Hannah Floyd

God had the book of life open at PLEASURE and was holding the pages down in one hand because of the wind from the door.
For I made their flesh as a sieve
wrote God at the top of the page and then listed in order:

Alcohol
Blood
Gratitude
Memory
Semen
Song
Tears
Time.

“There’s always a next right thing to do.”

The stories are great but y'all need to see those storytelling artworks. No paywall.

Stuck in bed here since 4 o clock clock time.

A page showing an illustration from Victoria Chang's book "with my back to the world". It shows a faintly printed poem which has been scribbled on with rounded fake writing using a calligraphy pen. The scribble has lines and a title. Above the book in the picture are two charging cables which cross each other.

Reading @victoriachang.bsky.social in the small hours, soaking it up. Maybe if I soak it up I could write like this. Poems that make you say "oh my god". & tell such truthful lies. "I have cut eight lines off this poem for no/ other reason except that they were lies. Perhaps all lines/ are lies."

A hardback copy of Victoria Chang's "With My Back to the World" sits on my knees and is propped up by the little table in front of my seat on the train. Also on the table: a brown bag with the remains of my dinner, and a glass water bottle.

Reading (for the second time) @victoriachang.bsky.social 's "With My Back to the World". I love the way these poems inhabit the artworks they describe. But I also love the moments of distance: "I realized that I needed to/ return on a day when I too could rope off my sadness."

How exciting!!!

Hotch Potch Literature & Art Volume 4, Issue 2

Unbelievably, I have had a second drabble published in:

www.hotchpotchliteratureandart.com.

This time last year, I didn't know what a drabble was. Apparently, a drabble is a very short fiction, 100 words or so. Like a dribble. Hopefully not drivel.

Monster by Dzifa Benson on a coffee table with a stylish earthenware teapot and a chunky mug

Current read: Monster by @dzifabenson.bsky.social . It's phenomenal. It's like attending a stunning multimedia exhibition - but it's a poetry book.

Pleased (and relieved) that one of the many poems I wrote based on the Epic of Gilgamesh has been published!! So excited to be in the first issue of Glasgow-based SEXTET magazine in conjunction with @sixfootgallery.bsky.social :
sextet.co.uk/hannah-floyd

Elevenses and tea are my favourite meals. I love brunch too, provided one doesn't miss breakfast or elevenses to do so. What time is "tiffin"? because I am sure that's good too.

It's not even October yet and somehow my class have eaten all 5 of my whiteboard markers. 👍 Special ed.

YouTube video by Hotch Potch Literature and Art Coming Soon! HP 4.2 - A New Issue!

Excited to have another drabble coming out in the next issue of
@hotchpotchliterary.bsky.social! A sneak preview of the cool genre-bending artworks: www.youtube.com/watch?v=enDU...

Surely not?!?

Such a cool book

Amazing 😍 night out at @cambridgejunction.bsky.social seeing @jayahadadream.bsky.social and Lowkey (Kareem Dennis). Words are not just for nerds!! Restoring faith in humanity.

Wow

Front cover of Prelude to Bruise by Saeed Jones. Bottom third of the cover has a silhoutte image of 8 people bathing in a lake. The atmosphere is balmy, sunset.

Day 7: Prelude to Bruise by @theferocity.bsky.social . "The dress is an oil slick. The dress/ ruins everything." Sexy, slick lines and commitment to personal story, all of it gay, all so hot I don't get a dull moment to figure out the pitch perfect techniques.

A copy of the book When God is a Traveller by Arundhati Subramaniam lying on a bedsheet. The picture on the cover is artwork by the same name: a lush picture of a peacock and an archer slaying a stag appearing from behind some foliage

Day 6: When God Is a Traveller by Arundhati Subramaniam. After yesterday's tough reading this book was refreshingly lightweight. No bad thing - there was even some humour. My favourite poem was "Bhakti": the suggestion was to put God in a hip flask to "keep it illicit".

@sonofolokun.bsky.social

Front cover of Gathering of Bastards by Romeo Oriogun. The cover is at an angle so the picture is distorted: it shows the torsos of two young Black men standing back to back. The one behind is screaming. The one facing us has his mouth taped shut.

Day 5: Gathering of Bastards by Romeo Oriogun. It's solid and powerful. Each is a travel poem but it's not "travel": it's exile. He grieves for home, and for the dead, killed by colonialism. "your language is extinct, /a dead thing wandering at the boundary of darkness; you must/ hold it and shout".

A copy of "Blade By Blade" by Danusha Laméris sitting on a table diagonally, in front of a board game on a white tablecloth. The board game is Dune. The book has a dark blue cover and against the blue background there is a magnified close up of a grass blade (or something similar) showing its tiny spurs.

Day 4: "Blade By Blade" by @danushalameris.bsky.social. These poems show a bright, painful love of life, and each tells a story: "Many things are inherited./ Whole histories, for example - and the long paths walked in the heat, /in the dead of night -away from them."

Wow, such a gorgeous review

I forgot to say the book is called Guard the Mysteries by Cedar Sigo

Front cover of Guard The Mysteries by Cedar Sigo. My finger on it, pressing down.

I didn't realise this was a book of essays till I unwrapped it. But I devoured this book. It explores the lives of several West Coast US poets and digs up gold. for me it lit up the question not of "how good" a poem is but why write poetry? How to live & practice? And how to use poetry for change?

@nicklantz.bsky.social

Copy of The End of Everything and Everything that comes after that by Nick Lantz. Propped open on a table, with a vase and a water bottle. And a handful of acorns

The End of Everything and Everything that Came After That by Nick Lantz. My favourite poem ended up being the first poem "Ruin". It takes huge strides between continents, stanzas, ideas. "Everyone// has a burning building inside them. (Maybe / just a dollhouse /smoking from its dormers."

A copy of Gephyromania by TC Tolbert sticking out of a green Radley handbag

Gephyromania by TC Tolbert was a great way to kick off the challenge. Muscular, fun and passionate. Plays with grammar and preconceptions: "Because letting you go/is a trip to the mailbox. And to think of you/ near is to prepare a picnic by slitting the paper bag..."

the sealey challenge

A friend recommended this:
It's an encouragement to read poetry in book format. I've ordered a few books off their list, or at least the ones I could find on this side of the pond anyway, and the rest of August is looking good!

www.thesealeychallenge.com

Of course I would know nothing about such things. 😂