Bill Herbert
@billherbert.bsky.social
Visitor, scriever, ex-prof/-makar/-you name it, loser. Still seeking your poems for endlessly subdividing online/print projects: Ghost Furniture Catalogue; New Boots and Pantisocracies (Eco Sonnet Chain); New Gude & Godlie Ballatis (Dundee Renga), etc.
Another magisterial piece by @jamesmeek.bsky.social applying both investigative journalism and historical perspective to a very British crisis of economy, identity, and, yes, spirit, in the NE town of Blyth.
‘It’s always been odd that Faragism, a tendency that is bound to make small gods out of Nelson and Raleigh, should have such a hysterical loathing of wind power.’
@jamesmeek.bsky.social on Reform and the green energy transition, published online early:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@jamesmeek.bsky.social on Reform and the green energy transition, published online early:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
James Meek · Ten-Foot Chopsticks: The North-East Transition
The ghost of the industrial revolution haunts Britain. The language of today’s politicians, of unlocking and...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Another magisterial piece by @jamesmeek.bsky.social applying both investigative journalism and historical perspective to a very British crisis of economy, identity, and, yes, spirit, in the NE town of Blyth.
Reposted by Bill Herbert
James “B.V.” Thomson (1834–1882) – poet, journalist, translator, anarchist, atheist – was born #OTD, 23 Nov, in Port Glasgow. Best-known for his long poem THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT, he influenced TS Eliot & is seen as a progenitor of #Modernism
#poetry
1/4
psychogeographicreview.com/the-city-of-...
#poetry
1/4
psychogeographicreview.com/the-city-of-...
The City of Dreadful Night
James Thomson was a Scottish-born poet, atheist and anarchist. He struggled with depression, insomnia and alcohol-abuse throughout his short life and his work frequently reflected the bleakness and…
psychogeographicreview.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:48 PM
James “B.V.” Thomson (1834–1882) – poet, journalist, translator, anarchist, atheist – was born #OTD, 23 Nov, in Port Glasgow. Best-known for his long poem THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT, he influenced TS Eliot & is seen as a progenitor of #Modernism
#poetry
1/4
psychogeographicreview.com/the-city-of-...
#poetry
1/4
psychogeographicreview.com/the-city-of-...
On Valentine’s Day #LindaFrance began our #EcoSonnetChain for which 14 poets each wrote a sonnet linked by last & 1st lines.
She said, ‘Our chain aims to embody the Amazonian ethic of mutirão – collective action based on the understanding everything is connected to everything else.’
(1/3)
She said, ‘Our chain aims to embody the Amazonian ethic of mutirão – collective action based on the understanding everything is connected to everything else.’
(1/3)
November 21, 2025 at 3:05 PM
On Valentine’s Day #LindaFrance began our #EcoSonnetChain for which 14 poets each wrote a sonnet linked by last & 1st lines.
She said, ‘Our chain aims to embody the Amazonian ethic of mutirão – collective action based on the understanding everything is connected to everything else.’
(1/3)
She said, ‘Our chain aims to embody the Amazonian ethic of mutirão – collective action based on the understanding everything is connected to everything else.’
(1/3)
Delighted to welcome Fiona Benson to the Ghost Furniture Catalogue with a particularly splendid collage:
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/11/18/f...
#FionaBenson #GhostFurnitureCatalogue #Collage
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/11/18/f...
#FionaBenson #GhostFurnitureCatalogue #Collage
Fiona Benson: Collage
Fiona Benson’s books are Bright Travellers, Vertigo and Ghost, Ephemeron, and Midden Witch. She lives in mid-Devon with her husbands and their two daughters.
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
November 18, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Delighted to welcome Fiona Benson to the Ghost Furniture Catalogue with a particularly splendid collage:
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/11/18/f...
#FionaBenson #GhostFurnitureCatalogue #Collage
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/11/18/f...
#FionaBenson #GhostFurnitureCatalogue #Collage
I'll be taking part in 2 literary events in the #Dundee area this week.
The 1st has cropped up at rather short notice for me tho it's been planned for ages.
It’s the launch on Weds for the #WyvernPoets' #McGonagall pamphlet, which I have a couple of poems in:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poetic-gem...
The 1st has cropped up at rather short notice for me tho it's been planned for ages.
It’s the launch on Weds for the #WyvernPoets' #McGonagall pamphlet, which I have a couple of poems in:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poetic-gem...
Poetic Gems for Topaz: Verses for the Bicentenary of McGonagall
The Wyvern Poets will share their verses written to celebrate the life, works and legacy of William Topaz McGonagall.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 17, 2025 at 4:38 PM
I'll be taking part in 2 literary events in the #Dundee area this week.
