Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

@thebrokenspine.co.uk

#PoemsAbout #Mouths starts Friday.

Write the wanting before touch.
Breath shared.
Words swallowed instead of spoken.

Teeth.
Tongue.
Silence that leans in.

Draft now.
Share from Friday.
Tag your post.
Use Alt Text.

February 3, 2026 at 9:00 AM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

The Broken Spine (SUBS OPEN)

@thebrokenspine.co.uk

Tired of journals that ask for poems about your garden and then ghost you?
This one wants the bin, the syringe, the protest chant.
This one’s built with spit.
#PoemsAbout #LiftToTheSky #PoetsOfBluesky #WednesdayWIPs #Poetry #SubmissionWindow

Call for Submissions: Poetry With Spit, Spine, and Something to Say - The Broken Spine

Submissions Open Throughout February 2026 | Publication Later That Year

thebrokenspine.co.uk

February 4, 2026 at 7:00 AM

Dawn McLachlan

@deemclachlan.bsky.social

An incantation for #imbolc

Footnote - The first part of this incantation was for the Winter Solstice.

#poetry #poems #spells #spell #mantra #spring #brighid #poetrycommunity #imbolcpoems #sundaypoems #sundaypoem #PoemAltText

Incantation II
By Dawn McLachlan

Light the candle
Shield the flame
Push the Dark away again

Gold the light beneath the door
Bright the step upon the floor
See the way the light now lingers
Green that stretches out her fingers
Soon again Spring will return
Close the season to be turned

Light the candle
Shield the flame
Push the Dark away again

February 1, 2026 at 12:17 PM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

Kit de Waal

@kitdewaal.com

£500 given out to a working class writer every month.

Details in link.

Please share :)

The Creatives Grant

let's make art less middle class

thewhitepube.co.uk

February 1, 2026 at 10:57 AM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

Emma Monk

@monkemma.bsky.social

So Moreno’s idea is to start to incorporate the old way of doing things back into how we plan new developments or regenerate current ones.

Wouldn’t it be great to live 15-minutes by foot/bike or public transport from all your day to day needs?

That’s it. That’s the 15-minute city concept.🤷🏼‍♀️

4/

February 1, 2026 at 11:13 AM

Dawn McLachlan

@deemclachlan.bsky.social

Hugely important thread for so many reasons. Firstly - debunking the negative nonsense spun around the elegant beauty of the 15 min town concept. Secondly it shows just how conspiracy theories are used to manipulate us.

Emma Monk @monkemma.bsky.social · 5d

Ok, let’s do this🙄

We’ll start with an explainer covering:

🕒What is a 15-minute city
🏫What on Earth is going on with Oxford
👽Where the conspiracy theories have come from

And then we’ll look at the Telegraph article

🧵
1/25

February 1, 2026 at 11:56 AM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

Joanne Harris

@joannechocolat.bsky.social

Marcel Proust, whose novel In Search of Lost Time is known for a scene in which the narrator dips a madeleine into a cup of tea, originally wrote the scene featuring tea and a slice of bread-and-butter. His editor persuaded him to change it. Proust's most famous scene was introduced by his editor.

January 30, 2026 at 2:56 PM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

Ash & Ink

@bundtkake.bsky.social

#poemsabout #blackveils #poetry

@thebrokenspine.co.uk
@alanparrywriter.co.uk

Here is a #poem

Mourn

Your vision, a cataract of lace,
Blurred edges of familiar objects,
Not quite where you left them.
The sun fades the couch,
From battleship grey to gun metal,
And focus is a luxury you
Learned to look past a while ago.
Day finds night in the usual way.
Where do you find it? Did it find you?
It only matters to you,
The man who rang you up for the soda
You didn't read was diet,
Hasn't given you a second thought.
Black veils on statutes
That have no color
It was the shadows of your vision
That made them mourn.

January 30, 2026 at 6:49 PM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

stace.bot

@stacebot.bsky.social

For this week's #PoemsAbout #BlackVeils, I'm thinking about systems protecting themselves. Error logs, forthcoming.

Thank you to the host @alanparrywriter.co.uk
and @thebrokenspine.co.uk
and to all of the other writers.

#poetry #poem #writing #PoetryCommunity #BlueSkyPoets

January 30, 2026 at 5:27 PM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

Merril D. Smith

@merrildsmith.bsky.social

Good morning! This one was another difficult one from #PoemsAbout #BlackVeils Thank you as always to @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk

Poem:
Dazzle and Decay

Bright blue skies belie the bleak,
this winter’s sad-eyed mien,
mourners, raven-clad,
the salt of stars and sea
within their tears,
a flood of memories.

