wrap his body in newspaper and carry him to the museum. But tonight he is alive and in the north field with his mother. It is a perfect summer evening: the moon rising over the orchard, the wind in the grass. And as he stares into the sky, there are twice as many stars as usual.

This poem does me in every single time.
#poetry

A Sunday back ‘home, home’ - the gorgeous Lunan Bay beach in Angus, Scotland 💛

Mmm, cake. Happy Birthday to Cate xxx

I’ve been here a while but find it v confusing

Hello, still getting the hang of things here. Anyway sharing 5 poet accounts #PoetsOnBluesky @blackbirdie.bsky.social @johnglenday.bsky.social @burnedthumb.bsky.social @lesleygraham.bsky.social
@roisinnorton.bsky.social