Tessera

We’re delighted to welcome Bernadette McAloon back to the Catalogue with another ekphrastic poem focussed on a work by #RemediosVaro, this time her ‘Visita al Pasado’: ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2026/06/21/b... #GhostFurnitureCatalogue

Bernadette McAloon: Visit to the Past

(Visita al Pasado, Remedios Varo, 1957.View on site here.) Disguised as Péret’s pilgrim,I return to the old house.My head veiled, eyesight dimming,I make use of a lorgnette;not merely affectation, …

ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com

While we’re on (or were on) the topic of #MacDiarmid’s publishing centenary (see @byleaveswelive.bsky.social’s #GiesAScotsPoem project), I keep meaning to post a link to this essay on MacD published in the #RobertGravesReview: robertgravesreview.org/essay/500 (1/3)

The Fingers of MacDiarmid Contract in a Report to the Recording Angel

robertgravesreview.org

I think this page went live on the @byleaveswelive.bsky.social’s website on Monday? A bunch o meh fellow makars aa speakin back tae or awa fae Grecht Shug o the MacDs, as curated by the skeely @brambrella.bsky.social www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/gies-a-scots... #GiesAScotsPoemDay

Gies a Scots Poem Day 2026

This year’s Gies a Scots Poem Day is something special. 2026 marks the centenary of Hugh MacDiarmid’s A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle — a foundational work for contemporary poetry in Scots, and a poe...

scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk

Whoa, we missed sharing a week of the #GhostFurnitureCatalogue back there due to excessive staring out/at the window! It was this neat combination of zine and poem from Martina De Camillis, where the collages bookend a pair of domestic scenes: ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2026/06/06/m...

Martina De Camillis: The houses that inhabit me

I Turn left: small kitchenforest green counterreligious trinkets on the shelvesbrown terracotta tilesfake wooden tableempty espresso cups and half a cigarettehandmade curtains with crocheted hemmov…

ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com

Returning editor (of our #PeaceSonnetChain), @jsaphra.bsky.social’s sonnet about #ToveJansson’s anti-fascist art-work couldn’t be more timely (link to the background to Sonnet no.9 to follow): newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2026/06/13/a... #NewBootsAndPantisocracies (1/2)

Art Sonnet Chain, 9: Jacqueline Saphra

Where there’s all this to undo, all this to unmakewe dare not be afraid. Time is a wheeland Tove sees the future turning, breaksinto this madhouse, toyshop of the soulgrown grimy in a world submerg…

newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com

Association for Scottish Literature@asls.org.uk · 2mo ago

Threid re new threids for the makar:

Schir, lat it neuer in toune be tald That I suld be ane Ȝowllis ȝald… —William Dunbar (c. 1459–1530), “Petitioun of the Auld Gray Hors, Dumbar” – where the poet appeals to his patron, James IV, King of Scots, for funds to buy new clothes for Christmas #BookWormSat #poem #poetry #medievalsky

Petitioun of the Auld Gray Hors, Dumbar
William Dunbar (c. 1459–1530)

Schir, lat it neuer in toune be tald
That I suld be ane Ȝowllis ȝald.

Suppois I war ane ald ȝald auer,
Schott furth our clewch to squische the cleuer,
And hed the strenthis off all Strenever,
I wald at Ȝoull be housit and stald.
Schir, lat it neuer in toune be tald
That I suld be ane Ȝowllis ȝald.

I am ane auld hors, as ȝe knaw,
That euer in duill dois drug and draw.
Gryt court hors puttis me fra the staw,
To fang the fog be firthe and fald.
Schir, lat it neuer in toune be tald
That I suld be ane Ȝowllis ȝald.

I heff run lang furth in the feild
On pastouris that ar plane and peld.
I mycht be now tein in for eild,
My bekis ar spruning he and bald.
Schir, lat it neuer in toun be tald
That I suld be ane Ȝowllis ȝald.

My maine is turned in to quhyt,
And thair off ȝe heff all the wyt.
Quhen vthair hors hed brane to byt,
I gat bot gris, grype giff I wald.
Schir, lat it neuer in towne be tald
That I suld be ane Ȝowllis ȝald.

I was neuer dautit in to stabell.
My lyff hes bein so miserabell
My hyd to offer I am abell,
For evill schoud strae that I reiv wald.
Schir, lat it neuer in towne be tald
That I suld be ane Ȝowllis ȝald.

And ȝett, suppois my thrift be thyne,
Gif that I die ȝour aucht within
Lat neuir the soutteris haue my skin,
With vglie gumes to be gnawid.
Schir, lat it neuir in toun be tald
That I sould be ane Ȝowllis ȝald.

Pascale Petit 🌿🐅🌱🐆🌿🦜@pascalepetit.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Alison Winch’s sonnet is exactly what we need as no.8. It summarises the themes so far; moves back from its image-centred predecessors to a focus on text; and is painterly as well as sonnety. Hurrah! #NewBootsAndPantisocracies #ArtSonnetChain newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2026/05/30/a...

