David Hanlon
@vespertine4.bsky.social
980 followers 1.5K following 73 posts
Cardiff poet. Best of the Net nominee. Author of two poetry collections - 'Spectrum of Flight' published in 2020 & 'Dawn's Incision' in 2024. Co-Poetry Editor @brokenspinearts.bsky.social
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vespertine4.bsky.social
My latest poetry collection, Dawn's Incision, from @icefloepress.bsky.social - available here👇
vespertine4.bsky.social
"Copies of this contemplative, lyrical queer masterpiece of precise poetics, exploring love, loneliness, desire, eco-poetics, interiority, space, abjection, renewal and object silence, are now available from Ice Floe Press." @icefloepress.bsky.social

icefloepress.net/david-hanlon...
David Hanlon – Dawn’s Incision Poems
NOW AVAILABLE FROM OUR PRESS BOOKSHOP!A COMPLEX 1ST FULL-LENGTH COLLECTION David Hanlon’s Dawn’s Incision Notes on Dawn’s Incision David’s book involves a deep journey into the se…
icefloepress.net
Reposted by David Hanlon
thebrokenspine.co.uk
New theme lands tomorrow: #PoemsAbout #ImperfectMe. Don’t post early—Friday to Thursday only. Give the mess its moment. Use Alt Text. Tag #PoemsAbout to be seen. Get sharp prompts sent direct: shorturl.at/0Xm7A
An ornate antique mirror with a heavily tarnished and speckled surface, reflecting a faint, distorted background. The frame is baroque-style, featuring elaborate gold and black detailing with a sculpted lion's face at the top. In the top left is The Broken Spine logo shaped like a fountain pen nib. The website "@thebrokenspine.co.uk" is written in white at the top right. At the bottom right, bold white text reads: "Read Repost Reply #POEMSABOUT #IMPERFECTME".
Reposted by David Hanlon
mprojjwal162.bsky.social
This is fantastic see how your poem paints the garden,such a joy to read your work
vespertine4.bsky.social
Thank you for your kind praise!
Reposted by David Hanlon
eatthestorms.com
Meet the Stormers of Issue V

 Sheena Hussain is a poet, writer, essayist. A former lawyer who turned to poetry after receiving a cancer diagnosis. In 2024 she was commissioned as a New Northern Poet by Ilkley Literature Festival.

The Storms is supported by #fingalarts @dublincityoflit.bsky.social
Reposted by David Hanlon
hool415.bsky.social
Hullo @alanparrywriter.co.uk and to #poemsabout #neveragain

Found this tricky, so it’s not quite fully on topic. Apologies.
Honestly 


I can’t feel war:
it’s not 
that the undersea cables of my empathy
have been clandestinely damaged
or cut
but I understand more 
those star-bursting cells 
firing hard 
their shrapnel-batteries of cancer;
or that direct hit in the chest
of a familial heart attack;
any befuddled refugee
seems less lost to me
than someone close 
with wandering dementia.
In truth, my only life-changing risk:
were I to face 
that daily press 
of skin-shredding 
Ozempic.

I feel so unversed
to write any war,
holding only unearned ink,
my clean
and bloodless paper.
Reposted by David Hanlon
hool415.bsky.social
Hullo #vss365 and to #sonorous
Autumn: A Soft Clattering



Squeezed between two arrogant bookends,
the petering season:
pages neither fully devoured nor stuck open,
a fan of damp thumbs, frustratingly 
losing their place.

Nature’s Grandfather clock, mid sonorous gong:
the rusted mechanism of time 
prised open, embarrassingly shown.

Those spearheads of birds,
thrown and rethrown at impossible 
continental targets:
a slew of unstoppable if haphazard arrows.

A world that’s hoarse,
wanting the hug of honey or numbness of ice.
vespertine4.bsky.social
You're so welcome lovely! Fantastic poem in a fantastic journal! And Elisabeth's inspiration to boot!
vespertine4.bsky.social
"while our breakfasts turn cold

the way our hearts did

when the snow fell and one

pair of eyes wandered,

and the other didn’t shed any tears.

We don’t cry about that any more."

