Tessera

Water falling from the sky!!

Rereading Stephen Sexton’s If All the World and Love Were Young, I’m struck all over again by what an extraordinary achievement it is - an elegy for his mother (and for his own childhood) written through the world of Super Mario. So inventive and so moving.

17 degrees and cloudy! Bliss.

Scottie Scheffler always puts me in mind of a Depression-era Midwest farmer who’s just come in from a long day in the fields and is about to tell his wife that the alfalfa crop (or whatever) has failed and they’re gonna have to sell the farm.

Longbarrow Press @longbarrowpress.bsky.social · last mo.

Fascinated to hear that Rahul ‘The Wall’ Dravid is a possible replacement for Baz as England men’s Test coach. From one extreme to the other… (Dravid and Thorpe two of my early cricketing heroes. I love nuggetty batting.)

"'To the End of the Land' is a poem-sequence working eloquently as a choir." Thanks to Jake Morris-Campbell for his review of Helen Tookey & Martin Heslop's collaboration in the current issue of Poetry London. You can buy the pamphlet & CD here: longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...

The pamphlet and CD editions of 'To the End of the Land' by Martin Heslop and Helen Tookey: the blue-grey coastal edge of Nova Scotia, with dilapidated wooden lobster traps in the foreground, sea and distant land beyond, and white clouds and blue sky above.

Texted my 23yo yesterday to tell her David Hockney had died. She replied ‘oh dear, that’s my day ruined’. She’s been a fan ever since seeing one of his pool paintings when she was quite little. I think that’s cool.

Yay, the World Cup starts today. I mean the women’s T20 World Cup, obviously.

Bought this from Oxfam but didn’t notice it was signed until I got home. I love Matthew Sweeney’s writing so it’s nice to have this trace of him (even though I’m not Paul).

The end of Isaac Asimov’s ‘Galley Slave’ (1957). The anti-robot academic is shown up as a liar and humiliated in court by Susan Calvin of US Robots, so on the face of it he’s the loser, on the wrong side of history. But I don’t think Asimov wants us to think it’s that simple…

Louise Kenward@louisekenward.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This is such an interesting piece, thank you @louisekenward.bsky.social . Nine months into chronic pain, I’m still floundering, trying to find some way of learning to inhabit an utterly changed landscape (and possibly write from it). It’s so valuable to know that others are doing the same.

I have a new essay up at @unibirmingham.bsky.social Arts of Place site. 'Art of the Marsh' considers how creative practice changes through illness. Here I visit the beach at Pett and sit on the bench dedicated to Fay Godwin. #FayGodwin more.bham.ac.uk/artsofplace/...

Oh, fuck off, Tony.

‘A Meditation of Small Frogs’ by Charlotte Eichler, from Swimming Between Islands (@carcanet.bsky.social). @pollyrowena.bsky.social read this and thought of you!

At least Mr Earbrass never had to compile an index for one of his books. Definitely the worst part (am currently indexing my forthcoming Malcolm Lowry book). From the genius that is/was Edward Gorey.

‘Jagger, 82, who has lived on the north bank [of the Thames] since the early 1960s, as have bandmates Brian Jones and Keith Richards…’ (Guardian). Er…

If I knew how to set up a poll, I’d set one up: Which Wes is worse? (a) Wes Streeting, (b) Wesley Crusher

I’d been puzzled for a while about why I was seeing endless posts on here about American sports. Finally realised it must be because I had the thing set to ‘Discover’, so I switched it back to ‘Following’, but now I slightly miss all the excitable posts about baseball teams I’ve never heard of.

Thought I would do a little photoshoot of some of the lovely @longbarrowpress.bsky.social books I’ve got. The Blue Hour is a particular favourite of mine.

Longbarrow Press@longbarrowpress.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Please support @longbarrowpress.bsky.social - they publish excellent and beautiful poetry books and their care and attention to detail are second to none.

This will, in all likelihood, be the last full-length collection that we publish. It's a fine book: as good as any we've put out in the last twenty years.

Hello @policedoghogan.bsky.social just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your gig in Liverpool on Friday. Funny and moving and really uplifting. (Slightly disappointed that Tim isn’t still doing his nduja joke, but you can’t have everything.)