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Paul Connolly

@thepaulconnolly.bsky.social

15K followers 1.1K following 9.1K posts

Writer Longlisted for Orwell Prize Shortlisted twice for Bridport Poetry Prize Longlisted for Bridport Novel Prize Best of the Net Nominated in the Poetry Category Seeking publishers for poetry collection & novel

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Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 8d

I'm delighted to announce that
my poem Prefab (which can be found in the link below)
has been nominated for BEST OF THE NET
My boundless gratitude goes to @stridermarcusjones.bsky.social & @lothlorienpoetryj.bsky.social for nominating me 🙏

#poetrycommunity #poetsonbluesky #BOTN

Five Poems by Paul Connolly

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Edited by Strider Marcus Jones Poet - Publishes poetry and fiction online and in print periodically. https://lothlorienp

lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com

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Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 24m

Congratulations!

Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 40m

I’ve read this in different ways not least since the melody makes the theme, death, so seductive. When I first read it, the metre & thrust of the second verse bore me too far from the meaning. But there’s probably a desperate, ironic reading in there too, as well as dry, possibly quite plangent ones

Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 1h

It’s great. He spends quite a lot of time at the start berating the British public for disliking his work then presents us with a verse novel comprising a series of extended dramatic monologues which give contrasting perspectives at a murder trial in a way that anticipates Rashomon

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Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 1h

I strongly associate it with Browning’s The Ring and the Book, which I read in the same term and adored too, but to which I’ve never returned

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Reposted by Paul Connolly

Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 1h

The title of Richard Holmes’ book about the young Tennyson, The Boundless Deep, comes from Tennyson’s poem Crossing the Bar, a melodic masterpiece. Here’s a recording of me reading it #poetrycommunity #poetsonbluesky #Tennyson #poetryismusic

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Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 1h

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Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 1h

I love it too and want to set aside time to pore over it with the thoroughness of my undergraduate years.

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Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 1h

The publication of this book reminds me of two things. First to read In Memoriam again. It’s been too long. Second of how some artistic figures - Brahms, say - are locked in an image of permanent old age despite their interesting, glamorous & wayward youth
Tennyson: one of poetry’s supreme melodists

The Boundless Deep by Richard Holmes review – wild times with young Tennyson

A masterful account of the poet’s early life during the tumultuous early 19th century crisis of faith

www.theguardian.com

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Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 4h

The thread👆isn’t about anyone on here I assure you. Indeed likes from some fine ‘shock maestros’ here is gratifying. A collection I read last month inspired it. Such musing also helps me wrestle with this hard craft. I’ve posted it here in case it’s of use to others🙏 #poetrycommunity #poetsonbluesky

Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 4h

That Fifth Door. Gets me every time

Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 5h

To shock yourself with a first spew of words onto the page is to begin. You approach the point of shocking others when the eruption has been followed by a tireless exploration of the potential in the words, when they’ve led you past that immediate but sometimes merely personal thrill and into poetry

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Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 5h

Having said that, imagine if László Krasznahorkai entered the Nobel Prize ceremony to this:

Bluebeard's Castle: Fifth Door (Nadja Michael, Mikhail Petrenko)

YouTube video by Metropolitan Opera

m.youtube.com

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Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 5h

Same here. And my German has similar disfigurements at times. While the precise word in the genitive case for ‘a shopping bag with handles’ may elude me in a Munich supermarket, I don’t struggle to tell people that whoever fears my spear’s point will be unable to penetrate the fire

Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 5h

*brushes up largely Bartók-based Hungarian*

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Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 6h

I wrote the comment in the thread below about one Nobel Prize winner a week or so ago.

And I’m now thrilled to see that the latest winner delights in that glorious anti-commercial adjective ‘difficult’

#NoCompromise

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Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 6h

🙏

Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 8h

I’m pondering your fascinating post Mark and its connections with your recently posted poem 🙏

Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 8h

Christmas won’t be Christmas without it

Reposted by Paul Connolly

Joseph Nutman @joseph-nutman.bsky.social · 8h

A recording I did of one of my poems will be on BBC Upload tonight, so if you are in the East of England, you will be able to listen to it on your local show (Three Counties, Cambs, Norfolk, Suffolk). #bbcupload #poetsofbluesky

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Reposted by Paul Connolly

Fiftywords @fiftywords.bsky.social · 9h

Wrote this a little while back on the 2nd

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Reposted by Paul Connolly

Rosanna McGlone @rosannamcglone.bsky.social · 9h

Really 🤩 🤩 🤩 to be giving a presentation on The Process of Poetry @nawewriters.bsky.social Conference + chairing a couple of fascinating sessions #NAWEConf2025 #Inspiringwriting #Poetry #teaching #classroomresources @flyonthewallpress.bsky.social

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Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 9h

Transgressive words for shock? Yes. They’re sinewy, dynamic & have near-ineradicable associations. But like a great actor who suggests violent potential, who fosters apprehension then lets it subside only to erupt in the false tranquility, shock in poetry, impaired by blatancy, thrives in suddenness

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Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 9h

A fitting tribute FW

Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 10h

In truly shocking poetry, it’s the shock of the shock that tells. An obvious pileup of ‘shock’ words is scarcely shocking at all. But when terror lurks then tears through in a Symbolist tale of violation, in ‘love poetry’ that’s suddenly about abuse, or trauma rendered anatomic & cold, that is shock

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Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 10h

A review here

500 pages of notes…

Bring it on

The Poems of Seamus Heaney review – collected works reveal his colossal achievement

The complete works, including previously unpublished poems and expert notes, are brought together in one volume for the first time

www.theguardian.com

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