@profdavidmorley.bsky.social
Professor at Warwick Uni, Poet at Carcanet, Ted Hughes Award for The Invisible Gift, PBS Choice for FURY, Forward Prize finalist, Writer of The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing, Fellow Royal Society of Literature,Thought Fox.
Happy World Bird Migration Day
RINGING SWALLOWS
Swallows clip the lake for a sip of water,
or kerfuffle their feathers as they dip for a bathe.
They stipple ellipses across the surface like a skimming stone.
None skitter the water except by glitch or error
nor overwinter under its ice-barred door.
🎙️ The Verb, BBC Radio 4 19 Oct, 17:10
David Morley & Sinéad Morrissey join Ian McMillan to chat birdsong, RS Thomas, Tony Harrison, stammering, and a gobful of pebbles. Featuring Daniel Sluman (Versus Versus) & Arthur Sze, new U.S. Poet Laureate.
🔗 bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002l236
#TheVerb #Carcanet
Bumbarrel, Hedge Mumruffin, Poke Pudding,
Huggen-Muffin, Juffit, Jack-in-a-Bottle,
Feather Poke, Hedge Jug, Prinpriddle,
Ragamuffin, Billy-featherpoke, Puddneypoke,
Bellringer, Nimble Tailor, French Pie,
Long Pod, Bush Oven, and Miller’s Thumb.
I tucked them in this box before they woke.
Wrapping up BBC Radio 4's The Verb with Sinead Morrissey and Ian McMillan. We stole a 5Live Studio. Happy National Poetry Day.
02.10.2025 16:52 — 👍 12 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Off to BBC Media City to record The Verb with Ian McMillan, Sinead Morrissey and Fiona Benson. Happy National Poetry Day!
02.10.2025 08:22 — 👍 9 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Then it's the kumquat fruit expresses best
how days have darkness round them like a rind,
life has a skin of death that keeps its zest.
'A Kumquat for John Keats'
Tony Harrison R.I.P.
Mr Cogito's imagination
has the motion of a pendulum
it crosses with precision
from suffering to suffering
there is no place in it
for the artificial fires of poetry
he would like to remain faithful
to uncertain clarity
Zbigniew Herbert
Tonight, with foxes! wordsworth.org.uk/blog/events/...
10.09.2025 16:53 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
This Wednesday at 7.30pm, join David Morley online where he will be reading and discussing his recent publication 'Passion', at an event organised by Wordsworth Grasmere. @profdavidmorley.bsky.social
More information here:⬇️
www.carcanet.co.uk/events/passi...
‘Speech thaws into life’ – read Rebecca Tamás on how Passion celebrates Romany language, resilience, and our intimacy with the natural world www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...
02.09.2025 14:27 — 👍 11 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Join David Morley online on Wednesday 10th September at 7.30pm where he will be reading and discussing his recent publication 'Passion', at an event organised by Wordsworth Grasmere. @profdavidmorley.bsky.social
More information here:⬇️
www.carcanet.co.uk/events/passi...
I truly appreciate this Alison. Thank you.
28.08.2025 22:27 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Sometimes I need to remind myself.
28.08.2025 18:33 — 👍 14 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
'When I died, I woke
to a skylark song'...
'Passion' is alive with birds (except the shearwater,its 'stomach full of plastic'). Its poems note
'The crowns of trees do not touch each other'.
'I like to think they do this out of love'.
@profdavidmorley.bsky.social , 'Passion', @carcanet.bsky.social
A night of poetry in flight—Romani, science, birdsong, and your own bird-poems at the open mic online at Wordsworth Grasmere. wordsworth.org.uk/blog/events/... @carcanet.bsky.social
20.08.2025 17:03 — 👍 11 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 2@profdavidmorley.bsky.social
19.08.2025 13:51 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
It is a privilege to see Passion acknowledged by @johnclegg37.bsky.social in the @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk this week. His choice of ‘The Shyness of the Crown’ as poem of the year (so far!) is genuinely appreciated. Thank you, John and @lrb.co.uk! www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/booklists/jo...
10.07.2025 17:00 — 👍 15 🔁 4 💬 2 📌 0
A short bird-interrupted film about why passion has a place in poetry.
youtu.be/5Y2BRnwNiXA
‘The baby names for birds—jumplings, pufflings, eaglets, owlets, eyas. The dialect spill of names for long-tailed tits— Prinpriddle, Ragamuffin, Billy-featherpoke, Puddneypoke, Bellringer, Nimble Tailor, French Pie, and Miller’s Thumb.’ open.substack.com/pub/carcanet...
18.06.2025 19:15 — 👍 9 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Passion joins his new friend FURY @carcanet.bsky.social
18.06.2025 15:22 — 👍 13 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 0
Join us to celebrate the launch of my new book Passion, hosted by Sinéad Morrissey. The event will include readings, a lively discussion, and a Q&A with the audience. And yes—I promise flocks of birds. bit.ly/3FVsVU2
18.06.2025 14:18 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0This Sat at St Hilda’s Oxford: join me & Steve Ely for a free reading & talk on writing & the climate emergency, plus local eco-poetry. All welcome. Details: www.st-hildas.ox.ac.uk/events/writi...
11.06.2025 13:21 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
What if God were Salieri to Nature's Mozart?
30.05.2025 09:53 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Thank you!
30.03.2025 19:38 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
I.M. Michael Longley
All the wild flowers of the Burren
to you: thyme, valerian, loosestrife,
Meadowsweet, tway blade, crowfoot, ling, angelica,
Herb robert, marjoram, cow parsley, sundew, vetch,
Mountain avens, wood sage, ragged robin, stitchwort,
Yarrow, lady’s bedstraw, bindweed, bog pimpernel.
I have loved your Moth Oscars. I've been bed bound with illness and these images have been such a curated joy. Thank you.
01.01.2025 23:50 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Night Heron. Nice.
01.01.2025 23:15 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0And anaphora.
21.12.2024 19:48 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Brilliant brilliant finish.
19.12.2024 19:00 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0George Szirtes has been awarded the King’s Gold Medal for Poetry. A poet of exceptional grace and depth, he has enriched our art with inventive brilliance, political insight, and a fearless command of language. Well done, George. A truly noble achievement.
17.12.2024 19:56 — 👍 39 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0
