💚 on my way down Whitehall on other business, caught a glimpse of Hannah Spencer MP standing in solidarity with @fuelpovertyaction.bsky.social to protest the latest rise in the energy price cap. ✊ sorry I couldn’t stop for a chat - but more power to your arm Hannah! ✍️ support her EDM!

😁 so look - we’re in a park. In Central Park, East Ham. And seeing ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ with the East London Shakespeare Festival. 🎭 it’s Shakespeare. In Central Park. It’s Shakespeare in the Park. 🤫 Sssh - let us have our fun!

Say hello to Arshan, Ibrahim, and Joe – our new leadership team here to lead our biggest ever Green council group in Newham. We'll all be working hard for residents and to hold Newham's Labour Mayor to account.

😎 on Sundays we drink Vibrante Spritzes and go see some jazz… 🙌 absolutely electric performance from Kamasi Washington and company at @southbankcentre.bsky.social

🤩 so guess who won the Genesis Poetry Slam for June 2026!! 🙏 thank you Panos, Hannah, the judges and the audience (including the nice folks who took some of these pictures!) for organising a spectacular night of fun, as always. See you for next month’s sacrificial poem and the FINALS in December!

‘In seeking to grasp the problem of youth justice, a greater measure of boldness will serve the government, and the young people who stand to benefit from its reforms, far better.’ My latest article in Solicitors Journal. www.solicitorsjournal.com/sjarticle/yo...

Youth justice reforms prioritise evidence over ideology

Government youth justice White Paper leans on early intervention, courts reform and evidence-led “what works” approach

solicitorsjournal.com

😊 back of the pamphlet in fetching sunshine yellow! Glad to have a showing for this poem, and my thanks to the organisers of the South Downs Poetry Festival.

My wife and I used to treat the Denmark Arms as one of our locals. We celebrated our wedding party there (for those who couldn’t make it to Poland). It would be sad to lose the pub, but whatever it becomes next it shouldn’t be yet another casino. ✍️ Write to Newham Council next! c.org/Z22PsQnQVC

Sign the Petition

No To Gambling Centre At The Denmark Arms

c.org

🙏 may thanks to Flight of the Dragonfly for letting me be a part of this anthology with two whole entire #poems to my name!

Speaking as someone who also burned themselves out last year, and had to take time away from work because of it, I feel this, and I have a lot of respect for the frankness with which Carla is dealing with it. 💚 love and solidarity - get well soon!

Carla Denyer@carladenyer.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Following my doctor’s advice, I am taking some time away from work for health reasons. My office will be functioning as usual and my staff are there to support all my constituents who need help, so please don't hesitate to get in touch. See my full statement below.

‘[I]n his eyes dimly gleaming the lyric poetry of an early grave…’ 😁 I will say that I had fun with this rollicking burlesque of a Western, even if I did wonder on finishing it whether it had some of the weight and punch it aspires to have. Acerbic and lyrical by turns, a trip worth the taking.

‘There’s a reason why, whenever I am called on to describe my legal career, I make note of the fact that my practice often involves dealing with vulnerable witnesses and defendants.’ 👇Book your places now for my MBL seminar on the 7th of October! www.mblseminars.com/courses-by-i...

Everybody matters in the criminal justice system

Supporting vulnerable court users demands more than legal knowledge; it requires patience, adaptability and fundamentally humane advocacy

solicitorsjournal.com

‘When you can do the things that I can do… When you can do all that you don’t die.’ 🎸 been over a decade since I saw Andrew Scott take the lead in this one, and if anything I’d say its ferocious edge has become more concentrated. Its sheer grotesquerie drives it a mile deep into your brain.

‘[E]ven what arrives is leaving.’ There is a clear, scrupulous, intelligence at work in these poems, a willingness to think through sensuality. Sometimes it arrives at luminous moments… but I’m bound to say that the whole left me cold. Near-life? Not quite near enough for me, I fear.

🤯 2 @greenparty.org.uk MAYORS IN LONDON - IN 1 DAY?!? 🍻 there is going to be celebrating tonight - CONGRATS to @liamshrivastava.bsky.social and @lewishamgreenparty.bsky.social 🌱 want to be part of a real movement for change? join.greenparty.org.uk

The Green Party of England & Wales@greenparty.org.uk · 3mo ago

BREAKING: Second Ever Green Mayor Win 🎉 Liam Shrivastava has been elected Mayor of Lewisham – huge congratulations!

🤩 just sat in a conference room at Kingston Crown Court yelling “ZOË GARBETT IS THE MAYOR OF HACKNEY!!” and drawing strange looks from colleagues and court users… but I can’t help it! 💚 HUGE congratulations to @hackneygreenparty.bsky.social #GetGreensElected

The Green Party of England & Wales@greenparty.org.uk · 3mo ago

BREAKING: First Ever Green Mayor Win 🎉 Zoë Garbett has been elected Mayor of Hackney – huge congratulations!

🧠 time for a dip into non-fiction, this time with what we might call some ‘Neuro-Dhamma’ from a writer with experience with the same people who taught me to meditate, the Samatha Trust! 💡 I don’t pretend to know a great deal about the hard science of cognition - but it *did* help my meditation!

😵‍💫 two weeks in the Aegean definitely left me slower than before - could feel the strings pulled very tight at Mickey’s tonight. 🥊 still - better in the ring than out of it.

🍫 treats on my mind for the final poem of this year’s #napowrimo

On the home stretch with #napowrimo number 29.

Not quite sure what type of cheese it was that did for me last night, but here’s #napowrimo number 28.

Been reassessing my meditation practice and rediscovering some things… in that spirit here’s #napowrimo number 27.

And now #napowrimo number 26 bringing us up to speed with me being a little gauche in sharing what I think I need from a life of the spirit…

And now, here they are - fist, #napowrimo number 25 brought to you with some inspiration from Oluwaseun Olayiwola writing in the latest ‘Poetry Review’.

😁 had such a good time revisiting Oxford yesterday that I plain forgot to write my poem for that day - blame this man! But fear not, we will make up the distance. ‘Till then here’s some charming pubs and Port Meadow in the sunshine…

‘[W]asn’t I a foolish fellow not to kill my father in the years gone by.’ 😁 what with Nicola Coughlan and Siobhan McSweeney crossing my feed so often recently it seemed like a good time to revisit this play. And it is still a devilishly enjoyable piece of work - farcical, tragical, inimitable.

🥊 going out on a high - privileged to have a poem in the final issue of ‘The Spit Bucket’. 🙏 thanks to @writersonboxing.bsky.social for letting me be a part of this one.

In anticipation of a very nice Turkish carpet, here’s #napowrimo number 24.

Missing my holiday already - here’s #napowrimo number 23.

✉️ alright - time to get back to work! ✊ out for @newhamgreens.bsky.social working to #getgreenselected on the 7th of May, and taking up the inspiration for #napowrimo day 22 - building two temples with one stone, if you like! 👇give what you can below! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/rob-callen...