The 1st has cropped up at rather short notice for me tho it's been planned for ages.
It’s the launch on Weds for the #WyvernPoets' #McGonagall pamphlet, which I have a couple of poems in:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poetic-gem...
The 1st has cropped up at rather short notice for me tho it's been planned for ages.
It’s the launch on Weds for the #WyvernPoets' #McGonagall pamphlet, which I have a couple of poems in:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poetic-gem...
Reposted by Bill Herbert
'Shouting from Cupboards', a title for my yet uncompleted collection.
November 12, 2025 at 8:47 AM
'Shouting from Cupboards', a title for my yet uncompleted collection.
This week’s post is from Tamsin Hopkins, and features that monster in the cupboard - you know the one. (We all know the one. We just don’t like to talk about it.)
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/11/10/t...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/11/10/t...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
Tamsin Hopkins: Notes from a Cupboard
When I came to this windowless place,I knew exactly what I wanted to say.But really it’s all just shouting in cupboards.Listening for echoes of myself. Some days I shout back.Some days I lock the d…
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
November 11, 2025 at 11:33 AM
This week’s post is from Tamsin Hopkins, and features that monster in the cupboard - you know the one. (We all know the one. We just don’t like to talk about it.)
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/11/10/t...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/11/10/t...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
Reposted by Bill Herbert
Poetic Gems for Topaz: Verses for the Bicentenary of McGonagall
19 Nov, Dundee – free, ticketed
The Wyvern Poets will celebrate the life, works & legacy of William Topaz McGonagall, which have spread far beyond the city he called home
#C19th #poetry
1/4
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poetic-gem...
19 Nov, Dundee – free, ticketed
The Wyvern Poets will celebrate the life, works & legacy of William Topaz McGonagall, which have spread far beyond the city he called home
#C19th #poetry
1/4
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poetic-gem...
Poetic Gems for Topaz: Verses for the Bicentenary of McGonagall
The Wyvern Poets will share their verses written to celebrate the life, works and legacy of William Topaz McGonagall.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Poetic Gems for Topaz: Verses for the Bicentenary of McGonagall
19 Nov, Dundee – free, ticketed
The Wyvern Poets will celebrate the life, works & legacy of William Topaz McGonagall, which have spread far beyond the city he called home
#C19th #poetry
1/4
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poetic-gem...
19 Nov, Dundee – free, ticketed
The Wyvern Poets will celebrate the life, works & legacy of William Topaz McGonagall, which have spread far beyond the city he called home
#C19th #poetry
1/4
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poetic-gem...
Delighted to welcome Julia Bird’s silver pig pin cushion to the Catalogue - wait, what’s that you say, Julia? It’s haunted?!?
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/11/03/j...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/11/03/j...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
Julia Bird: The Silver Pig
My grandma’s sister had a silver pigand worked up at the house and once she sawa ghost, my grandma’s older sister kepther pig with china dolls and photo framesand cooked for Lord and Lady X and saw…
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
November 4, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Delighted to welcome Julia Bird’s silver pig pin cushion to the Catalogue - wait, what’s that you say, Julia? It’s haunted?!?
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/11/03/j...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/11/03/j...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
From @tomjenksuk.bsky.social’s elegiac sequence, ‘Mum & Dad’, we are delighted to display this wardrobe, excellent for suits, jackets, and concealing yourself within*
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/t...
*Narnia not included.
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/t...
*Narnia not included.
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
Tom Jenks: from ‘Mum & Dad’
‘Exciting opportunities make me tired’ Dad complains,‘like board games, opera, or the countryside.’Dad just wants to drink Tizer and remember things,like when the nuns learned to roller skateor the…
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
October 28, 2025 at 12:24 PM
From @tomjenksuk.bsky.social’s elegiac sequence, ‘Mum & Dad’, we are delighted to display this wardrobe, excellent for suits, jackets, and concealing yourself within*
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/t...
*Narnia not included.
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/t...
*Narnia not included.
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
There's a new kitchen table in town, says Gill Learner, and it is the talk of said urban area.
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/10/20/g...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue (1/2)
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/10/20/g...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue (1/2)
Gill Learner: A new kitchen table
Gill Learner’s poetry has been widely published and won several awards. Her third collection was Change (Two Rivers Press, 2021). More details at
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
October 25, 2025 at 4:16 PM
There's a new kitchen table in town, says Gill Learner, and it is the talk of said urban area.
