Tessera

Paul Brookes

@thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social

Shop asst. Poet and interviewer. Work broadcast on BBC Radio Three, The Verb. Edits The Wombwell Rainbow. #PromoteIndieLit Recent work: The Drey Skin. Forthcoming: "Miner Wattas", "Mashing" https://ko-fi.compaulthewombwellrainbow

6628 Posts2217 Follower 917 Folgt

Paul Brookes @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social · 20m ago

Massively impressed by these two poetry collections by #ColinSimms and published by @shearsmanbooks.bsky.social. Hope to collect the avalanche of poetry he has written.

Paul Cannon @pvcannon.bsky.social · 3h ago

Proof that t-shirts cannot stem the tide of autumn's arrival, but also the suggestion that autumn is well underway.

Paul Brookes @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social · 12h ago

Martin Hayes Festschrift. 25 days Celebrating the poetry of the Workplace. Day Six. Migrant Worker. the880.substack.com/p/martin-hay...

Martin Hayes Festschrift. 25 days Celebrating the poetry of the Workplace. Day Six. Migrant Worker.

A Feast

the880.substack.com

Ian McMillan @imcmillan.bsky.social · 12h ago

First cup of tea: is this a first cup of tea I see before me, the handle towards my hand?

Miranda Keeling @mirandakeeling.com · 22h ago

✨🎉Whoop!!🎉✨My latest short story is on the way to members of my Short Story Club! If you join I’ll send you some of the back catalogue and a surprise piece of merch 🎁 www.patreon.com/cw/MirandaKe... Fed up of being online and craving something analogue & 💯 human-made? This is for you ❤️ Free to trial

The cream card cover of one of my short stories called Indigo. I'm holding it between my thumb and fingers. On my desk is some blue thread.

Me holding one of my short stories open in my hand with me desk in the background.

Some short stories in envelopes going into the post box.

Peter J. King @rock-rex.bsky.social · 22h ago

"Psychophonics". from "Contact Light" (published on the 15th September 2025) #poem #poetry #skypoets #blueskypoets #poetsofbluesky #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #focus #bsfa #contactlight #alienbuddhapress @alienbuddhapress.bsky.social

Julian Day @julianday.bsky.social · 2d ago

You're welcome, Paul.

@ginsbergpoem.bsky.social · yesterday

@thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social - Charlie Parker - Born on This Day - allenginsberg.org/2022/08/m-a-....

Charlie Parker Interviewed - The Allen Ginsberg Project

It’s Bird‘s birthday today – Charlie Parker – Celebrating the occasion with the extraordinary 1954 interview in Boston on radio station WHDH with “John McClellan” (aka John Townsend Fitch) (featuring...

allenginsberg.org

Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · yesterday

And this morning the Shed is a Tiffany lamp in every colour of autumn…

Dawn McLachlan @deemclachlan.bsky.social · yesterday

I live in the heart of Doric country and have an ear for it now. I don’t try and speak it but do understand and people now know not to adjust their language for me. It’s very beautiful and descriptive. My favourite is “foggy bummer” - that’s a bumblebee.

Bluemoose Books @ofmooseandmen.bsky.social · yesterday

Bluemoose in @thebookseller.com 20 years of Independent publishing. Marvelous.

The Bookseller@thebookseller.com · 2d ago

ICYMI: When Kevin and Hetha Duffy founded independent publisher Bluemoose (@ofmooseandmen.bsky.social) from their Hebden Bridge living room in 2006, “it was just: let’s go from year to year,” Kevin Duffy explained, not knowing that by the year 2026 it would have a clutch of awards and nominations 👇

Paul Brookes @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social · 2d ago

Martin Hayes Festschrift. 25 days Celebrating the poetry of the Workplace. Day Five. The Women I Work With: the880.substack.com/p/martin-hay...

