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inksweatandtears.co.uk
Ink Sweat & Tears
@inksweatandtears.co.uk
540 followers 210 following 440 posts
Online poetry magazine posting daily. We publish & review poetry, prose, filmpoems, word & image and print publish as IS&T Press. Editing internships. Posts by Sairah Ahsan & Kate Birch.
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inksweatandtears.co.uk
May Garner's 'The House Keeps Score' imagines grief and regret as a physical space one can live within.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/may-garner

#FeaturedPoem #InkSweatAndTears
Shadow of a window caught on a wall draped with vines. Text overlaying photo reads: the walls lean in, listening for damage. Title reads: The House Keeps Score. Bottom text reads: May Garner (C)
February 5, 2026 at 9:45 AM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Today's featured prose, 'No mental image' by Surmaya Talyarkhan, enrobes musings over aphantasia in intricate verbal imagery.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/surmaya-taly...

#Aphantasia #InkSweatAndTears
Turquoise sea foaming as it crashes into a flat sandy beach. Text overlayed on photo reads: think of the origami of overlapping ligaments. Title reads: No mental image. Bottom text reads: Surmaya Talyarkhan (c)
February 4, 2026 at 1:45 PM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Sally Spiers' 'Windless Day' captures the abstract concept of stagnancy in concrete and sensorial language.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/sally-spiers/

#InkSweatAndTears #FeaturedPoem
Bowl of dry cereal spilt over a table. Text overlaying photo reads: a hangover along city roads, behind mountains. Title reads: Windless Day. Bottom text reads: Sally Spiers (c)
February 3, 2026 at 10:56 AM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
@erincoppin.bsky.social and Dr Jo Scott present us with a haunting collation of climate change as it is experienced on the ground and reported to citizens in real time by government and media authorities.

inksweatandtears.co.uk/erin-coppin-...

#FilmPoem #WorldWetlandsDay #InkSweatAndTears
February 2, 2026 at 4:50 PM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Today's featured flash fiction, Louella Lester's 'Unnatural Migration', is a haunting and animalistic portrait of familial tensions.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/louella-lest...

#FeaturedFiction #InkSweatAndTears
painting of a Canadian Goose. Text overlaying painting reads: She knew Dad kept a shotgun in the closet by the door. Title reads: Unnatural Migration. Bottom text reads: Louella Lester (c)
February 2, 2026 at 9:46 AM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Right out of January and into its #PickoftheMonth vote! Will you choose poems from Helen Akers, @samc4rr.bsky.social, Antony Dunn, Myra Schneider, Zumwalt, or @jessmookherjee.bsky.social's review of 'Grey Time' by @julwe1.bsky.social.

inksweatandtears.co.uk/january-2026...

#InkSweatandTears #Vote
To the right: Image of sky in dark greys with a hint of yellow orange light 3/4 of the way down. Pale yellow stamp saying VOTE in dark grey. Text to the left: IS&T January 2026 Pick of the Month Helen Akers Samantha Carr Antony Dunn Myra Schneider Zumwalt Jessica Mookherjee reviews 'Grey Time' by Julia Webb
February 1, 2026 at 4:30 PM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Tim Brookes' 'Flock' captures the texture of time, an ordinary day richly rendered.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/tim-brookes/

#FeaturedPoem #InkSweatAndTears
Silhouette of three birds against a clouded sky. Title reads 'Flock'. Text overlayed on photo reads: A man worries a bus ticket into a thin white curl. Bottom text reads: Tim Brookes (C)
February 1, 2026 at 10:06 AM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Kim Waters' 'Letter to L' is a playful ode which delights in language and its very foundational building blocks.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/kim-waters/

#InkSweatAndTears #FeaturedPoem
Envelopes sealed with a red heart. Text overlayed on photo reads: You're a character, a Roman numeral, an internet meme. Title reads: Letter to L. Bottom text reads: Kim Waters (C)
January 31, 2026 at 10:31 AM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Sylvie Jane Lewis' 'Comfort Queens' is a love letter to the queer community built through media and made possible through the internet.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/sylvie-jane-...