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/10/20/g...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue (1/2)
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/10/20/g...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue (1/2)
Like that noted admirer of carpets, Walter Wall, we are terribly keen on floor coverings, us. We are therefore delighted by how well Elena Brake’s poem about her home town, Axminster, fits into the #GhostFurnitureCatalogue:
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/10/14/e...
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/10/14/e...
Elena Brake: Where They Make Carpets
My town is a carpeted town paths underlaid, edges trimmed rolls of royal fabric spin over looms, spill repeated patterns weave bridges over rivers tuck tunnels under carriageways in and under out a…
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
October 14, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Like that noted admirer of carpets, Walter Wall, we are terribly keen on floor coverings, us. We are therefore delighted by how well Elena Brake’s poem about her home town, Axminster, fits into the #GhostFurnitureCatalogue:
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/10/14/e...
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/10/14/e...
If you sell a haunted house, in what sense is the ghost ‘free’? Benjamin Brake puts in his survey:
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/10/06/b...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/10/06/b...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
Benjamin Brake: Observations of a Haunted House
The weather was wet and mild,following a period of similar weather,the property was occupied and furnished.The client was present.The ghost was out at the time.To the front, there is a steep garden…
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
October 7, 2025 at 10:41 AM
If you sell a haunted house, in what sense is the ghost ‘free’? Benjamin Brake puts in his survey:
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/10/06/b...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/10/06/b...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
One of the items we love most in the #GhostFurnitureCatalogue is that piece of furniture which, unnoticed and seemingly uncared-for, simply gets on with its task of bearing, preparing, cleaning, preserving, or containing. (1/2)
September 30, 2025 at 4:37 PM
One of the items we love most in the #GhostFurnitureCatalogue is that piece of furniture which, unnoticed and seemingly uncared-for, simply gets on with its task of bearing, preparing, cleaning, preserving, or containing. (1/2)
Reposted by Bill Herbert
‘it's easy to imagine The Lives of Z joining the likes of Christensen's alphabet (1981) as an essential text ecopoetry for years to come‘
Wonderful review of ‘Lives of Z’ by @oliviamcc.bsky.social @pavilionpoetry.bsky.social in this issue of Poetry Review
Wonderful review of ‘Lives of Z’ by @oliviamcc.bsky.social @pavilionpoetry.bsky.social in this issue of Poetry Review
September 28, 2025 at 6:08 PM
‘it's easy to imagine The Lives of Z joining the likes of Christensen's alphabet (1981) as an essential text ecopoetry for years to come‘
Wonderful review of ‘Lives of Z’ by @oliviamcc.bsky.social @pavilionpoetry.bsky.social in this issue of Poetry Review
Wonderful review of ‘Lives of Z’ by @oliviamcc.bsky.social @pavilionpoetry.bsky.social in this issue of Poetry Review
Reposted by Bill Herbert
Free tickets are still available for our online launch, taking place this Thursday at 6pm!
www.eventbrite.com/e/online-boo...
www.eventbrite.com/e/online-boo...
September 23, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Free tickets are still available for our online launch, taking place this Thursday at 6pm!
www.eventbrite.com/e/online-boo...
www.eventbrite.com/e/online-boo...
It’s Double Collage Monday! Jay Morton’s portraits of her son and partner both complement each other and contrast, right down to the square window/round window framing:
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/09/22/t...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/09/22/t...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
Jay Morton: Two Collages
Jay Morton is a Director at Bell Phillips Architects, architect and political thinker. Founder of Architects for Labour and host of the Architects for Change podcast, she explores how design and po…
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
September 22, 2025 at 4:23 PM
It’s Double Collage Monday! Jay Morton’s portraits of her son and partner both complement each other and contrast, right down to the square window/round window framing:
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/09/22/t...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/09/22/t...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
Welcome back @annermacaulay.bsky.social with a poem re that key Scottish kitchen implement, the spirtle, also used for unlocking doors in the memory. As she says, ‘It conjures my Dad at the Rayburn every morning’.
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/09/15/a...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue (1/2)
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/09/15/a...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue (1/2)
Anne Macaulay: Spirtle
Anne Macaulay is a London Scot who came late to poetry when she retired from education. Her poetry and reviews have been published in magazines, print and online, and in anthologies, including one…
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
September 15, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Welcome back @annermacaulay.bsky.social with a poem re that key Scottish kitchen implement, the spirtle, also used for unlocking doors in the memory. As she says, ‘It conjures my Dad at the Rayburn every morning’.
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/09/15/a...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue (1/2)
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/09/15/a...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue (1/2)
Collage, mes braves - or indeed ragazzi: it’s Monday, and so it’s time to post this ghost of a house by Andrea Albanese.
