Shaun Barr
@shaunbarr.bsky.social
Poet, photographer, gardener, Cumbria, UK. Longlisted National Poetry Competition 2025. The Manchester Review, Dream Catcher, The Frogmore Papers, The Madrid Review, Orbis. shaunbarrphotography.co.uk
Attentiveness has never been more important, but with such distracted lives, arguably never less practised. Poets of course strive to improve their writing craft, but honing skills in noticing, that ‘act of resistance’ as Kathleen Jamie puts it, is where the poem really begins.
John Glenday@johnglenday.bsky.social · last wk.Perhaps this is poetry’s greatest gift: its unique ability to open doors between the known and the unknown, to allow us to slip into the liminal spaces we would otherwise never experience. #poetry #WritingCommunity
As a contributing poet I have caught a glimpse of September's Alien Buddha Zine and it is poised to be a collector's edition! Thrilled to have some new haibun within. Many thanks to Red for curating! #zinecommunity #printisnotdead #zinesandthings
Alien Buddha Press@alienbuddhapress.bsky.social · 2w agoseptember
Thank you to the editors of Right Hand Pointing. Whaler is in issue 164. www.issues.righthandpointing.net/164 #poems #poem #poetry #blueskypoetry #poetrycommunity
Pleased to announce that my new collection of poems, Red River Valley, is coming out from Carcanet Press in October. You can pre-order it from your local independent bookshop, ask your library to stock it, or take advantage of Waterstones giving a discount if you pre-order in the next 3 days.
I was over the moon to find my poems accepted in Orbis, a journal with so much quality and kudos. But still beyond astounded to be chosen as their Featured Writer in the latest Summer issue. Never give up. Never let rejections cause you to doubt what you feel is true. #poetry #WritingCommunity
"The moment you start caring about what a gallery or a publisher thinks, you stop being an artist and become an employee." — Remedios Varo
Why Bother? Because I guess most of us are driven to write poetry by instinct rather than reason we rarely ask the question. But on days when doubts flood in the answer here is exquisite. #poetry #WritingCommunity
Read A Little Poetry@readalittlepoem.bsky.social · 4w ago“a wound in the exact shape / of your words.” — Sean Thomas Dougherty . . . This poem appeared in The Second O of Sorrow by Sean Thomas Dougherty, published by BOA Editions Ltd., 2018. Shared here with deep gratitude.
🚨Dream journal moment!🚨Beyond excited to have a poem in the new issue of North American Review alongside some absolutely rockstar poets and writers! Here’s to poetry, a little imagination, and the bizarre interplay of loss, lineage, and memory. @northamerreview.bsky.social
One of the most basic human experiences is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve in this non-stop, 24/7 connected world. All the more reason then to remember the value of solitude. #WritingCommunity
Thrilled to announce that I have won the UNESCO international Bridges of Struga Award for a debut poetry book from Struga Poetry Evenings for my collection New Famous Phrases published by @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social. Thanks so much to all of the judges for their kind words about the book!
Out today! Get it from our website or Secret Kingdoms or @lib-parenthesis.bsky.social in Madrid or online at Peecho @worldoceanday.bsky.social @unep.org @unepwcmc.bsky.social #worldoceanday #publicationday
The Madrid Review Issue 8 launches today! My poem Sea Glass Requiem is within & explores themes arising from #migration & #biculturalism. Also, I was thrilled to discover that Chasms my chapbook with @alienbuddhapress.bsky.social is a #RecommendedReads pick! Thank you @madridlitmag.bsky.social 🌊💙🌊
Wow. The news is relentless. Exhausting. Devastating. Sometimes sharing my little observations feels like trying to grow a flower in a tornado. But these tiny acts matter. I’m sure of it. Every piece of art, or act of kindness by real humans, to and for each other, matters. More than ever.
The modern world in old Ladybird. "The blacksmith's trade is an old one which does not change" (1954) Artist: Septimus Scott
The bogs, rivers, mountains, and shorelines are more than preservers of old myths, bones, and memories. They are energy banks and time sponges, and what is held within them seeks release. Manchán Magan, Listen to the Land Speak: A Journey into the Wisdom of What Lies Beneath Us #photography #writing
We're lucky to have it and you in the issue @carmellapoetry.bsky.social ❤️
Carmella de Keyser@carmellapoetry.bsky.social · 2mo agoOne of my favourite poems has found a home in the gorgeous new issue of @madridlitmag.bsky.social Immensely proud to be sharing space with these other wonderful writers. Issue 8 is dropping on World Ocean Day! 🌊🔆🌊 #globalcommunity #sustainableliving #literarymagazine #borderlessliving
So thrilled to be a part of this.
The Madrid Review@madridlitmag.bsky.social · 2mo agoNew Issue now available for preorder themadridreview.com?utm_source=s... Youth! Dr Helen Scales! Sinéad Morrissey! More! @helenscales.bsky.social @unep.org @unepwcmc.bsky.social @fiddes.bsky.social @cristinajurado.bsky.social Out on #worldoceanday #environment #oceans #poetry #writing
I’m reading online for the Transatlantic Poetry Series on 19 June at 7pm GMT. Tickets—free—available at the link to book. Would be lovely if you’d like to join me for poems on Hollywood, musicians, poets, desire, memory, and the middle life. ❤️
ticketsource.com
‘Perhaps we are always hurtling our bodies toward the thing that will obliterate us, begging for love from the speeding passage of time,’ Ada Limón attempting to stay just beyond the feeling of despair that increasingly threatens to engulf us all. #poetry #WritingCommunity
“When you are a poet as he was, you have no confusions, you write / The words you are given to, you are possessed or protected by a vision.”
Alina Stefanescu@alinaetc.bsky.social · 2mo agoHis was the Light of the World, a lit match, or the whole city, burning. - Robert Creeley, “For John Wieners”
Thrilled to be on the BBC this Thurs 21/05 & Sat 23/05. A special thank you to Beth Linnell for selecting my poetry. I am reading a poem first published by Paul Short within his #UnwhisperedLegacy anthology where he raised over £300 for Médecins Sans Frontières.🕊️ #bbcessex #poemsforthesoul #voices