#InkSweatAndTears #FeaturedPoem #QueerPoetry
Mug and laptop on a white duvet. Text over photo reads: in day-old lashes, overslept, this duvet my cocoon. Title reads: Comfort Queens. Bottom text reads: Sylvie Jane Lewis (C)
January 30, 2026 at 10:02 AM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Interwoven with lines from an Arabic Lullaby, Maryam Alsaeid's 'A Prayer for Rima' is a loving ode for peace and wellness.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/maryam-alsae...

#FeaturedPoem #InkSweatAndTears #Lullaby
Evening image of an old town complex, lights giving off a golden glow. Text A Prayer for Rima evening folds around you a linen of mercy Maryam Alsaeid ©
January 29, 2026 at 10:34 AM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Lynnda Wardle's 'the end of small things' mourns the rituals and culture lost during conflict, the violent loss of comfort and respite itself. @lynndaw.bsky.social

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/steve-komarn...

#FeaturedPoem #InkSweatAndTears
moka pot on stovetop. Text over photo reads: no more these settled mercies. title reads: the end of small things. Bottom text reads: Lynnda Wardle (C)
January 28, 2026 at 11:30 AM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Anna Bowles' 'Bus Station' recounts the unrelenting assault which litters the existence of routine affairs during war. @annabowles.bsky.social

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/steve-komarn...

#FeaturedPoem #InkSweatAndTears
A bus station at night. Text over photo reads: a glide bomb kissing the ticket office-- Title reads: Bus Station. Bottom text reads: Anna Bowles (C)
January 28, 2026 at 10:59 AM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Steve Komarnyckyj's 'TThe mirror in your Apartment' is a solemn account of personal grief, creating sound from the absence our loved ones leave.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/steve-komarn...

#InkSweatAndTears #FeaturedPoems
Condensation on window. Text over photo reads: brushing the uneven ground the way a pianist coaxes a piano. Title reads: TThe mirror in your Apartment. Bottom text reads: Steve Komarnyckyj (C)
January 28, 2026 at 10:40 AM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Brian Johnstone and Steve Smart / @duntruner.bsky.social share a filmpoem about intergenerational grief on Holocaust Memorial Day.

Watch it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/brian-johnst...

#FilmPoem #InkSweatAndTears #HolocaustMemorialDay
January 27, 2026 at 4:30 PM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Anthony Owen's 'American Child Actors will play Palestinian Children' remembers the children of Palestine and questions how we remember the victims of atrocities in hindsight.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/karina-patfi...

#FeaturedPoem #InkSweatAndTears #HolocaustMemorialDay
Trees burning. Text over photo reads: I imagine celluloid burning out abruptly. Title reads: American Child Actors will play Palestinian Children. Bottom text reads: Anthony Owen (c)
January 27, 2026 at 10:45 AM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Karina Patfield's 'Extracted Poems' remembers the victims of the Holocaust, creating poetry via erasure of historic documents.

Read them here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/karina-patfi...

#InkSweatAndTears #FeaturedPoem #HolocaustMemorialDay
The Holocaust Memorial site in Berlin. Text over photo reads: little need be said about the mourning. Title reads: Extracted Poems from Protocols. Bottom text reads: Karina Patfield (C)
January 27, 2026 at 10:01 AM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Each month we ask our Pick of the Month winners to record their winning poem for us. Today we offer you November's Mariam Saidan reading 'A Cry' at inksweatandtears.co.uk/november-202... and @michelleadiaz.bsky.social with December's 'Love Song for Snow' at inksweatandtears.co.uk/december-202....
Congratulations image for Mariam Saidan's 'A Cry', the November 2025 Pick of the Month, overlaid with the words 'Hear it Read' Congratulations image for Michelle Diaz's 'Love Song for Snow', the December 2025 Pick of the Month, overlaid with the words 'Hear it Read'
January 26, 2026 at 4:05 PM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Annie Wright's 'Wight Sirens' is a sonically accomplished imagining of the sea bed, remembering colonial conquest and the hubris of men.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/annie-wright/

#InkSweatAndTears #FeaturedPoem
Sunken ship on seabed. Text overlaying photo reads: Claremont and Comorant we soused you in rum. Title reads: Wight Sirens. Bottom text reads: Annie Wright (C)
January 26, 2026 at 10:21 AM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Magnus McDowall's 'Seven Sisters Road' captures youthful chaos, teetering on the brink of violence, lust, and camaraderie.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/magnus-mcdow...