Martin Hayes Festschrift. 25 days Celebrating the poetry of the Workplace. Day Five. The Women I Work With

A Feast

the880.substack.com

Julian Day @julianday.bsky.social · 2d ago

Congratulations, Paul! 👏💫👏

C. Oulens @owlnsquirrels1111.bsky.social · 2d ago

You’re most welcome!

C. Oulens @owlnsquirrels1111.bsky.social · 2d ago

Congratulations Paul, on your many achievements! 🙏🎉

John Chmura @johnchmura.bsky.social · 2d ago

“Autumn practices in these mirrors.” I love this line, giving an extra kick to the pooled water image.

Bernard Pearson @bernp.bsky.social · 3d ago

My thanks to @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk for hosting #PoemsAbout #EndOfSummer early bird this morning couldn't sleep look forward to seeing everyone's work.

Matthias (watering thoughts) 🦄🧚‍♂️🐉@ignorantfairy.bsky.social · 2d ago

For #poemsabout #endofsummer Thanks to @thebrokenspine.co.uk and Alan Parry. Still on vacation so gonna read and reply later on today. #poetry #poetrycommunity

turning point

like a song that just ended
wilted petals shiver softly
as winds scatter them
remnants of a heat
all too visible in leaves
taken too early

the time of storms
starts chanting
a different refrain
acorns litter meadows
knapweed and dog roses
refuse to let go — pink spots
throughout yellowed grass

last lavender perfumes
air that holds earthy notes
mushrooms and
decaying roots
we harvest the light
glorious sunsets over
shimmering lakes

still warm enough to swim
as darkness slowly reaps
our mellowing tune

Alan McKean @alanmckeanpoet.bsky.social · 2d ago

cheers Paul - very much appreciated sir

Paul Brookes@thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social · 2d ago

Thank you. Lookibg forward to reading your books I have ordered on kindle.

Jan Peters - Solivagant Wisdom @janpsolivagant.bsky.social · 2d ago

I love this rehearsal of autumn! The season can't come soon enough, imho. 🙏🌠

Paul Brookes @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social · 2d ago

for #PoemsAbout #EndofSummer with thanks to @alanparrywriter.co.uk & @thebrokenspine.co.uk:

Summer's End

wears t-shirt and long trousers
sat outside its shed on a folding chair
as cold wind gusts in sun bright.

Last nights deluge in lakes
on a flat roofed garage dabbled
in by young doves and curious cats.

Autumn practices in these mirrors.
Autumn is already smashed green
capsules holding fresh fallen conkers.

Alan McKean @alanmckeanpoet.bsky.social · 2d ago

👍

Paul Brookes@thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social · 2d ago

Chuffed in chuffedville that my prose poem "Melismatics" will be featured on the front page of Open Arts Forum on 14th September. Here is a preview:

melismatics

Every evening I enjoy the non-verrbal
sounds of the boy next door
as he chases up and down
the same route making a cleared path
in his grass

utters melismatic sounds as if
a black door monolith has appeared
in his garden and he contemplates
it with the repetition of his voice

Paul Brookes @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social · 2d ago

Chuffed in chuffedville that my prose poem "Melismatics" will be featured on the front page of Open Arts Forum on 14th September. Here is a preview:

and movement from the same point
to the same point again and again
and I am eleven years old mesmerised
sat in a cinema watching
as a bone becomes a spaceship.

Mike O’Brien @zoomburst.substack.com · 3d ago

It’s 7am and I’m sitting in a swish sea view apartment in Scarborough. It’s raining outside and we go home today. So excuse me if this is a bit bleak in tone. #PoemsAbout #EndOfSummer

A sad “after the Lord Mayor’s Parade” poem.

Rachel Burrows @rburrows.bsky.social · 3d ago

Thanks @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk for #PoemsAbout #EndofSummer prompt. Here is Walking with Hogweed and her Black Dog. This one can be seen and heard here! @iamb.uk share.google/QcthDB8SyblT... Happy Friday everyone! #poetry

Francesca L Rolle @francesca-laura.bsky.social · 2d ago

Resharing this one for #PoemsAbout #EndOfSummer

Francesca L Rolle@francesca-laura.bsky.social · last yr.

