#POEMSABOUT

The Broken Spine (SUBS OPEN)

@thebrokenspine.co.uk

29 minutes ago

A minimalist still life shows a frosted glass tumbler on a glossy black surface beside a small pile of melting ice cubes. Water pools around the base, reflecting light. The Broken Spine fountain pen logo appears in the top left corner. “@thebrokenspine.co.uk” is written in white at the top right. Bold white text in the lower right reads: “Read Repost Reply #POEMSABOUT #MELT”.

#PoemsAbout #Melt starts Friday.

Write the slow undoing.
The body warming under attention.
The structure that fails quietly, beautifully.

Nothing dramatic.
Just inevitable.

Draft now.
Share from Friday.
Tag your post.
Use Alt Text.

Rachel Burrows

@rburrows.bsky.social

37 minutes ago

Thank you so much Paul. I changed the title after its outing on Friday- I hope it works better! 😬

will you put down your phone for me #PoemsAbout #consent

@paulrapley.bsky.social

13 hours ago

Hospitality So, fired with lust, they beat his door Demanding that he hand them over, Though they were his precious guests: Two messengers with shining eyes. We want our way with them! they cried, Who are you to interfere? You are alien in our town. He begged them, Please, don’t wrong them, friends. I am their host; you’d bring me shame. Look, take my daughters in their stead— They are both virgins, I believe. But they insisted on the men. At this the messengers came out, And, summoning their special powers, They struck them with bright burning rays, Rendering the whole mob blind. Next day, they brought him out the town In time to see it bombarded By mighty fires from out the sky, So, with his daughters, he fled far Until they found a mountain cave, Where they laced him with alcohol And carried on the human race By freely taking while he slept. Paul Rapley 2026 #Consent

#PoemsAbout #Consent
Thank you @alanparrywriter.co.uk & @thebrokenspine.co.uk
#poets #poetrycommunity #poetry #poems #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #blueskypoets #poetsofbluesky

Jane Dougherty

@janedougherty47.bsky.social

15 hours ago

I tried it again. Went from no poems to all the poems by clicking on #poemsabout again.

John Chmura

@johnchmura.bsky.social

19 hours ago

Valley Girl (8/12) Movie CLIP - I Melt With You (1983) HD YouTube video by Movieclips

To all the #PoemsAbout poets writing #Melt poems, I hope the future’s open wide and there’s probably nothing you and I won’t do.

youtu.be/FcEchaH6EJk?...

The Broken Spine (SUBS OPEN)

@thebrokenspine.co.uk

1 day ago

Black-and-white graphic of a vintage typewriter seen from above. Torn paper strips sit in the typewriter reading “£1200 RAISED” and “WIN CASH” in bold lettering. Below, the hashtags “#TheBrokenSpineAward” and “#ByPoetsForPoets” are printed. The overall style is gritty, high-contrast, and zine-like.

No authority claimed.
No neutrality pretended.
One editor’s favourites, funded by peers.
You raised the pot with us. That’s the story.
#TheBrokenSpineAward #ByPoetsForPoets #PoemsAbout #LiftToTheSky

Dale Tudge? Humor!

@daletudgehumor.bsky.social

1 day ago

On the Exhibition of Mr. Houdini Dale Tudge Most people were eager to witness Harry Houdini at the London Hippodrome. But I’m not most people, nor even some people, least of all any people you would know. If I learned anything from P.T. Barnum, it was unwise to call him Peter. Also that a lollipop is born every minute. I was not prepared to be a lollipop at this minute or any other. A shilling to watch a man struggle in handcuffs behind a shabby little cabinet*? I could go to Margate most weekdays and see it done properly for a ha’penny. (ap·dt) * This was billed as Houdini’s “Ghost Cabinet.” Not “The Cabinet of Eternal Suffering.” Not even “The Slightly Uncomfortable Cabinet.” I had expected rather more from a man who charged a shilling.

The Houdini spectacle, I beg my own pardon, "Mirror Challenge", was a promotion by The Daily Mirror, to whom I did not offer financial #consent for an act barely worth a farthing, and #surpassed by any Monday morning at a magistrates' court in Kent.

#prose #poemsabout #writing #vss365 #poem #vss

EchoGnomics

@echognomics.bsky.social

1 day ago

#MPPrompt
#PoemsAbout
#WildWalkPrompt
#vss365
#WeirdMicro
#emoetry
#haibun

I #assure you: water's freezing point is #regaled in #pretty poetry, whereas ice's melt is cursed in the #final_submissions of boots' muddy muck.

