Fay Roberts (@fayroberts) — Bluesky Profile

3 hours ago

Why does this dude always look like he’s about to explain to you in detail about how the earth is flat while you’re trying to just order a drink at the bar?

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3 hours ago

You persisted despite the Horrors. That's HUGE, honestly.

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3 hours ago

Gosh, what a shame. Anyway, what's for dinner?

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9 hours ago

Capitalism ruins everything: a system built on exploitation when we could have one built on resilience and abundance. Govt could work for us, to care for us + the Earth we share.
Instead, the Epstein class tries to drain us all dry as they fail to slake their insatiable thirst for more more more.

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9 hours ago

Every time you wear a mask, you reinforce for other people that it's okay to do it, in addition to the protection it provides. I refuse to feel bad or weird about it. It's just a thing I do. And I hope I'm helping others feel more confident about masking as well.

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12 hours ago

It's okay - I can just down three litres of water and hallucinate an incorrect answer while telling myself I'm right and everyone else is just being unreasonable.

In fact, if someone wants to pay me to drink a bunch of water and tell them the truth (in a kind and constructive manner), I'm down...

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14 hours ago

Stop. Trying. To push. AI. On me. You faeculent cysts.

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15 hours ago

Fancy seeing these earlier in the week? Why not subscribe to my Patreon?

patreon.com/fayroberts?u...

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15 hours ago

If you'd like to see these earlier in the week, why not subscribe to my Patreon...?

patreon.com/fayroberts?u...

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15 hours ago

Having decided to post my topical poems every time they don't get selected by the lovely @rattlepoetry.bsky.social's "Poets Respond" challenge (give them a gander!), here's this week's, a glosa prompted by this whole "are we heading into WWIII?!" shenanigans.

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18 hours ago

Sunk Cost I’ve been writing a lot more lately, and submitting pieces to different places. One of the places I’ve started submitting to is the Rattle “Poets Respond” – a weekly call to write something topical, inspired by the news. Since these are going to go out of date very quickly, I’ve decided that, when they’re rejected, they’ll get posted on my Patreon (and, a few days later, here). The inspirations for this glosa are outlined below the poem. My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. – Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen In for a penny, in for a pounding, drowning the sounds of instruments, the tallying, the rallying, the shrillness of the endless quest for excellence at the behest of a head who rules with a stern eye and high talk, storming and sending them out with blessings. My friend, you would not tell with such high zest. And we are cresting, testing the envelope, groping around for the best place to play pax – tracking the difficult, the ultimate target, crafting headlines, fed lines and by Christ it’s better to be up here, peering into the distance and bringing an end to children, ardent for some desperate glory. Hallelujah, we’re imbued with duty, booting up and jacking in, scintillating with certainty, accreting so many hit points. Adroit like tigers, we roar adorations and praise to the glory of all we survey, made bold by the old Lie: Dulce et decorum est. We are investing – we’re very sweet and fitting, grips tightening, slipping over new lands, bruised hands battling dissolution, finally calling an end to rumours of pedantry, picking up the kids and dipping them in the Styx, tipped for Pyrrhic victory, pro patria mori. Charge of the 2nd Lancers at El Afuli - in the Valley of Armageddon, 5 am, Friday 20th September 1918 by Thomas Cantrell Dugdale, courtesy of Picryl, which also supplied most of the image description This piece is inspired by not only the sinking of the Iranian frigate by the US, but also the rather perturbing reports that: commanders have been invoking extremist Christian rhetoric about biblical “end times” to justify involvement in the Iran war to troops, according to complaints made to a watchdog group. There are oblique references here also to the bombing in Iran that destroyed a girls’ school in late February. I used the Spanish poetry form called the Glosa/ Glose, taking the last four lines of Wilfred Owen’s seminal war piece Dulce et Decorum Est as the cadenza/ epigraph (the famous piece that’s incorporated into the tribute), but decided on internal rhyming/ assonant free verse for the rest. (The Latin quote seems to have inspired me to mix in some Classical references to boot.)

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1 day ago

I wonder if OP deleted the post because the replies didn't go as they expected...

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5 days ago

If you'd rather not access via Patreon, then it'll be going up on my main poetry blog on Thursday.