Art Sonnet Chain, 8: Alison Winch

Alison Winch writes poems about lettuces and other significant topics, as well as academic stuff on tech, media and markets. Her poetry collection is Darling, It’s Me (Penned in the Margins) and sh…

newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com

My Ice Tree Sonnet and Ice Tree Canopy art! For #ArtSonnetChain

Bill Herbert@billherbert.bsky.social · 3mo ago

We’re delighted to welcome @pascalepetit.bsky.social to the #ArtSonnetChain - she’s not only written a great sonnet but produced a fine related artwork. Read the Ice Tree Sonnet (and view the Ice Tree Canopy) here: newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2026/05/16/a... #NewBootsAndPantisocracies

Chrissy Williams@chrissywilliams.bsky.social · 3mo ago

What Chrissy says. #ArtSonnetChain #NewBootsAndPantisocracies

I'm part of this lovely evolving Art Sonnet chain. If you click here you can see the Tishani Doshi sonnet whose final line inspired mine, and up top the @pascalepetit.bsky.social poem drawn from my final line. Lots of women's bodies and transgression: newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com

Art Sonnet Chain, 7: Pascale Petit

Ice Tree Sonnet Bring me water, bring me snow, bring me ice.I’m turning myself into a tree with icicle branches,my hands leaves like frost on night’s windows,my skin lace holier than a confirmation…

newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com

Help help it’s the #DatingDisasterZone! From the dining table to a horrific tie-rack via a long hard look at the fittings, Theresa Giffard’s zine leaves no item of furniture un-upturned: ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2026/05/10/t... #GhostFurnitureCatalogue

Theresa Giffard: dating disaster zone

Theresa Giffard is a poet, a lover of stories, collages and colour. She studied creative writing at Birkbeck, gaining a 1st class honours degree. Her dissertation involved pulping piles of family l…

ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com

Delighted to welcome @chrissywilliams.bsky.social to the #ArtSonnetChain with a burst of #MayDay sunshine in the form of a double page spread of poetry/cartoon: newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2026/05/02/a...

Art Sonnet Chain, 6: Chrissy Williams

Chrissy Williams’ first full poetry collection BEAR was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2017. It was selected as one of the Telegraph’s 50 Best Books of the Year. Her second collection LO…

newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com

The 2nd quartet of our #ArtSonnetChain opens with this fine poem by #TishaniDoshi (who also contributed to our #EcoSonnetChain). As you might expect at this point, it shifts parameters to focus on one of #BhartiKher’s ‘Intermediary’ figures: newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2026/04/18/a...

Art Sonnet Chain, 5: Tishani Doshi

after Bharti Kher’s Ancestor Heart and eye braided in ampersandthe way descendant and ancestor link handsacross waves of mitochondrial inheritance.Here is an abdomen, a thorax; herdof stampeding bu…

newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com

Dianne Casey’s concise sketch of a sideboard and its attributes reveals it as a symbol of not-so-subtle domestic control, whether of identity or behaviour: ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2026/04/14/d... #GhostFurnitureCatalogue

Dianne Elizabeth Casey: Sideboard

1Mr Sheen workedinto the wood,into the edges,until it caught the light.Glass paperweightsgold frameseverything held in place.School photos lined up,smilingbecause we were told to.A drinks cabinetno…

ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com

In between #ArtSonnetChain posts, Peter McCarey returns to our #FallOfAmerica theme in the sorry wake of the latest aggression (if only anyone responsible was or could actually be sorry): newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2026/04/11/p... #NewBootsAndPantisocracies

Peter McCarey: Enemies of Righteousness and Our Great Nation

H is a hateful thing. It slewA thousand of my kin. H isFor hospitals that hid them notThe heads of little children tooShot through with lead not light. The wayThe way you look tonight you’dThink I …

newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com

Shoreline of Infinity@shoreinf.bsky.social · 4mo ago

#DundeeIsScrievin - and then readin it out loud… at this:

Two weeks today! Join Event Horizon in Dundee, for a GREAT night of fantastical readings, poetry and storytelling by Gavin Cameron Rafael Torrubia Erin Farley Ash Alexander and T L Huchu Hosted by MK Hardy www.shorelineofinfinity.com/product/even...

Striking Purple and red background, with a gnarled old tree with flashes bursting from the leaves. The artist must have been on some sort of alternative medication, but I have never asked him. Shoreline of Infinity's Event Horizon rides to Dundee with Gavin Cameron (poet) Rafael Torrubia (prose) Erin Farley (storyteller )Ash Alexander (another local poet) and featuring T L Huchu (prose)Hosted by MK Hardy
7.30pm-9pm 23rd April 2026 Stenecki Coffee18a Exchange St Dundee DD1 3DLTickets £5/£0 - www.shorelineoflnfinity.com

Bloodaxe Books @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Today is publication day for our new Expanded Edition of Scenes from a Long Sleep: New & Collected Poems by Peter Didsbury, published to celebrate his 80th birthday! shorturl.at/WwLgi Includes the collection A Fire Shared (2020) as well as new, previously uncollected poems.

David Wheatley @nemoloris.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Happy eightieth birthday to that fine poet Peter Didsbury, from Sean O’Brien, me, and all the contributors to During the Late and Long Continuing Cold, a Festschrift in his honour published by Broken Sleep Books. Hoping he enjoys the work we have taken such pleasure in secretly assembling.

We’re delighted to welcome back our #EcoSonnetChain editor, #LindaFrance, to conclude the opening quartet of our #ArtSonnetChain. #NewBootsAndPantisocracies newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2026/04/04/a...

Art Sonnet Chain, 4: Linda France

Linda France’s latest collections include Laurel Prize winner The Knucklebone Floor (Smokestack, 2022) and Startling (Faber & New Writing North, 2022), which includes work f…

newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com