Matthew Paul

A majority in Europe and Britain now reject the idea that the atomic bombings of Japan were morally justified to prevent more deaths.

Find out more on why these dreadful acts weren't necessary to end the war in our online exhibition: cnduk.org/hiroshima-an...

Season 5 | Finale - with Robin Houghton & Peter Kenny - Planet Poetry Join your podcast pals at a table at the Beachy Head pub. Enjoying a view of  sloping fields down to the Belle Tout Lighthouse and the sea beyond and take a moment to reflect on another season of...

It's a wrap for Season 5 . Your pals @robinhoughton.bsky.social and @peter-kenny.bsky.social repair to Beachy Head to celebrate. Happy Summer Holidays everyone! A humongous THANK YOU to all our stellar guests and wonderful listeners over the last five years. www.buzzsprout.com/1414696/epis...

Poetry Blog Digest 2025, Week 31 A personal selection of posts from the Poetry Blogging Network and beyond.

Reading poetry to pigs, yellow stretchy man, the canon of spiteful literature, & other curiosities w/ @webbish6.bsky.social @lesleymwheeler.bsky.social @kristybowen.bsky.social @grimalkingerry.bsky.social @robinhoughton.bsky.social @rebeccaloudon.bsky.social 3/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/08/poet...

Poetry Blog Digest 2025, Week 31 A personal selection of posts from the Poetry Blogging Network and beyond.

Poets on holiday & more @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @suefinch.bsky.social @clareshawpoet.bsky.social @velveteenrabbi.bsky.social @garybarwin.bsky.social @pfanderson.bsky.social @thepoetslizard.bsky.social 2/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/08/poet...

Poetry Blog Digest 2025, Week 31 A personal selection of posts from the Poetry Blogging Network and beyond.

This week in the poetry blogs w/ @beckyltuch.bsky.social @saudaminideo.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @wendypratt.bsky.social @kimmoorepoet.bsky.social @billymills.bsky.social @matthewepaul.bsky.social @kathrynanna.bsky.social 1/3
www.vianegativa.us/2025/08/poet...

In honour of her recent Walcott Prize shortlisting, we've re-published Shash Trevett reading her amazing poem 'These Were Their Names' on the Poetry Bites podcast:

open.spotify.com/episode/5j2J...

Next week hear a poem from Alan Payne, who is also on the shortlist!

@shashtrevett.bsky.social

My Journey from Scotland’s Next Generation Young Makar to Published Poet Nazaret Ranea write of her journey from being one of the Scottish Poetry Library's Young Makars to having her first poetry collection published by Drunk Muse Press.

Nazaret Ranea writes of her journey from being one of the Scottish Poetry Library's Young Makars to having her first poetry collection published by Drunk Muse Press.

www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/2025/07/my-j...

Very much looking forward to reading alongside @pimlottkathy.bsky.social and Peter Sansom of the @poetrybusiness.bsky.social at the wonderful Five Leaves bookshop in Nottingham on 16th September:

fiveleavesbookshop.co.uk/events/poetr...

Interesting to speak to former Conservative Deputy PM Lord Heseltine for this latest edition...

"Oswald Mosley marched against the Jews in the 1930s. Enoch Powell made the 'rivers of blood' speech in the 1960s. And Nigel Farage represents a new incarnation of that degree of prejudice & bitterness"

'We love Scotland,' Trump says as he opens new golf course in Aberdeenshire - live updates Trump recalls his mother returning

Well, Scotland doesn't love you. Anyone with a functioning brain stem who's smiling in your face and shaking your hand is only doing it to placate you, because America has, for some diseased reason of its own, invested you with more power than any one man should ever have. Fuck off back to hell.

You could even find yourself at the wrong Wrong Tommy Robinson gig

Tell Trump he's not welcome in Scotland. Protests. Edinburgh, Saturday 12 noon, US Consulate, 3 Regent Terrace. Aberdeen, Saturday 12 noon, Wallace Statue, Union Terrace.

A convicted criminal who works to destroy democracy and human rights is about to land in Scotland.

Join the protests tomorrow and tell Donald Trump that he and his destructive political project are not welcome here.

🔥 PM Starmer Didn’t Contain Farage He Cleared Path for Him.

Reform didn’t rise in a vacuum. It rose bc Labour helped it rise.

Instead of challenging the far right, Labour under Starmer and strategist Morgan McSweeney effectively nominated Reform UK as official opposition, while ignoring Tories
🧵

Reform councillors criticised after voting to spend £150,000 on political advisers Plan was put forward by 19-year-old leader of Warwickshire council George Finch who also lobbied to remove Pride flag

Here we go: the undermining of no doubt long-serving, knowledgeable and highly adept local government officers by ‘advisers’ with fascist agendas.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

It is entirely unsurprising that the founder of "Labour YIMBYs", Chris Worrall, has just defected to the Conservatives. These build-everywhere fanatics are welcomed by capital in all its brutal manifestations, as they trample over democracy and ecosystems.

An unbearably sad statement from the Editorial Committee (SDJ) of the AFP news agency, please read:

"Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die.
AFP has been working with 1 writer, 3 photographers and 6 videographers, all freelance, in the Gaza Strip… /1

Poetry Blog Digest 2025, Week 29 A personal selection of posts from the Poetry Blogging Network and beyond.

This week in the poetry blogs w/ @jillpearlman.bsky.social @kristybowen.bsky.social @thepoetslizard.bsky.social @andotheritems.bsky.social @kathleenjamie.bsky.social @katiemanningpoet.bsky.social @matthewepaul.bsky.social @hanvanderhart.bsky.social 1/3
www.vianegativa.us/2025/07/poet...

Street signs, saying ‘Clifton Lane’ and ‘Old Clifton Lane, on a red-brick wall.

‘O Clifton Lane, Old Clifton Lane,
When will I walk your way again . . .’

Rod Whitworth reads ‘Still Growing’ Image by Angela Whitworth

Rod Whitworth is a fine poet and has four outstanding poems in the latest issue of Pennine Platform. I’m very pleased to see that over on the journal’s website, you can now have the treat of hearing Rod reading one of them, ‘Still Growing’, and see a lovely artwork by Rod’s wife, Ange.

Thank you for reading and sharing today's poem - I wish I had a Sylvia Plath Rolling Pin by Rachel Burns

What I've been reading A good dose of nostalgia

I’m very grateful to Ali for this in-depth reading of my collection.

open.substack.com/pub/alithurm...

Originally football was played with an inflated bladder. Of course these days you're allowed to go to the toilet first.

By brilliant @shashtrevett.bsky.social

Another brilliant and essential book.

A really terrific book.

‘The place is bleached, a dead zone’: how the UK’s most beloved landscapes became biodiversity deserts National parks, famous for their rich natural heritage, should be at the heart of efforts to protect habitats and wildlife. Instead, experts say they are declining – fast

When there is more biodiversity in a housing estate than in the same area of land in a national park there is something very badly wrong with how we are protecting nature
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Labour suspending Diane Abbot again is beyond pitiful. Clueless.

My monthly newsblast will be emailed to thousands of subscribers (it's free) on Monday morning.

Subscribe here markavery.info/sign-monthly...

Excellent set of readings this evening by @longbarrowpress.bsky.social poets at Novel Books in Crookes, Sheffield, this evening: James Caruth, Matthew Clegg, Angelina D’Roza, Steve Ely, Pete Green, Chris Jones and Fay Musselwhite. Great stuff!