Bill Herbert is mostly published by Bloodaxe Books. He was Dundee’s first Makar, or city laureate, and is an emeritus professor of Newcastle University.
Joined November 2010
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3,342 Photos and videos
Jun 14
Then, Jacqueline Saphra issues a rallying cry:
Be brave, says Tove, death is round the back
doing trade in poison gas and neutron bombs;
great floods are coming, read the almanac,
raise your sails. Evil will win. Love will too.
It’s possible both certainties are true.
2/2
Returning editor (of our #PeaceSonnetChain), Jacqueline Saphra’s sonnet about #ToveJansson’s anti-fascist art-work couldn’t be more timely (link to the background to Sonnet no.9 to follow):
newbootsandpantisocracies.wo…
#NewBootsAndPantisocracies (1/2)
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Jun 14
The #ArtSonnetChain tackles that tricky transition between Sonnets 8 & 9. 1st, Alison Winch settles the imaginative territory explored so far:
‘To land on their land. Be brave. Right here…
where there’s all this to undo, where there’s everything to make.’
1/2
Alison Winch’s sonnet is exactly what we need as no. 8. It summarises the themes so far; moves back from its image-centred predecessors to a focus on text; and is painterly as well as sonnety. Hurrah!
#NewBootsAndPantisocracies #ArtSonnetChain
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Bill Herbert retweeted
POET/ARTIST RESIDENCY AT LITTLE SPARTA
Deadline: Mon 29 June
A residency to support the creation of new poetry-led work, responding to the work of Iain Hamilton Finlay, the gardens at Little Sparta and this year’s festival theme The Space Between.
pushtheboatout.org/residenci…
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May 20
The unsolicited advice my phone keeps sending me is getting terribly niche…
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May 31
Another incredibly specific piece of advice - is this even possible?
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May 31
This is exactly what we’ve been waking up in the middle of the night, shuddering uncontrollably and emitting high-pitched gibbering noises, in anticipation of:
#LeonoraCarrington (1/2)
artlyst.com/lost-leonora-car…
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May 29
The house over the road from my mother’s suddenly realises that it’s being followed by a sinister lenticular cloud/possible UFO…
#TheMonifiethIsOutThere
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May 29
Wonderful! Half of this is right in the wrong way; the other half is wrong in the right way - if only I knew which was which…
#RobertoBolaño
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May 29
Nobody’s thread:
Today we are fighting about puns in the Odyssey, on request.
How Odysseus' turn at "nobody" is a play on πολύμητις ᾿Οδυσσεύς (polumētis Odusseus)
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May 25
One for @FurniturePoetry:
Jack of all trades: Jack White of the White Stripes shows me around his first art exhibition, in London, for Sunday Times. His pieces come out of his alternative career as a furniture maker
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Bill Herbert retweeted
This Day in Buster… May 20, 1928
“Steamboat Bill, Jr." went on general release today, 8 days after its New York opening. The housefront stunt was first seen in “Back Stage" and then “One Week” before its ultimate incarnation!
#oldhollywood #damfino #silentfilm #roscoearbuckle
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May 18
A loose thread for @FurniturePoetry, featuring one of our favourite items of same, the chest of drawers, and ‘a caraco, a woman’s loose under-blouse’…
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
“The drawer must have been too full, and the under-blouse, on top, must have got caught and dragged by the drawer above until it disappeared down the back of the commode.”
— Marguerite Duras: THE CHEST OF DRAWERS
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May 18
Deep in weeks of intertangled instances of the #LifelongRenga as I appear to be, there is, however, simply this:
The elderflower
in Laurel Park blossoms with
a champagne-ish froth.
Like the cold tea the Boys drink
in ‘Blotto’, it works for me.
#Tanka #NorthShields
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May 17
The end of this sonnet pivots neatly from sleeping girl to restless birds:
…A little girl
will sleep in the cloud’s vapour. And, with
the song of my tree self, I will guide the migrating
birds back down to nest. They have been
circling the skies for years, not daring to land.
We’re delighted to welcome #PascalePetit to the #ArtSonnetChain, especially as she’s not only written a fine sonnet, but let it give rise in turn to an artwork.
Read the Ice Tree Sonnet (and view the Ice Tree Canopy) here:
newbootsandpantisocracies.wo…
#NewBootsAndPantisocracies
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Bill Herbert retweeted
Come on, Oriel, do the right thing for the community and the arts! @OrielOxford
Historic Oxford cinema under threat as Oriel College refuses to extend lease theguardian.com/culture/2026…
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May 4
Our #ArtSonnetChain keeps being differently imaginative…
I can quote Chrissy Williams’ poem and it’s already v good:
In the galaxy of the body, make a world.
Sail across it, past the edge of politeness
and shake something (not a child) out of yourself.
But then…
(1/2)
Delighted to welcome #ChrissyWilliams to the #ArtSonnetChain with a burst of #MayDay sunshine in the form of a double page spread of poetry/cartoon:
newbootsandpantisocracies.wo…
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May 4
…if you see the same lines in situ something else again is happening. Visit the site and see!
Hurrah for that and (I can say this in this case) all who sail in it!!
#NewBootsAndPantisocracies #ArtSonnetChain #ChrissyWilliams
(2/2)
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