And with another turning,
the world is further, feather-veiled,
the crows cry warning,
as faux dragons puff smoky breaths--

the monsters are but puny men
living for their self-written myths,

who’d enshroud the sun
for their noxious dreams,

then charge a fee
for light’s gift.

January 30, 2026 at 11:30 AM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

The Welkin Writing Prize

@welkinprize.bsky.social

SECOND PLACE in the Welkin Writing Prize 2026, "What Stays Behind" by Muntasir Salman. A powerhouse of a micro with so much buried inside its one hundred words:

www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...

What Stays Behind | MattKendrick.co.uk

www.mattkendrick.co.uk

January 30, 2026 at 12:18 PM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

Philippa Bowe

@philippabowe.bsky.social

The @welkinprize.bsky.social second place story is just breath-taking. Too many gorgeous lines to quote, but particularly fell in love with 'carrying silence like a pearl'. The beauty and deep sadness enveloped in the whole of it. 💫

The Welkin Writing Prize @welkinprize.bsky.social · 7d

SECOND PLACE in the Welkin Writing Prize 2026, "What Stays Behind" by Muntasir Salman. A powerhouse of a micro with so much buried inside its one hundred words:

www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...

What Stays Behind | MattKendrick.co.uk

www.mattkendrick.co.uk

January 30, 2026 at 9:37 PM

Dawn McLachlan

@deemclachlan.bsky.social

Time for another #fridaypoem and a #poemsabout #blackveils

Thanks to @thebrokenspine.co.uk and @alanparrywriter.co.uk for inspiration and curation.

#poetrycommunity #poem #poetry #poets #poemalttext #UseAltText

Eggshells

“Don’t speak of it
Ever
You’ll only upset people”
People
Person
In this way I limped into the future
With my mouth shut
Every step fearfully placed
On the egg’s shell
And the cracked glass
Of an imagined upset
And the possibility of blame
Finally finding a home
Until the tumble
And the avalanche
And the roaring wind
When the filthy veil
ripped away
Forever
The blame remains homeless
But these eggshells won’t carry
Witches anymore

January 30, 2026 at 11:45 AM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

Andy Williamson

@andywilliamson.com

Good morning everyone, happy to share this draft poem with you for #poemsabout #blackveils. Another tricky prompt from @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk! Look forward to reading others later!

#poems #poetry #scottishpoetry #scottishwriting

Shelter

in the veil of night
we shelter in a cave
this thin place
above corries and rocks

wind or voices
of people or others
past or present
whistle or echo in song

outside a storm lashes
the hillside
inside there is calm
I am not alone

January 30, 2026 at 9:06 AM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

Jane Dougherty

@janedougherty47.bsky.social

Good morning! One for #PoemsAbout #BlackVeils
@alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk

January 30, 2026 at 8:47 AM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

Francis H Powell writer and poet

@fhpowellwriter.bsky.social

@alanparrywriter.co.uk

@thebrokenspine.co.uk
#PoemsAbout #BlackVeils.

January 30, 2026 at 6:46 AM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

Bernard Pearson

@bernp.bsky.social

Enormous thanks to @thebrokenspine.co.uk and @alanparrywriter.co.uk for hosting #PoemsAbout #Blackveils

January 30, 2026 at 8:56 AM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

Mike O’Brien

@zoomburst.substack.com

I've just read through all the #PoemsAbout #BlackVeils that have gone up so far. I have to say that the quality is stratospheric this week. My breath is taken away.
I'd better throw my veil into the ring...

Sometimes you wonder whether Alt text is really necessary - but here it is anyway..
Peace

Swathed in black, she came to him
and sat astride his broken form
Though numbed and weary, still he felt
a wonder and a joy at this.
She bent and shrouded him in shade
The fearful noises faded fast
as his heart stilled within his chest
She took the veil down from her face
and covered up his eyes with it
Cold as he was, he felt her warmth
and when he left, he left with her
She took him off. No-one knows where.

January 30, 2026 at 9:21 AM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

Rob Galpin

@robgalpin.bsky.social

One for #PoemsAbout #BlackVeils
@alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk

The Black Cassette

she has arranged
her tape recorders on the floor
masking-tape microphones
gimcrack instruments
a massing of sounds
and tongues

she flew to your country
all diphthongs and guttural
and you, careful scribe,
unable to
quietly ink her

January 30, 2026 at 9:24 AM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

Jan Peters - Solivagant Wisdom

@janpsolivagant.bsky.social

🙏 @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk #PoemsAbout #BlackVeils

#newpoem: ©Jan Peters/Solivagant Wisdom, 2026

Will catch up! #Reading 👇👇

#Saturn #Goya #Melancholy #Archetype #DepthPsychology #Alchemy #DarkPoetry #poetrycommunity

Born under Saturn

Bulge-eye,
Mouth-gape
Puncture of
Gloom.