Sharing an oldie (2015) that was actually originally written as a song in commemoration of a friend who died too young. Hopefully it works okay as a poem for #PromptCombo on the theme of #Summer. With thanks to @victoriaspires.bsky.social for hosting this week 🖤 #PoetrySky #Poetry

A poem by Francesca L Rolle titled 'Rosie':
Do you remember?
Do you remember those summer days?
A cherished haze of sound, light and colour,
I remember,
Your sandle strap snapping,
Your bloody knee gritted with sand,
Like the pebbledash houses lining the road to the beach,
The ones we'd press our hands against,
Drag our nails across to make them screech,
Dazed, fading memories,
In sepia sunlight tone,
I'm thinking of you,
While sitting alone.
I always was complacent to your fantasies,
Where are you now?
My hand reaching out for the yellow ribbon holding back your hair,
Your hand grabbing me tight,
You drag me out of the sea and back to the light,
I'm blinking fast and crying now,
Dazed, fading memories,
Do you remember?
Do you remember those summer days?
In sepia sunlight tone,
I'm thinking of you,
Forever alone.

DrNaturegirl @drnaturegirl.debbiemross.co.uk · 2d ago

As always thanks to @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk for the Friday Prompt #PoemsAbout #EndofSunmer Here’s my brief offering. Look forward to reading the other contributions.

A poem in haiku form by Debbie Ross text as follows

Lavender still scents
bowed by a summer shower
stems *blinter-broken
(*Gust of wind - Scots)

A photo if Grench lacey with a bumblebee centre . Words of a haiku written in white on a black background

Lavender still scents
bowed by a summer shower stems blinter-broken

Jen Thorne @jenthorne.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I am having an awful time at the moment as I am currently in hospital keeping vigil at my mom's bedside, waiting to say goodbye. This is a poem I wrote about her a while ago. It seems a fitting tribute to share here. Love you Mom 🩶 #PoemsAbout #InBloom @thebrokenspine.co.uk

Long Before Guerrilla Gardeners There Was My Mother

When I was in my infancy,
so was the estate where I lived.
New, fresh everything gleamed
with the last dregs of post-war idealism.
The footpaths of black tarmac
cut through grassy banks and small hills,
created from the rubble and earth
displaced by the foundations.

Mum decided there weren’t enough flowers and trees.
She didn’t complain to the council,
or ask for a grant.
My dad took us on outings to local forests.
We visited elderly relatives,
house-proud and garden mad.
Pulled over at the side of highways to rescue saplings,
finding everything a new home on our small estate.
Bit by bit the plant revolution took place

I am much older now.
So is the estate.

The patched tarmac has faded to grey.
The houses have seen many wars.
But the trees grow strong and tall.

A voracious rowan has sired an empire.
No autumn journey can be made
without the crunching of red berries under your shoes.
Bluebells settle under golden forsythia,
as the blossoms of ornamental cherries and magnolia
flutter down in the evening breeze,
carrying the scent of honeysuckle
twisted around old signposts.

We walk amongst her legacy.
Her gardens bloom in every corner.
Christmas berries lay down a red carpet.
Bluebells nod their approval.
The confetti of scattering blossoms
celebrate the gift she planted for us

Paul Brookes @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social · 3d ago

Martin Hayes Festschrift. 25 days Celebrating the poetry of the Workplace. Day Four. The Men I Work With: the880.substack.com/p/martin-hay...

Martin Hayes Festschrift. 25 days Celebrating the poetry of the Workplace. Day Four. The Men I Work With

A Feast

the880.substack.com

Samantha Terrell @samanthaterrell.bsky.social · 3d ago

Thanks, Paul! 🙏🏻