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/09/08/c...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/09/08/c...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
Collage: Andrea Albanese
‘I wanted to use textures in unexpected ways, even down to a single line of text. I wanted to create something that could intrigue people while also making them smile. I chose colours that could be…
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
September 8, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Collage, mes braves - or indeed ragazzi: it’s Monday, and so it’s time to post this ghost of a house by Andrea Albanese.
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/09/08/c...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/09/08/c...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue
Let the record show that the record shows, says #SeanOBrien, or so it says here:
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/09/01/s...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue @picadorbooks.bsky.social
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/09/01/s...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue @picadorbooks.bsky.social
Sean O’Brien: For the Record
(for Roy Fisher) Sean O’Brien’s twelfth collection, The Bonfire Party, will be published in January 2026 by Picador. Other recent work includes a book of supernatural tales The Long Gla…
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
September 1, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Let the record show that the record shows, says #SeanOBrien, or so it says here:
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/09/01/s...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue @picadorbooks.bsky.social
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/09/01/s...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue @picadorbooks.bsky.social
Here’s #LindaFrance’s generous and thought-provoking post on the #EcoSonnetChain on her Substack. As she says:
‘Our chain has a cinematic quality – each individual sonnet a scene, directed by another eye.’
open.substack.com/pub/lindafra...
‘Our chain has a cinematic quality – each individual sonnet a scene, directed by another eye.’
open.substack.com/pub/lindafra...
Holy Corona!
...It's an eco-sonnet chain
open.substack.com
September 1, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Here’s #LindaFrance’s generous and thought-provoking post on the #EcoSonnetChain on her Substack. As she says:
‘Our chain has a cinematic quality – each individual sonnet a scene, directed by another eye.’
open.substack.com/pub/lindafra...
‘Our chain has a cinematic quality – each individual sonnet a scene, directed by another eye.’
open.substack.com/pub/lindafra...
As #Satie gleefully remarks, ‘Anyone will tell you that I am not a musician. They are right... The first time I used a phonoscope, I examined a middling-sized B flat. I can assure you, I have never seen anything more revolting. I called my servant to have him look.’ (1/2)
August 28, 2025 at 9:51 PM
As #Satie gleefully remarks, ‘Anyone will tell you that I am not a musician. They are right... The first time I used a phonoscope, I examined a middling-sized B flat. I can assure you, I have never seen anything more revolting. I called my servant to have him look.’ (1/2)
A-furniture haunting we would have gone on Monday, but we forgot to charge our psychokinetic energy meter or something. Fortunately, here's an entity #DianeCockburn detected in the old disused warehouse:
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/08/28/d...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue #Ghostbusters
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/08/28/d...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue #Ghostbusters
Diane Cockburn: Disused Warehouse
The hungry ghost strolls in buckled silk, seeking sherbet,tripping up over demilunes with 25 guinea labels.She’s hungry for toppings, anxious over endings.Heart rot hurts her, but those snapped com…
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com
August 28, 2025 at 5:24 PM
A-furniture haunting we would have gone on Monday, but we forgot to charge our psychokinetic energy meter or something. Fortunately, here's an entity #DianeCockburn detected in the old disused warehouse:
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/08/28/d...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue #Ghostbusters
ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/08/28/d...
#GhostFurnitureCatalogue #Ghostbusters
As the old mnemonic goes, ESCDAC (Every Sonnet Chain Deserves A Crown), and the Eco Chain has acquired an excellent example thanks to the brilliance of its co-editor, #LindaFrance. Read it here:
newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2025/08/28/e...
#EcoSonnetChain 15/14
newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2025/08/28/e...
#EcoSonnetChain 15/14
Eco Sonnet Chain Crown – Linda France
despite the thing beginning to unravel, she knowsherself, while we’ve ceased to sing her name,fall to the ground, weep that darkness has come,time sifting through our fingers, a thrum of light.rave…
newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com
August 28, 2025 at 5:11 PM
As the old mnemonic goes, ESCDAC (Every Sonnet Chain Deserves A Crown), and the Eco Chain has acquired an excellent example thanks to the brilliance of its co-editor, #LindaFrance. Read it here:
newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2025/08/28/e...
#EcoSonnetChain 15/14
newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2025/08/28/e...
#EcoSonnetChain 15/14
Reposted by Bill Herbert
Today is the perfect Bank Holiday Sunday to lose yourself in poetry and Geraldine Clarkson writes the stuff damn well.
August 24, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Today is the perfect Bank Holiday Sunday to lose yourself in poetry and Geraldine Clarkson writes the stuff damn well.