Pallid-cadaver
Whites and
Livid blood gouts
Constellate the
Chiaroscuro as an
Ogre gluts on
Unsexed mortals.

Age eats youth,
Wrath drubs sense,
Revolution feasts on its own
Offspring.

Embittered at the world,
He fears madness:
Firsthand panic,
Unmediated terror
Seeping into painting, into
Works hermetic and intimate.

Alchemical lead of the
Brooding recluse
Born under Saturn:
Transmuting craft into
Sombre providence,
Recasting vision as
Melancholic calling.

Black-box opacity of
Soul-kindle
Discipline.

Black-cube matrix of
Time, shadow and
Stricture.

Slow, anchoring
Orbit of the
Cold, dry
Black Sun.

©Jan Peters/Solivagant Wisdom, 2026

Partly inspired by Francisco Goya’s Black Paintings

January 30, 2026 at 3:57 AM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

DrNaturegirl

@drnaturegirl.debbiemross.co.uk

Good morning #BlueskyPoetry community @thebrokenspine.co.uk & the inestimable @alanparrywriter.co.uk joining in on today’s #PoemsAbout #BlackVeils with this wee effort Have a workshop first thing, will check back later. Have a great #poetry day. Thanks for the opp as always and to all who join in.

A short 7 line poem in 2 stanzas by Debbie Ross entitled Memento Mori

Text as follows:

My long black mantilla shrouds my stricken face - privacy and protection from prying eyes.
I mourn for you still, though I am the one who died.

January 30, 2026 at 7:49 AM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

Fiftywords

@fiftywords.bsky.social

This #PoemsAbout #BlackVeils is inspired by a modern take on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Minister’s Black Veil. Many thanks to @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk

The Black Veil
He did not hide.
That was the mistake. He wore what the rest of us learned to keep indoors, the long black weather
of doubt, the private mildew of fear,
the unswept corners of the soul.
We have rules for sorrow.
Dress codes for grief.
Approved angles for remorse. A sin must either be confessed
or monetised.
Never simply worn.
His veil broke the contract.
No apology.
No arc of redemption.
Just a dark square
where a face should reassure us. They called him strange, then dangerous, then cast out,
the old three-step
for those who won't pretend. But he was only saying what every screen works so hard to erase: that virtue is a costume,
and honesty is not photogenic.
So he kept the veil. A small, stubborn refusal
to be marketable. And the town, bright with moral slogans, smiling with perfect teeth, crossed the street to avoid the one man who wouldn't sell them
their own reflection.

January 30, 2026 at 6:05 AM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

Philippa Bowe

@philippabowe.bsky.social

Been travelling to then deep in a big family celebration so couldn't post my offering for #PoemsAbout #FalseCrowns till now. 💜
@thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk

Poem in white letters on a purple background:

You Wear the Crown

Gold
weighs
down your skull
razor-edged jewels –
your tender neck
tiny shredding
sharp reminder
to carry this crown
know your place
you the prettiest
you of the loveliest smile
never forget
beauty is pain.

You want to tear off
the weight of it
throw it into the big teeth
of the judges
spit-scream
at
fat faces wet with
sweat and desire
I never wanted…
I am not this…

Instead
you curl your
fingers
tighter tighter
dig long sparkle nails
into fleshy
pads of your hands
until
blood pearls

January 26, 2026 at 9:42 PM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

The Broken Spine (SUBS OPEN)

@thebrokenspine.co.uk

#PoemsAbout #BlackVeils starts Friday.
Write into what you don’t show.
Boundaries. Silence. Chosen obscurity.
The dignity of not being legible.

Draft now.
Share from Friday.
Tag your post.
Use Alt Text.

January 27, 2026 at 9:20 AM

Reposted by Dawn McLachlan

Raider

@iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social

Drone footage of the ICE Children's Concentration Camp in Dilley, TX (1/26/26)

January 28, 2026 at 1:11 AM

Add to Home Screen

Light up
your news

Add to Home Screen

Light upyour news

Sign in to Lightnews

Sign up to start reading

Connect Bluesky

Connect with Bluesky

Light up
your news