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5 days ago

Sunk Cost | Fay Roberts Get more from Fay Roberts on Patreon

Having decided to post my topical poems every time they don't get selected by the lovely @rattlepoetry.bsky.social's "Poets Respond" challenge (give them a gander!), here's this week's, a glosa prompted by this whole "are we heading into WWIII?!" shenanigans.

www.patreon.com/posts/sunk-c...

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1 week ago

I loved it. And I'm good with it staying as it was. And Whedon not profiting off anything else ever again.

So no. Not excited.

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1 week ago

Also: Whedon would have to be nowhere near it.

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1 week ago

Same. What with so many favourite characters dead and all.

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1 week ago

A cartoonish, probably mallard drake (green head, yellow bill, brown chest, greyish everything else) executed with a digital stylus using the "oil paint" tool on some generic MS Paint-like package on my work computer. It is standing, looking like a slightly smug cross with a pigeon, yellow feet overlapping somewhat, against a white background because the meeting wasn't that long, come on...

Was in a departmental meeting just now where the majority were in a swanky conference centre and a handful of us were remote. Presumably in order to have us not feel left out of the post-it note exercise, we were asked to list five capabilities outside work and "try to draw a duck". Behold, my duck!

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1 week ago

Palimpsest for the end of February I’ve been writing a lot more lately, and submitting pieces to different places. One of the places I’ve started submitting to is the Rattle “Poets Respond” – a weekly call to write something topical, inspired by the news. Since these are going to go out of date very quickly, I’ve decided that, when they’re rejected, they’ll get posted on my Patreon (and, a few days later, here). This is the first one! A sestina for the repetitive nature of the news cycle and social media right now: * The sins of men these days seem… uncountable, and we petition the mighty to conduct us – they signed on to drive this vessel, after all. And they tell us being powerful is hard! Don’t scupper the ship, we need them; don’t pull the trigger! We’ve turned, we’ve pointed – we’ve seen the rigger of the system; the evidence is countable but so, so hard, while we try to keep eyes on the conduct of them all – every single one, from birth, was taught to rive. And yet, now we’re asking them to drive forth the sinners, snip the strings of riggers, their rigour’s suddenly forgotten in the calls for clemency; we’re begging those accountable to ditch excuses, conduct proper searches, come down hard. But even getting drip-fed poison is hard, a larger world emerging under our feet, as we drive home the messages, the revelations of misconduct abducting our attention, while trigger after trigger is pulled, and sins litter our screens, uncountable, undoubtable – big and small. No wonder, for some, reality begins to pall: it’s all too hard, and here’s a game, a way to keep from feeling accountable, just trust the voice of the virtual, it’ll drive the hurt away, let’s play ArtIst, while the downrigger trawls the spoils of others’ talents to reconduct. What’s the score? Who’s conducting? The product is ready, laid out on the stall don’t stop – you can’t let these spriggers rob us of everything you’ve worked for, so hard. Words are malleable – libido doesn’t just mean sex drive it’s an appetite for living, would you deprive us, The Accountable? It just takes a touch to trigger a witch hunt – gold is a great conductor, locked in virtual stocks – unaccountable? Maybe not all… If you can’t take it with you, burn everything – especially the hard drive… * If you’d like to write your own sestina, you can access the tool I created here. let me know how you got on if you do! Image made clumsily with CorelDraw and MS PowerPoint (because fuck AI)

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1 week ago

Not B4 I've said my piece…

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1 week ago

I was just lucky to log in mere seconds after the page sizes post was made and couldn't resist pushing the envelope.

Call that AD4D...

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1 week ago

Oh, now this can ABSOLUTELY fuck off!

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1 week ago

I guess that's us wearing the foolscap, then…!

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1 week ago

Palimpsest for the end of February | Fay Roberts Get more from Fay Roberts on Patreon

I've been writing and submitting more. Which means being rejected more, which is... okay... character-building, right?

Anyway, I thought I'd start sharing some of the things it would be more difficult to recycle on my Patreon:

www.patreon.com/posts/palimp...

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2 weeks ago

Not long left to submit your 300-word gems to Fish Flash Fiction Prize. I'm judging and I'm reading ALL the entries, so you know I'll see your story. Deadline Feb 28, send your word-shapes even if you think they might be "too weird" or "not flash enough"! fishpublishing.com/competition/...

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1 week ago