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Liam Bates

@liambatespoet.bsky.social

790 followers 630 following 86 posts

Funded PhD student @ MMU (ecopoetry, friendship & the more-than-human city)/ Northern Writers’ Award winner/ Human Townsperson (Broken Sleep Books) www.liambatespoet.com

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Liam Bates @liambatespoet.bsky.social · Nov 15

Oh hi I didn’t see you there! I’m a poet. My last book riffs on fantasy role playing games and Gramsci among other stuff.
I’m also recently a PhD student thinking ecopoetically about friendship and the more-than-human city.

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Liam Bates @liambatespoet.bsky.social · 2d

Dean Browne (@deanbrowne.bsky.social)

The Triangle
I should never have written the instruction manual illustrating the 52 distinct tones that can be struck from the triangle, popular now in concert halls from here to Berlin. It's brought me nothing but success.
The joke, at first, was exquisite as a devilled egg and the expression on their faces like a sweet pimento.
You put the phony in symphony tonight, grinned back the shiny hand-dryer in the gents. Gobs dropped
and I went on, describing the point tapped just so for the blackbird's dawn trill, the ripple on a clear lake in Sweden, the squeak of gas that jets from a roasting coal.
One tone only audible to toddlers, another only to dogs.
Of course I reddened when those rich fools googled me, the search results proved it true. The hits were legion.
Not only that, the book had entered its fourth print run and was forthcoming in Russian and Nynorsk.
That's when it occurred to me that I was late to deliver the keynote address at the annual summit for triangle-lovers, my lecture on the sweeter octaves of beryllium copper - how to damp it for the rustle like the train of a bridal dress over cobbles.
Or pitch it like the mice celebrating the owl's demise by lightning. Or the ting! so crystalline it's called 'frost creeping'.
So I jotted some notes, grabbed my jacket, and said taxi.

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Liam Bates @liambatespoet.bsky.social · 7d

No news but agonising over the ending of a poem I’ll ultimately decide was shit anyway. National Poetry Day!

Reposted by Liam Bates

Jeremy Noel-Tod @jntod.bsky.social · 11d

Is there a poet listening in to your conversation? Watch out: you might become an immortal line...

Booking the Phrases

The power of found speech in poetry

someflowerssoon.substack.com

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Liam Bates @liambatespoet.bsky.social · 20d

Who are the poets you think of as citational or allusive, the kind that might allude to, quote or paraphrase e.g. cartoons, philosophy, music?

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Reposted by Liam Bates

DannyVE @dannyve.bsky.social · Aug 6

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Gardeners urged to collaborate to help moths and hover flies thrive in cities

Researchers found moths and hover flies are more negatively affected by urbanisation than bees

www.theguardian.com

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Liam Bates @liambatespoet.bsky.social · Jul 19

Saw that the strong white cider we used to drink in the park as teenagers is being bottled in recycled plastic now.

Reposted by Liam Bates

Daniel Hinds @danielghinds.bsky.social · Jul 18

I was fortunate to spend some time with Liam's excellent poetry earlier this year. Highly recommend taking him up on his offer in the below post!

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Liam Bates @liambatespoet.bsky.social · Jul 14

I’m clearing the house out so have some copies of my debut poetry collection, Human Townsperson, going cheap. A BARGAIN EVERYTHING MUST GO SALE PRICE £5+P&P if you’d like one.