@azjackson.bsky.social
Writer, editor of poetry, including Poetry Scotland and Whaleback City Press. Knee-deep in assorted poetry-related malarkey including New Boots & Pantisocracies, the Otwituaries, Double Dactyl of the Week, Project Abeona and more.
We’re off on running with the fourth of our #SonnetChains. This time it’s Sophie Herxheimer and Nancy Campbell on co-editing duties. Sophie starts us off with one of her trademark works of poetic appliqué. More to come every fortnight!
newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2026/02/21/a...
#DoubleDactyl of the week is from Alice Meynell, and is a model of diplomacy. Or a reactionary warmonger. You decide.
21.02.2026 14:15 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
#OneDrop Twenty celebrates the #reggae horn section - featuring a great poem from Jim Carruth and various bits and pieces of music and historical context.
onedroppoetry.substack.com/p/one-drop-t...
An #Otwituary for Civil Rights activist #JesseJackson
I fell into the company of marchers standing
at the foot of a rainbow, half way between the
mountain and the ghetto. Their leader told me
in a voice of fire Progress is not walking away
from something bad, but marching towards it.
An #Otwituary for actor #RobertDuvall
If this were your poem, it would ring
with authenticity; it would choose its
words with care, deliver them like an
obscure gospel. But this poem is mine,
and if I say it's safe to write this poem,
then it's safe to write this poem.
Our editors are currently approaching folk to set up the chain, which will be posted fortnightly on the #NewBootsAndPantisocracies site and shared here and on Effbok, TwittereX, & Insta, then (all being well) published in the autumn.
#ArtSonnetChain @azjackson.bsky.social
Sophie and Nancy will be looking for art structured like a sonnet, for sonnets that can be drawn, snipped, or modelled. As long as it is reproducible on paper in black and white, and something like a last line can be handed on, let's see how far we can go!
#ArtSonnetChain #NewBootsAndPantisocracies
As in previous years, #NewBootsAndPantisocracies interrupt your #ValentinesDay weekend to bring you a collaborative sonnet-y announcement:
For our 4th chain, #WhalebackCityPress have asked @sophieherx.bsky.social & #NancyCampbell to edit an #ArtSonnetChain.
newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com
For our fourth sonnet chain (see our website for the previous chains), Whaleback City Press have invited Sophie Herxheimer and Nancy Campbell to edit an Art Sonnet Chain, starting on February 21st and posting fortnightly on New Boots and Pantisocracies, and sharing widely.
14.02.2026 17:37 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
#DoubleDactyl of the Week is from Robert Lindsay Marcus. Told him once before (and I won’t tell him no more) to get down!
13.02.2026 17:54 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
#ProjectAbeona is back with another poem from a plausible future. This one comes hot off the Mass Driver from Richard Price, and is a reminder that even in the vastness of space, there are always little jobs that need doing.
projectabeonapoetry.substack.com/p/transmissi...
One Drop Nineteen celebrates ska once again, featuring a poem from Beth McDonough celebrating an evening with Madness in 1979...
onedroppoetry.substack.com/p/one-drop-n...
@cerysmatthews.bsky.social in honour of your appreciation of Catherine O’Hara this morning…♥️
08.02.2026 11:01 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
An #Otwituary for comic actor #CatherineO’Hara
Let's get your old folk duo back together
to sing your naive ballads. Take me out to a
Dog Show, or an alternative Oscars where
they give out statues for vanity and mischief,
where there's no script, but everybody laughs.
#juniorbyles #reggae
04.02.2026 21:24 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
One Drop Eighteen features some wonderful words from poet Geoffrey Philip, plus a feature on the lost voice of reggae, Junior Byles.
onedroppoetry.substack.com/p/one-drop-e...
An #Otwituary for snooker player and commentator #JohnVirgo
Our lives depend on how
the pack splits. Some can
plan the future three shots
ahead; others rattle the jaws
of fate’s pocket, never knowing
where the cue ball may be going.
#DoubleDactyl of the week doesn’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. Says Terese Coe.
01.02.2026 18:49 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Listen here to catch up with the launch of the @whalebackcity.bsky.social pamphlet Eco Sonnet Chain. Brought to you by the Poetry Worth Hearing podcast.
open.spotify.com/episode/1FeZ...
An #Otwituary for radio broadcaster #NigelOgden
The console lights come on; a hiss
of pneumatics before the 64-footer
clears its throat, audible from space.
Hands blur across four banks of keys;
the organist entertains, an orchestra
of ten fingers and a chorus of titans.
An #Otwituary for legendary #reggae drummer #SlyDunbar
Three taps on the rim of a snare,
and it can only be you. The skins
pulse to the riddim of your blood;
beat leaves holes in the studio air.
A taut roll as the last track begins;
nothing could ever sound so good.
One Drop continues after the Christmas break, bringing you poetic appreciations of Finley Quaye and Benjamin Zephaniah.
onedroppoetry.substack.com/p/one-drop-s...
An #Otwituary for BBC journalist #MarkTully
A voice comes through the heat-haze,
telling a billion stories of a billion lives,
separating truth from myth to camera,
reporting the spirit of a distant people,
unpicking the knotted braids of a nation.
@bbcindia.bsky.social @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social
Just a few weeks left to sign up to @LifelongDundee's Bitesize Book Club - five weeks of short stories and poems, with a guarantee of good company and no prior reading required!
Sign up here to join us:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bitesize-b...
#DoubleDactyl of the Week is a triumph of hexasyllabicitousness from Lawrence Schimel. To incorporate one 6-syllable word into a poem is an achievement - to sustain it over the length of a Double Dactyl poem is miraculous.
And how do I know? Because the Oracle told me!
Project Abeona is a project featuring poetry from a speculative future in which humans spread out into space.
Transmission 41 is from Ian Badcoe, and is the latest in his sequence of diaries recording the progress of scientist Drew MacAdmin in 2153.
projectabeonapoetry.substack.com/p/transmissi...
#DoubleDactyl of the Week is from Sian Lang, and is a matter of national security.
20.01.2026 09:07 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Otwituary- Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert
Let me tell you about my years in Cubeville;
how I learned to fail better, fail faster
but escaped before they found me out.
Let me tell you about an unspeaking man
in the corner who saw all; who sketched me
and a million lives in caricatures of drudgery.
An #Otwituary for pseudo-scientist #ErichvonDäniken
You said someday a fiery bird would return
to take you home, that its silver-suited pilots
would call you by your cosmic name. I saw
an image of your life viewed from altitude;
it resembled the shape of a man laughing.
This week’s #DoubleDactyl is from Joe Williams, who offers a more entertaining version of Tudor history than Hilary Mantel ever could.
10.01.2026 22:36 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
