J. R. Carpenter

cameo broach with a woman in profile

two pink queen conch pearls in diamond broach setting

indigenous Caribbeans used parts of the shell to create various tools. Victorians made cameos out of queen conch shells, because of course they did. not to be outdone, the queen conchs themselves occasionally produce exquisite and exceedingly rare pink pearls, as shown in the second image.

gloved hand holding battered a very muddy queen conch shell with foreshore rubble in background

tide-battered and worm-eaten after a few centuries in the Thames, this was once a venerable creature, a gentle vegetarian grazing on sea grasses. an endangered species now, queen conch has long been an important food source for humans, sea turtles and octopus 🐙 #mudlarking

battered conch shell eroding out of the Thames foreshore

Aliger gigas, aka queen conch, a large sea snail native to the Caribbean. found eroding out of the Thames foreshore. the thicker the flared lip, the older the conch. this one was very old and almost certainly already dead when shovelled into a ship’s hold to serve as ballast. #mudlarking

coral is not indigenous to the Thames yet we find tons of it on the foreshore. shovelled into sailing ships to serve as ballast against high seas and winds during the age of sail. this piece is hundreds of years old and extremely heavy so I left it right where I found it.

birds incoming

pretty sure there are other ways to pay and order through bookstore always an option

J. R. Carpenter - p a u s e. | Broken Sleep Books In p a u s e. J. R. Carpenter turns the simple act of going for a walk into a radical practice of attention. Written out of a year of daily encounters with kisiskâciwanisîpiy, the North Saskatchewan R...

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I’m exhibiting #mudlarking finds on Sunday 29 March and giving river-themed poetry readings 28 & 29 March 1PM at historic Watermen’s Hall in London. price of admission gets you £5 off my collections with @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social @shearsmanbooks.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/river-read...

you know I have a new book out, right? lots of birds in… just saying

a small round tin on a wooden table top. the tin contains coral and shells from ballast, a money cowrie shell, two tusk shells (one is 40 million years old, one is rather more recent), a mesolithic flint tool, a Roman bone die, two Roman mosaic tiles made of Kentish ragstone, and five Murano glass beads produced for trade with the Indigenous Peoples of Great Turtle Island

putting together my “slides” for today’s graduate seminar on Climate Writing. we’ll be thinking about colonial climates and Ferdinand’s double fracture in part through discussion of these boundary objects mudlarked from the Thames foreshore. see the image alt text for object descriptions

in London November the cherry trees were still losing their autumn leaves but also already in blossom….. with parakeets in.

a rather more modest ice breaker than you’re used to!

A white sign with black text on a Stone wall, reflected in still water. The sign says: the remains of a wooden icebreaker lie submerged.

obsessed with this sign warning of a submerged icebreaker, written upside down to be read in reflection in the still water of Leeds-Liverpool Canal, which I’ve never seen frozen over, fwiw. near Armley, Leeds

Canadian Poets Series #22 : J.R. Carpenter J. R. Carpenter is a Canadian-born UK-based artist, writer, and researcher working across performance, print, and digital media. They studie...

Canadian Poets Series #22 : J.R. Carpenter / @jrcarpenter.bsky.social @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social ;
peripetyandortronies.blogspot.com/2026/03/cana...

Overdue Leeds Central Library books returned 50 years late The books, which were due to be returned in March 1976, were unearthed at a Beverley charity shop.

2 books about fossils from 1836 written by Reverend William Buckland borrowed from Leeds Central Library in 1976 have been found in a charity shop in Beverley, East Yorks & have now been returned to Leeds after 50 years. 👇
Overdue library books returned 50 years late
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

seating is limited so if you’re planning on attending, do book in advance. #mudlarking

River Readings with Poet and Mudlark J.R. Carpenter Join us for a short talk and river readings from award-winning poet and mudlark J. R. Carpenter at Watermen's Hall.

I’ve got two short poetry readings coming up during a mudlarking exhibition at historic Waterman’s Hall in London on 28 & 29 March www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/river-read...

also spotted in my garden this morning: wren, robin, wagtail, red-breasted nuthatch, great tits, blue tits, coal tits, and a family of longtailed tits

great spotted woodpecker at my bird feeder this morning!

J.R. Carpenter, p a u s e. we walk past a log cabin. the white mud. between the logs. has volcanic ash in it, so it dries into a hard clay, she says.   I’ve been...

“There is such a clear, purposeful and precise cadence to this book-length suite. Carpenter captures deep listening, slowness and the pause across an incredibly sharp lyric” — thank you @robmclennan.bsky.social @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social robmclennan.blogspot.com/2026/02/jr-c...

thanks rob 💚

J.R. Carpenter, p a u s e. we walk past a log cabin. the white mud. between the logs. has volcanic ash in it, so it dries into a hard clay, she says.   I’ve been...

J.R. Carpenter, p a u s e. / @jrcarpenter.bsky.social @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social ;
robmclennan.blogspot.com/2026/02/jr-c...

oh, but you are missing the opportunity to see this as the hateful English anti-migrant sentiment coming back to bite the English in the ass. You can’t build a national ideology around anti-immigration and expect for these sorts of rules to not affect British citizens as well.

I was told, in no uncertain terms, when I became a citizen six years ago, that a U.K. passport was required. so I got one. Canadian duel nationals can’t enter Canada on any other passport. it’s a fairly common rule these days.

Students begin Covid compensation claim against 36 more universities It comes after University College London settled a claim from students there over lost learning in the pandemic.

one wild thing about students suing universities over the “difference in tuition fee price between courses delivered online and in person” during Covid is the number of students who don’t attend seminars these days. if it’s in person you want, please come to class www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

middle daughter has an appointment, so attempting to begin reading new poetry titles by Andrea Rexilius, J.R. Carpenter + Misha Solomon, // @jrcarpenter.bsky.social @mishasolomon.bsky.social @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social @clashbooks.bsky.social

book cover — brown background with blue river — text says: pause, J. R. Carpenter

there will be a launch event for my new poetry collection p a u s e in Leeds & online 18 March 5-6:30 –free, all are welcome! @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social www.ticketsource.co.uk/university-o...

I mean Eliot, obviously. but The Waste Land has so much of The Tempest init my mind leaps ahead

water reflecting trees and sky covering Carboniferous limestone, showing horizontal bedding at the top of the frame

this unconformity is exposed at Cat Hole Sike. in the Yorkshire Dales. and immediately obscured again. by moss. and algae blooming under groundwater pools reflecting. silver mirrors. for slivers of sky.

outcrop of tilted Ordovician slate covered in moss in a woodland setting

geology diagram explaining the unconformity between the Ordovician slate and the Carboniferous limestone

an unconformity. between the tilted Ordovician slate of the Norber Formation deposited 445 million years ago. and the Carboniferous Great Scar Limestone deposited in horizontal bedding 340 million years ago. a gap. in the geological record. of 100 million years.