Two states of matter:
molecules #crossing_borders
without boundaries.

lichtbringer

@saintghost.bsky.social

1 day ago

Taint She returns to what has assumed the name of home. Stray light, the bedroom devoid of him. She undresses, de-leaves like an autumnal tree. All the layers and what they have to hide. The bare bones underneath, quivering. Longing for birds. She dreams the wood infested with bugs, their mandibles sawing up the sun-shy soft flesh beneath the bark. Maggots in her shoes. Worms in her hair. No space left unviolated. Irreverence and sacrilege. She did not choose that storm. All that has been touched has turned itself wrong and inside out, has filled itself with the immeasurable weight of disgust, dirt, and days piling up like stones. The body counted in stretch marks trying to cover all that ache. The bathroom. The sink. The holy water. Things can be so clean and white and yet so stained with empty. She scrubs her hands ‘til sunset sings because blood is the best disinfectant. The sterile speech of razor blades listing immutable facts. You are soiled. You are nothing. The limbs of a doll that go slack in an angry child’s grasp. Maybe under the raw red flesh, some splinter of you remains. Fingers draw lines in ink and shame on a girl that did not want them. The stains that are sins without a chance of repentance or redemption or grace. The smudges that never come off again, the things that rot underground. She had never known how the morning dew could become the sweat of fear or how all the stardust in the world could clot into dust and filth.

Late (again) but here is one for #PoemsAbout #Consent ✨

for @thebrokenspine.co.uk
& @alanparrywriter.co.uk

The things you did not consent to and the marks they’ve made. This is about a very dear friend.

Thank you to paulrapley.bsky.social for inspiring me to try writing in 3rd person 🫶🏻

Alan Parry He/Him

@alanparrywriter.co.uk

1 day ago

A poem about consent sparking a conversation about permission is almost unintentionally perfect. #PoemsAbout #FragmentsFriday

Talah Reed

@talahreed.bsky.social

2 days ago

a little of what happened next:

the shape of yes,
becoming music

#poemsabout #consent #poetrycommunity

The Broken Spine (SUBS OPEN)

@thebrokenspine.co.uk

2 days ago

A minimalist still life shows a frosted glass tumbler on a glossy black surface beside a small pile of melting ice cubes. Water pools around the base, reflecting light. The Broken Spine fountain pen logo appears in the top left corner. “@thebrokenspine.co.uk” is written in white at the top right. Bold white text in the lower right reads: “Read Repost Reply #POEMSABOUT #MELT”.

Last week named the yes.
This week: #Melt.

Control loosening.
Edges softening.
The moment holding shape becomes impossible.

Write what gives way.
What pools.
What can’t be held once warmth arrives.

New theme opens Friday.
Don’t post early.
Use Alt Text.
Tag #PoemsAbout to be found.

Rachel

@vignettes.bsky.social

2 days ago

Thank you. Friday #poemsabout are such a great writing challenge.

Jane Dougherty

@janedougherty47.bsky.social

2 days ago

I have the handful that were posted today, all the rest from Friday have gone. Whenever I look for the #poemsabout during the week I get a message saying, this feed is empty, do another search.

stace.bot

@stacebot.bsky.social

2 days ago

word problems had a dream that you killed me. which is common for a woman of a certain age. all ages. strange we are called bad at math. it's not prophecy. we're no witches. just arithmetic. how we calculate what we carry each day loving so many things that might destroy us.

For this week's #PoemsAbout, I'm thinking about #consent as risk calculation.

Thank you to the host @alanparrywriter.co.uk
and @thebrokenspine.co.uk and to all of the other writers.

#poetry #poem #writing #PoetryCommunity #BlueSkyPoets #writingcommunity

Rother Writes

@rotherwrites.bsky.social

2 days ago

Best is to have a tab for #PoemsAbout Jane to have them all in one place. I can find them instantly this way.

Jane Dougherty

@janedougherty47.bsky.social

2 days ago

It' a shame that all the #PoemsAbout disappear after a few hours. Why is that?

