Liam Bates

Got to keep the lights on

the poetry competition is pounding at the door; your tithes are overdue

Speak and Sell | Sophie Pinkham The siren song of Ms. Rachel cannot be understood outside of America’s ongoing impoverishment of families.

I would love to see more rigorous, popular criticism of contemporary children’s media. Love this, on Miss Rachel, from Sophie Pinkham. thebaffler.com/salvos/speak...

Last chance to get tickets for tonight🎟️ manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/whats-on

Beautiful readings today from #YvonneReddick and @liambatespoet.bsky.social exploring #friendship #climate and #journeys

Looking forward to listening to the wonderful Yvonne Reddick and @liambatespoet.bsky.social reading at @litfest.bsky.social later today

The Triangle I should never have written the instruction manual illustrating the 52 distinct tones that can be struck from the triangle, popular now in concert halls from here to Berlin. It's brought me nothing but success. The joke, at first, was exquisite as a devilled egg and the expression on their faces like a sweet pimento. You put the phony in symphony tonight, grinned back the shiny hand-dryer in the gents. Gobs dropped and I went on, describing the point tapped just so for the blackbird's dawn trill, the ripple on a clear lake in Sweden, the squeak of gas that jets from a roasting coal. One tone only audible to toddlers, another only to dogs. Of course I reddened when those rich fools googled me, the search results proved it true. The hits were legion. Not only that, the book had entered its fourth print run and was forthcoming in Russian and Nynorsk. That's when it occurred to me that I was late to deliver the keynote address at the annual summit for triangle-lovers, my lecture on the sweeter octaves of beryllium copper - how to damp it for the rustle like the train of a bridal dress over cobbles. Or pitch it like the mice celebrating the owl's demise by lightning. Or the ting! so crystalline it's called 'frost creeping'. So I jotted some notes, grabbed my jacket, and said taxi.

Dean Browne (@deanbrowne.bsky.social)

No news but agonising over the ending of a poem I’ll ultimately decide was shit anyway. National Poetry Day!

Booking the Phrases The power of found speech in poetry

Is there a poet listening in to your conversation? Watch out: you might become an immortal line...

Who are the poets you think of as citational or allusive, the kind that might allude to, quote or paraphrase e.g. cartoons, philosophy, music?

Gardeners urged to collaborate to help moths and hover flies thrive in cities Researchers found moths and hover flies are more negatively affected by urbanisation than bees

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Saw that the strong white cider we used to drink in the park as teenagers is being bottled in recycled plastic now.

I was fortunate to spend some time with Liam's excellent poetry earlier this year. Highly recommend taking him up on his offer in the below post!

Two copies of Human Townsperson

Human Toznsperson, the debut collection by Liam Bates. centres around a heroic quest. The hero? Somebody. The quest's objective? Unsure. Utilising Bates' engaging and absurd poetics. Human townsperson follows the journey of a poet leaving town bearing gear and supplies: a pack full of fantastic weaponry, potions and prescription medication. The work will be precarious and the costs grave, but out in the wilderness for long enough, maybe we'll remember why we're here. Al the speed of human brain synapses Liam Bates poems in Human lozensperson zing around conceptually but always hold the dry wit at their centre. The poems constantly strive to make sense of a world that plays out as if it's a dream state. As the book progresses we become aligned with Bates' mode of thought. because it scems like the only sanity in a constantly discombobulating world. A book we all need. to guide us gently back to the ordinary from the bizarre times weire in. - Roger Robinson To encounter these poems is to embark on a surreal quest, where the language of gaming and fantasy act as waymarkers to move deeper into our understanding of ourselves. - Andrew McMillan Reading a poem by Liam Bates is like embarking upon a mysterious mission. You don't know who the enemy is, or where you're going. but the poet hands you a scroll and a sword and an office stapler and sends you out to seek yourself. - Caroline Bird Bates makes ludic operations, life as endless side quests, magic potions and mysterious exchanges collide with the hyper-real. Intense invention is balanced with a compassionate sensibility and connection with the world. The voice is so charming and the experimentation worn so naturally that the moral challenge and heartfelt Ivricism arrive by stealth and take your breath away. - Luke Kennard

I’m clearing the house out so have some copies of my debut poetry collection, Human Townsperson, going cheap. A BARGAIN EVERYTHING MUST GO SALE PRICE £5+P&P if you’d like one.

Someone else recommended this! I’ve been remiss

Alice Notley - The Descent of Alette
CAConrad - The Book of Frank
GennaRose Nethercott - The Lumberjack's Dove

Oh wow yeah just looked it up and sounds v cool. Will try and find a copy or pdf

A bounty!

I’m a Nabokov neophyte!

I don’t know what that is!

Haven’t read it! Will look it up

I think I have it on a shelf somewhere but will have to actually read it some time!

Yes! I need to reread it

Great shout!

Yeah any era! Consider me ignorant as I’ve not read it

Today we’re talking BOOK-LENGTH POEMS. What are the essential ones? Which are underrated? Broad interpretations always welcome

the braag opens for poetry and prose subs june 15th - july 31st

MY PRESS IS OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS. WE PAY YOU. WE'RE WEIRD. thebraag.co/the-press/

We have that on a shelf but I haven’t read it somehow, am mostly reading stuff on ebooks as I can do it more easily in the dark when a baby is asleep 😅 will have to get to In Ascension! This was his first book and I gather maybe much weirder

The cover of Infinite Ground by Martin Macinnes, with a blurb by Jeff Vandermeer which reads ‘Stunning… I doubt you’ve read anything like it.’ The cover is a white background and in the foreground a human-shaped figure made of vegetation/flora.

I see a blurb from @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social and I can’t help myself. I liked this a lot

Applying for arts funding to cover the cost of buying a Nintendo Switch 2 and time to play my Nintendo Switch 2