Ben Blench

Bedtime stories – Ben Blench Bedtime stories . . Ben Blench writes poems, hymns, and incantations about life and love. He has been published by Broken Sleep, Full House, Iamb, and Visual Verse. He lives in Amsterdam and mostly…

In case you missed it earlier in the week — maybe other things are occupying your attention these days? — anyway, I had a sweet little poem published by the lovely people @atriumpoetry.bsky.social. It's about the terrible love and fear of being a dad.

atriumpoetry.com/2026/02/03/b...

Now playing: Gnonnas Pedro et ses Dadjes - Dadje Von O Von Non
open.spotify.com/track/4bkIej...

There’s another great bit where Willie Thorne sends John a text calling him a twat

Text from John Virgo’s autobiography: Once I got to the This Is Your Life studios they handed me a glass of champagne and I felt a bit better. Finally, the time came for us to do the show. My daughter and son came out, then my siblings and other relatives and friends came in one by one. Next up some of my snooker friends joined us. Alex Higgins was one of them. When he walked on we had a big hug but as he shook my hand he whispered into my ear, 'You're still a cunt'

Legends, both. This bit from John’s autobiography will stay with me forever LOL

I don’t get published much, so it’s extra exciting when I do. Thanks very much to Atrium!

I, too, recommend this awesome anthology featuring incredible work by some astonishingly talented poets, hem hem

Downsizing – Lisa Kelly Downsizing . . Lisa Kelly’s second collection, The House of the Interpreter (Carcanet), was a PBS Summer 2023 Recommendation. She was shortlisted for the 2024 Forward Prizes for Poetry for Best Sin…

Downsizing – Lisa Kelly @lisadmkelly.bsky.social

atriumpoetry.com/2026/01/27/d...

I'm super stoked that the next issue will feature my poem, inspired by watching far too many episodes of Fear the Walking Dead after my daughter and her friend made me sign up for Amazon Prime so they could watch White Chicks, which they then gave up on half way through.

Blood Embrace

open.spotify.com/track/1e3K4a... samples some dialogue from that!

Celebrate Ivor Cutler’s birthday by watching one of the most divine pieces of television ever made.
Dave Allen *and* Ivor Cutler, how could you possibly resist?
youtu.be/6RX1fMWkims?...

Garbled English transcript of a Dutch voicemail. The text reads: The heaven is a belt in for bumpness..,...•. 111 "...... Still to it, nit tango, price of the fear, telephone contact, if you can, Duncan Jahir, achheif, not that you need me, telephone is more..... 111• So, it's ain un feder to hand.. The heaven is a belt inf

Garbled English transcript of a Dutch language voicemail. The text reads: hand.. The heaven is a belt in for abundance, you'll be talking about. Some a meton, spray for a muyer virodna, and it's spray for name, incident, yo, contact, and of maniram, from stone, and onsimisi.. Spelt to it, need long ago, priced of a fear, telephone contact message, you can..! going here you need me telephone

Found poem in an English language transcript of a Dutch voicemail

Thank you for reading and sharing today's poem - My Sister Went to Live on the Moon by @suefinch.bsky.social

Image of the last line of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The text reads: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

Is there a more perfect last line than this?
#books #writing #gatsby #fitzgerald #lastline

Breakage

Now playing: Alienbaby Collective - Breakage

open.spotify.com/track/0eLwro...

A cartoon by Davey Jones for Viz Comic. The title is "The Collected Poems of Philip Larkin in Space" We see a starship pilot warning: "Captain Larkin, our ship is caught in the gravitational pull of Doom Planet... moment by moment, we are inching inexorably towards oblivion!" Larking replies: "Tell me about it."

No reason, just LOL.

Prints of this @daveyjones.bsky.social banger are available from philiplarkin.com/product/lark...

#poetry #philiplarkin #viz #space #doom

I only look at my Following feed - just like the good old days of Twitter

Proud of you, you irredeemable reprobate 👾

My favourite Xmas Carol. Such a strange vibe!

No Xmas For John Quays in the style of a Zohran Mamdani campaign poster

Perfect!

Text of a poem by Jo Matthews, entitled "Birds": The branches above are breaking into the sky — as birds like ink on air swirl from trees to flight great black lungfuls of them freewheeling across the white winter sky, humming the secret rhythm of fragment to solid, then loosening into dance. Look up. I wonder what it is in me that still fears my light turning instead to the sharp inhale of darkness — and I keep thinking: don’t let me mess this up me, with my gaze skewed down to tangled ground missing this quiet kindness, this wild mess, this show. Be still. The sky is still mine if I want it the ground doesn’t care if I’m a poet or a mother the birds don’t care if the words fly out of me or fester on vein branches in my mind waiting for the perfect moment to be set free. Let go. Fear comes when you have something to lose. Once, I was a puffin on a cliff-face, a hedgehog in a thicket, a terrapin watching shadows blur on faces in the morning sun. Once, I was the white on the wave and the notes on a piano playing until the dark in my heart became a song taking flight. Under the light of a single star, I waited blindly for the call, for the hair-breath moment of arriving looking at the light for the first time shining — and a mother not sure if her child had survived. Once, I squeezed through a star-hole to be here, once, I hopscotched across the dark glass sky to claim my name, once I was the wind and the light riding hidden eddies to a freedom I didn’t know was mine. Once, I counted tears until they became stars in the sky — or poems: blossoming, or birds: laughing. Take flight.

"A hedgehog in a thicket" 🦔
Really lovely poem, this.
From Jo Matthews' debut chapbook, Sunlight Later: www.cathexisnorthwestpress.com/product-page...

Screenshot of Ben Blench’s Bluesky profile page showing 144 followers, 144 following, and 144 posts

New side quest unlocked: keep the numbers in sync FOREVER

A masterpiece.

Radiophrenia 2026 Open Call – now open for submissions.
We are pleased to announce that Radiophrenia will be returning to the airwaves in September 2026. You can find details of our new open call for radio works and how to submit in the link below.
submissions.radiophrenia.scot

Happy birthday to me! I just heard I got a poem accepted by a cute poetry site. Gonna be published next year :)

No it's not the one about frangipane (bsky.app/profile/benb...)

Insane game!

You’d be a fool not to!

Astonishing goal! But not quite as awe-inspiring as the “IMPROVING FACILITIES” line on the ad boards

Beginning To See The Light

Now playing: The Velvet Underground - Beginning To See The Light

open.spotify.com/track/7nDdOt...

I do this all the time, no AI or even computer needed. It's called mind-mapping, or marginal comments, or Talmud, or Tumblr, or Post-its, or scholia, or Emily Dickinson's writing practice, or drafts, or revises, or amends, or "expand this," or highlighting, or developing an idea, or ...