#InkSweatAndTears #FeaturedPoem
Dark puddle on a leaf littered grey-brick pavement. Text over photo reads: streetlights beatboxing, spitting Maccies adverts at us. Title reads: Seven Sisters Road. Bottom text reads: Magnus McDowall (C)
January 25, 2026 at 10:23 AM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Yucheng Tao's 'Blood and Ash' looks at the colonial history of Denver, the ghosts haunting museums, and the way in which the past bleeds into the present. @jackyucheng.bsky.social

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/yucheng-tao/

#InkSweatAndTears #FeaturedPoem
Field of corn. Text over photo reads: blood spread, crossing from the past into the present, Title reads: Blood and Ash. Bottom text reads: Yucheng Tao (C)
January 24, 2026 at 10:06 AM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Sarah Boyd's 'Finely balanced' captures the precarity of old age and the unrelenting task of attending to one's health.

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/sarah-boyd

#InkSweatAndTears #FeaturedPoem
Photograph of a heel worn through a grey sock. Text overlayed on photo reads: more holes than wool and 21st birthday watch that never stops. Title reads: Finely balanced. Bottom text reads: Sarah Boyd (C)
January 23, 2026 at 12:00 PM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Samantha Carr's 'Unexploded Bombs' tackles the intersection of medical anxiety and medical gaslighting. @samc4rr.bsky.social

Read it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/samantha-carr/

#InkSweatAndTears #FeaturedPoem
Photograph of two capped vials of dark blood on a pale green background. Text overlayed on photo reads: You peeked through an aperture window at your liquid, viscous nature. Top left text reads: Unexploded Bombs. Bottom right text reads: Samantha Carr (c)
January 22, 2026 at 9:33 PM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
@jessicamookherjee.bsky.social's review of 'Grey Time' by @Julwe1.bsky.social elegantly takes us through a collection which deftly deals with the emotional complexities of trauma, grief, violence and motherhood while remaining unsentimental

inksweatandtears.co.uk/jessica-mook...

#InkSweatAndTears
Photograph of a book cover. The cover is a greyscale photograph of trees reflected in a windowed wall, which has been rained on. Text on the cover reads: Grey Time. Julia Webb. Nine Arches press logo is also on the cover. To the right of the photo, text reads: “Grief in Grey Time becomes architecture, map, creature, weather.” “Webb resists elegiac polish, holding love, irritation, exhaustion and tenderness together in a finely shaped prose sequence. Its moral clarity lies in refusing to simplify.”
January 22, 2026 at 9:13 AM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Helen Akers' Window of tolerance' works 'to construct a frame' within which enormous disruptive emotion can be fit and analysed, putting therapeutic language in close conversation with grounded imagery.

inksweatandtears.co.uk/helen-akers/

#InkSweatAndTears #FeaturedPoem #MentalHealthPoetry
Photograph taken from above of two people's hands. The first is holding a crumpled tissue, the second is holding a pen and some sheets of paper. Text overlayed on photo reads: lick it we're trying to expand the tolerance -- Top left text reads: Window of tolerance. Bottom right text reads: Helen Akers (C)
January 21, 2026 at 5:12 PM
inksweatandtears.co.uk
Our latest word & image feature is three Plant Poems by @herr-morris.bsky.social. Each is a playful, flamboyant interpretation which provokes us to look at common foliage at a slant.

See them here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/steph-morris...

#NaturePoetry #InkSweatAndTears #WordandImage
Photograph of a risoprint of sycamore leaves. Many yellow leaves are aranged around a dark central leaf. On the most bottom left leaf the words 'flat blank hands halt it all' are splayed along each lobe of the leaf. Top left text reads: Plant poems. Bottom right text reads: Steph Morris (c)
January 21, 2026 at 9:22 AM