Philippa Bowe

@philippabowe.bsky.social

2 days ago

Red box with black shading and words of a poem in white: bombs I’m sorry we can’t hear your voices over the sound of the bombs – louder than a hundred thousand wolves baying at the blood moon than the volcano eruption-roar of release than the ferocious unappeasable anger of Zeus – the bombs scream scream and hurtle towards their target unerring – they do not ask consent for where they land for when they shatter the world

A day late with my response to the #PoemsAbout #Consent prompt (am involved in local elections happening on Sunday so I have a good excuse!). Can't wait to read the other responses, happy weekend poets! 💜
@thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk

Jane Dougherty

@janedougherty47.bsky.social

3 days ago

A thought #PoemsAbout #consent
@thebrokenspine.co.uk

Consent

one of those small murmured words
light as a leaf in the wind
with as little weight as a falling feather
a theory
something we have to give or withhold
in theory
in reality
a little weightless thing
the powerful simply take.

Black Bough Poetry

@blackboughpoetry.bsky.social

3 days ago

#fragmentsfriday is separate from #poemsabout - it’s 18 words or less. Different initiatives. Thank you

Black Bough Poetry

@blackboughpoetry.bsky.social

3 days ago

#fragmentsfriday is separate from #poemsabout - it’s 18 words or less. Different initiatives. Thank you

EchoGnomics

@echognomics.bsky.social

3 days ago

#MadMarch #WildWalkPrompt #PoemsAbout
#EVERYTHING #CLOVE #CONSENT

Sì! I consent, to the scent
Of the clove on the stove;
Penne aglio e olio
by turgescent lips rent;
Its allium accent recrudescent
upon our breaths in each kiss.
In my consent, everything is meant.
Salsiccia, toum, cloves-
stakes.

Quill of Mnemosyne

@sonnetsmith.bsky.social

3 days ago

Gwisges I yr flodau'r haf A'r adar a yr gwenyn y gwanwyn A gwisges I yr dail'r hydref A rhew'r gaeaf, feudal ac yn wyn Daeth y tymhorau yn ffrog I mi Dw i'n eu gwisgo bob blwyddyn Ond bob blwyddyn eu lliwiau'n pylu Ac wedi torri'n fwy nag o'r blaen Mae fy nillad yn wedi rhwygo Heb I mi roi caniatad o gwbl I wore the flowers of the summer And the birds and bees of the spring I wore the leaves of the autumn And the winter's frost so soft and white The seasons became a dress for me I wear them every year But every year their colours fade And are more broken than before My clothes are torn without my consent

My offering to #PoemsAbout #consent
Is a particularly nerve wracking piece for me. It's the first time I have shared a piece written in Welsh.
My grammar is atrocious...
But I hope to one day improve.

#poetry #blueskypoet #poem #Welsh #Welshlanguage

Dean Norton

@zentinl.bsky.social

3 days ago

For this week's #PoemsAbout #consent I found myself thinking about whose running things.

@alanparrywriter.co.uk
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
#poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet

@maddymarcotte.bsky.social

3 days ago

Beulah A mother gathers white yarrow. The roadside sings with passing semis. Her skirt longs after them, sighs when left behind. She picks the tallest stems, the ones not tangled in vines. Her child tugs at her skirt. I’m hungry. I really am. The yarrow nod their heads. She picks the ones whirled with vines. No you're not. She picks the yarrow because as a girl she picked yarrow and the vines hold around some stems the way a boy once wrapped his hands around her neck, his mouth pressing hard, green cloved leaves, but that was when she was a child, knew nothing about resistance and the kissing like clucking a pony, urging, and the boy, insistent, a hungry child, I really am, and she rose from the ground, dirt and leaves pressed to the backs of her thighs, her neck hot, not tangled in vines.

#poemsabout #consent

Sean Bates

@seanjbates.bsky.social

3 days ago

These days it's all #poemsabout #restaurants and growing up in them

Sarah O

@palimpsest22.bsky.social

3 days ago

Warching A Woman of Substance Whilst Homing a Rescue Cat : And all the buttons spilled, splashed undones curling across marble, counters of life's choices escape below the chaise where only tabby sees in a catnip of claw, her exit barred. Consent not exactly on the horizon. Sarah O'Grady

@thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk #PoemsAbout #Consent
On the hoof:

Robin Rich

@rrichwords.bsky.social

3 days ago

the love of a king shows in the people
overworked trust destroys his
temple

a true ruler cares for every heart
the devotee, from silence, is first heard

#PoemsAbout #Consent and #emoetry

Mizz Whozza Whazzit

@mwplovesmusic.bsky.social

3 days ago

Trusted boy
trusted friends
trusted world,
in a blink
my words
didn’t matter-
only bodies
smothering,
bodies taking,
bodies robbing;

Trusted boy
trusted friends
trusted God,
no one came,
just hot breath,
spit,
and the end
of childhood

#poemsabout #consent #survivor #poetry @thebrokenspine.co.uk