@amandamwrites.bsky.social in @anthro-poetry.bsky.social ❤️

www.anthropocenepoetry.org/post/2-poems...
2 poems by Amanda McLeod
...
www.anthropocenepoetry.org
vespertine4.bsky.social
"After years spent wanting to die I have come to terms

with life. Call it a new lease with a landlord determined

to sell the floor from under me."

@thejayestofzees.bsky.social in Wildness ❤️
Reposted by David Hanlon
thejayestofzees.bsky.social
Up on The Shore now, “Transition Diary I,” a poem about naming, about the difficulty of relating to the world when my relation to myself was off-kilter. Check out issue 27 for more excellent poems from Jane Zwart, Jacob J Billingsley, Natalie Eleanor Patterson, & many more!
vespertine4.bsky.social
"Instead of your crutch, I lean on the eastern slopes of Marxism and offer to sell
my beauty – my hair, my teeth – to keep the linked chain of my woman’s spine
gliding when I move."

@karenpgonzalez.bsky.social in @feralpoetryandart.bsky.social ❤️

feralpoetry.net/turning-away...
‘Turning Away from Despair’ by Karen Pierce Gonzalez – FERAL: A Journal of Poetry and Art
feralpoetry.net
vespertine4.bsky.social
vespertine4.bsky.social
So excited for this! Lots of striking and powerful poetry coming your way soon.

Thanks to all who submitted and congrats to the poets included.

It was a pleasure to read and spend time with all the work we received - thank you! ❤️
thebrokenspine.co.uk
All responses to submissions for #SelectedPoetry #Autumn2025 have now been sent out.

The work will be published as a free downloadable PDF on The Broken Spine website in the coming weeks.

Huge thanks to our Co-Poetry Editors — @katiejenkinspoet.bsky.social & @vespertine4.bsky.social
vespertine4.bsky.social
So excited for this! Lots of striking and powerful poetry coming your way soon.

Thanks to all who submitted and congrats to the poets included.

It was a pleasure to read and spend time with all the work we received - thank you! ❤️
thebrokenspine.co.uk
All responses to submissions for #SelectedPoetry #Autumn2025 have now been sent out.

The work will be published as a free downloadable PDF on The Broken Spine website in the coming weeks.

Huge thanks to our Co-Poetry Editors — @katiejenkinspoet.bsky.social & @vespertine4.bsky.social
a man is typing on a laptop that has a message on the screen
Alt: a man is typing on a laptop that has a message on the screen
media.tenor.com
Reposted by David Hanlon
thebrokenspine.co.uk
All responses to submissions for #SelectedPoetry #Autumn2025 have now been sent out.

The work will be published as a free downloadable PDF on The Broken Spine website in the coming weeks.

Huge thanks to our Co-Poetry Editors — @katiejenkinspoet.bsky.social & @vespertine4.bsky.social
a man is typing on a laptop that has a message on the screen
Alt: a man is typing on a laptop that has a message on the screen
media.tenor.com
vespertine4.bsky.social
Thank you, @brettstuckel.com! And thank you for taking the time to read them.
Reposted by David Hanlon
brettstuckel.com
Thanks for sharing this, @splitlipthemag.bsky.social!
splitlipthemag.bsky.social
The publications just keep coming for ACCOMPLISHMENT SUNDAY! Contributor @brettstuckel.com published a summer micro chapbook with @ghostcitypress.bsky.social. Check it out: buff.ly/XHKRxKI
Reposted by David Hanlon
thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social
Hi Ronnie, @rfsmith.bsky.social. Excellent #promptcombo #banality. Here's my fourth:"Moon Coins, I", about the act of washing up:
scrub with sudded clouds dry with teatowel gust arrange vertically one face after another part shadow

in display case of night. Two wells of nothingness hang on hooks await heated water of the day

to fill them up, to be emptied sip by sip, again to hang in anticipation of usefulness. My soul is a kitchen sink.
Reposted by David Hanlon
ryangibbswriter.bsky.social
Happy to have my poem "Do Not Bring Me Flowers (for Carmen)" featured here 😊🌿💚
vespertine4.bsky.social
Follow on Insta: @poems_revived 🌱
vespertine4.bsky.social
Hi folks 👋
I’ve started a new passion project on Instagram—reviving old, published poems and giving them new roots! 🌱
If you’re on Insta, I’d love it if you’d follow and help spread the word!