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Julian (Hool)

@hool415.bsky.social

790 followers 640 following 2.9K posts

Nominated for a Forward Prize, Best Of The Net (Twice) and Two Pushcart Awards. Black Bough (Silver Branch Poet), East Ridge Review (Featured Poet), Frogmore Papers, Full House Literary, Dream Catcher, Starbeck Orion, Dreich, Broken Spine, Frazzled Lit.

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Julian (Hool) @hool415.bsky.social · 4d

Hullo. Put this up on the shady side for a TTT theme of mystery. Trigger warning. The impact of grave illness on belief.

The Closest I Ever Got To God Was (Honestly) Leaving The Thornhill Farm Shop

I squeeze my brain like a sodden-mop to seek-up God:
cowering nowhere
unless those darkest, dirtiest, skull-corners;
having jabbered much in disappointed tongues,
allowed neck-drop
for flowery prayer-chains,
beautiful but useless
as Hawaiian-garlands.

Life’s white noise falling silent
once:
revelations coming in the side-chapel
of my car,
nothing divine,
just a minute’s unalloyed clarity
elbowing-in.

Maybe cancer’s grubby-hands (should they ever reach)
will help me
finally,
to cross the enchantment-line.

Julian (Hool) @hool415.bsky.social · 34m

😘

Julian (Hool) @hool415.bsky.social · 4h

😊

Julian (Hool) @hool415.bsky.social · 4h

Classic response Dave! Cheers! 🐧

Julian (Hool) @hool415.bsky.social · 4h

Hullo #vss365 and to #raincoat

Double-Decker Bus

Sometimes less obvious dates
matter most.

Tuesday, the first week, New Jersey.
I watch
from the hired car
a bunting of hefty Americans leave the bank you were in.
Each hoisting belts as a well-worn reflex,
spot-lit on steps
by the brazen late October sun.

Only then were we properly there.

Or that winter beach,
a time when every photograph counted.
Here you are:
turning away from me,
speaking with the rudely intruding ocean;
a nervous gust caught
gauche
under your long blue raincoat.

I asked you the following day.

Even the birth
has shrunk as the utmost date,
the love already decided.
It struck on the jolting bus,
after the phone call,
when we knew
for certain.

Upstairs,
front seat,
shaken and lifted
all the way there.

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Julian (Hool) @hool415.bsky.social · 6h

Ack. Beautiful Hel. Throat-mulch (🏆)
You got the absolute vulnerability being ratcheted up to unbearable levels when a fragility is questioned.

😍😍😍

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Julian (Hool) @hool415.bsky.social · 8h

😉😆…😳

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Julian (Hool) @hool415.bsky.social · 8h

You should be regularly pulled in and searched for all the blades you carry!🏆

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Reposted by Julian (Hool)

Paul Brookes @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social · 8h

Hi @hool415.bsky.social Ju. Hope you're having a brilliant week. Here's my sixth response to your outstanding #promptcombo #visitor:

Brash And Burn
1. Burn Brash
Sat back barked.
Small insects crawl
down tree stretched above
inhabit hair
worn gloves
bruised brashed branches
Breathe wet peat,
damp soil, leaf decay,
autumn dead leaf dance,
spring bluebell wend
summer sacred stainglass
canopy sunshaft play
winter heavesnow clear paths
Sat back barked
canopy leaf horizon
floats shimmers
Calm
2. Wombwell Boxed
Lift small boxes wooden lid smell
broadleaved woodland
before rail/road.
Press plastic button hear
Skylarks, Meadow Pipits, Woodpeckers,
before rail/road.
Press plastic button watch
Videowalk ancient Beech, Oak, Birch
before rail/road.
Electronic ringtone.
We would like to advise all visitors
the museum is closing soon.
Please exit through main door.
We hope you have enjoyed your visit.
Please come again

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Julian (Hool) @hool415.bsky.social · 8h

What contrast. The harbinger of an inevitable future. Another classic Paul: clinical observation but with the wriggle of humour! 👏👏👑

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Julian (Hool) @hool415.bsky.social · 8h

🫵👏👏👏

Reposted by Julian (Hool)

Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 17h

I am delighted that my #poem Resurrection is published today in @eunoiareview.bsky.social

Just in time for @hool415.bsky.social’s #PromptCombo theme #Visitor & @thebrokenspine.co.uk & @alanparrywriter.co.uk’s #PoemsAbout theme #imperfectme

(Recording in thread)

#poetsonbluesky #poetrycommunity

Eunoia Review @eunoiareview.bsky.social · 18h

Resurrection

A ladybird glistens on a tuft tiny tomato in the dew spat out M&M drop of blood. Buried, he always returns. Unseen hands knead her daily. She licks rustiness, a trickle at the corner of her mouth. Her eye compresses. He calls her name. The voice stumbles her in breath clenched. She…

Resurrection

A ladybird glistens on a tuft tiny tomato in the dew spat out M&M drop of blood. Buried, he always returns. Unseen hands knead her daily. She licks rustiness, a trickle at the corner of her mouth. Her eye compresses. He calls her name. The voice stumbles her in breath clenched. She wonders what bands will swaddle the rebirths down,

eunoiareview.wordpress.com

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Julian (Hool) @hool415.bsky.social · 10h

Paul! You haven’t just sneaked in over the line but instead run a victory lap of honour! Your poet’s eye turned microscope here. It’s a litany of snagging images. Congrats on the publication too!🐞🏆

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Julian (Hool) @hool415.bsky.social · 1d

👌

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Reposted by Julian (Hool)

Dean Norton @zentinl.bsky.social · 1d

Hello @hool415.bsky.social, I am a bit late dropping in on #promptcombo for #Visitor. What a great prompt. Just a little dashed-off piece for fun. #poetrycommunity #poetry #poems #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry

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Julian (Hool) @hool415.bsky.social · 1d

Dean this is great! A lovely thought executed with vim and verve! This oozes humour but with such a lightness of touch. Love these rowdy and heckling bird folk! Charming, please fly back here, (There’ll be a new host and prompt on Monday.) 👏👏

Julian (Hool) @hool415.bsky.social · 1d

👍🏼👍🏼

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Reposted by Julian (Hool)

Paul Brookes @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social · 1d

Hi @hool415.bsky.social Ju. As I am out early tomorrow here's my fifth response to your amazing #promptcombo #visitor. It's from my 2024 collection with @darkwinterlitmag.bsky.social "Ever Striding Edge":

Any Autumnal Gusts

exhale more breath than my dad. Strip a weight of leaves leave bare bones barkskin that folds and crease more each time I visit.

His sap solidifies inside him, till half awake and half aware of the silence, the loneliness, So bored he wishes it would finish, Have done with him and he with it.

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Julian (Hool) @hool415.bsky.social · 1d

I have this work. This is another one of those heartbreaking poems within. You manage to to pass on emotional heft with the starkest language. A devastating close here…