Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Matt Guntrip @matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social · 3h

I found it a shock to understand the poet behind the prose. When silence came it took a long time to make sense of what had happened. The duplicity & personal humiliation I could accept; my failure to walk away after every excoriation of her sisters I can’t.
It’s shaken my faith in the art..

1 1

Reposted by Matt Guntrip

Karen Pierce Gonzalez @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social · 18h

If my spirit is going to be anywhere Nov. 1, it'll be here. Look for me near the open window ⛈️ @eatthestorms.com www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-storms...

The Storms Issue V Launch

Welcome to Rathfarnham Castle for the launch of The Storms, the printed journal of poetry, prose and visual art.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

2 1

Reposted by Matt Guntrip

Ian Tattum @iantattum.bsky.social · 14h

A visitor reminded me today of one of my articles.
This one was later anthologised in the Church Times collection of best Christmas writing of the century so far.
I think it qualifies as okay 🦋

1 1 4

Reposted by Matt Guntrip

Paul Brookes @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social · 14h

Hi @hool415.bsky.social Ju, here's my third response to your inspirational #promptcombo #Visitors:

Our Window Cleaner

speaks nine languages fluently.
Translates documents
for the university.

Someone stole his ladders
and his bucket, and trashed
his car.

Jehovah's Witness, his church
financed his visit to Hungary,
to speak to refugees
in Iranian and Arabic.

He bunked with a Japanese,
and says he could only speak
odd phrases to him.

Thoroughly polished
our windows gleam.

1 7 14

Matt Guntrip @matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social · 1d

He felt the creature’s warm breath..

Reposted by Matt Guntrip

The Broken Spine @thebrokenspine.co.uk · 2d

Something Gothic this way comes… Submissions are OPEN for The Havisham Steps: Modern Gothic Poetry. We want poems of neon dread, fractured love, haunted minds.

Closing date: October 31st

#PoetrySubmissions #SubmissionWindow #TheHavishamSteps #ModernGothicPoetry

Something Gothic This Way Comes: Submit to The Havisham Steps: Modern Gothic Poetry - The Broken Spine

Submissions Open Throughout October 2025 | Publication in 2026

thebrokenspine.co.uk

10 13

Matt Guntrip @matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social · 1d

It was difficult, checks empty in-tray, but after such overwhelming persuasion, I succumbed & submit another poem for Tuesday, to absolutely no one.

Destination..

#poetry #tuesday #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #poem #narcissist

Destination

Today
colour regardez-moi
Those raged-for accolades
showered at your feet
by sisters unaware,
your excoriating contempt
and other humiliations

Half a planet away
from paradise-peninsula
and multinational conglomerate wealth

mediocrity stands under the sun

It is gentle
fading,
like me
so tired of unfolding adversity
and failure

No courage to emulate
Hannah’s* flight
the destination is still the same

Matt Guntrip

*Hannah Northedge; singer, actor, director

4

Matt Guntrip @matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social · 2d

Post gig pit stop…
#polesdenlacey
Beautiful breeze and light
Ladybird haven today

View from a bench under trees into the valley at Polesden Lacey. Clear blue sky

View of the hedge border at the bottom of the lawn at Polesden Lacey. Over the hedge you can see the other side of the valley dotted with oak trees. Pale blue sky, wispy clouds. Green lawn in front of the hedge.

Sunlight through the trees bending over the curves of the hill and a bendy path at Polesden Lacey.

3

Reposted by Matt Guntrip

George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 @gtconway.bsky.social · 3d

Chicago priest Father Michael Pfleger: "The state of emergency is in AMERICA, not Chicago. It's birthed from this president and his admin's reign of terror."

( ht: @mikenellis.bsky.social )

830 13K 34K

Reposted by Matt Guntrip

Spriha Kant @sprihakant.bsky.social · Aug 9

Thanks @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social 😇

Paul Brookes @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social · Aug 9

Welcome To The Starbeck Orion Summer Feast Of Artwork And Poetry Issue Eleven Day Sixteen featuring more of the artwork by @sprihakant.bsky.social Spriha Kant
open.substack.com/pub/the880/p...

Welcome To The Starbeck Orion Summer Feast Of Artwork And Poetry Issue Eleven Day Sixteen featuring more of the artwork by Spriha Kant.

A Feast Of Words And Image

open.substack.com

1 2 5

Reposted by Matt Guntrip

The Broken Spine @thebrokenspine.co.uk · 3d

Books aren’t just for launch month. This one’s got roots. Still growing. Still finding readers.
@martinkennedyyates.bsky.social #ThisWilderness
www.amazon.co.uk/Wil...

Book cover of This Wilderness & Other Concerns by Martin Kennedy Yates, published by The Broken Spine. The cover artwork depicts an urban canal or waterway running between old brick and industrial buildings, with graffiti on one wall and a dark, moody atmosphere. A quote from writer and poet Jonathan Davidson reads: “These poems are a pleasure both to encounter and to read.”

5 8

Matt Guntrip @matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social · 3d

Thank you Evie ! 🌷

There’s some fascinating ones in there that I loved, but I am probably not in the right frame of mind just now.

A library book find, on renewal, so will press on 😬

1

Matt Guntrip @matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social · 3d

A #poem for #smallpoemsunday after all the Saturday highs have dissipated..😬

Save me..

Save me

Sunday
Four hotel walls
post-gig blues
Plath poetry
someone save me..

Matt Guntrip

1 1 4

Matt Guntrip @matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social · 3d

The Writer 🙄 (Demo)

m.soundcloud.com/matt-guntrip...

THE WRITER 7.4 Demo

Stream THE WRITER 7.4 Demo by Matt Guntrip 7-9 on desktop and mobile. Play over 320 million tracks for free on SoundCloud.

m.soundcloud.com

Matt Guntrip @matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social · 4d

The duplicities of on line connections. I learnt they are meaningless. We’re always disposable, because better is just around the corner..

1 1

Matt Guntrip @matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social · 4d

A #poem for Sunday. Stuck in a hotel with Plath thinking.
Taking a knife to the knots of narrative; you to the art form itself is truth...but at least you won’t read it.

Esher

#poetry #poetrycommunity #writing #writingcommunity #narcissist

Esher

Esher, post-gig hotel
your old poetry haunts
halcyon, elite education

A shared city, never met
just a toxic app
and toxic you, now I know duplicity

I accept, your manipulation
controlling each reply or post
I reject, all your daily venting
at sisters, for writing beautifully

Recognition craved, was no excuse
Accolades at your feet now
one hundred yet?
Spiritual poet they say,
dark make up selfies for awards

..and yet you called them whores
for sharing just a smile
all the while, ice back-up on the side

The darkest part of the spleen ?
I loved your prose from day one,
witnessing that psychopathic cruelty
behind your art
destroyed my faith in poetry itself

Then again I’m just a burnt-out accolade
that never was

Matt Guntrip

2 4

Matt Guntrip @matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social · 5d

Crew recall alert
Disruptive #storm detected
Evacuate now

#haiku
#ScifaikuSaturday

Alan Vincent Michaels @alanvmichaels.bsky.social · 5d

The 04 October 2025 #ScifaikuSaturday #prompt is

#STORM

✍️ 👽 🛸 👍

#AmWriting
#BlueSkyPoetry
#Haiku
#MicroPoem
#PoetsOfBlueSky
#Poetry
#PoetryCommunity
#SciFi
#SFF
#WritingPrompts

A Pixabay image of a spacesuit-helmeted person on an alien world. The helmet visor reflects the person’s view of the landscape. A golden rectangle highlights the #ScifaikuSaturday hashtag.

1 2 8

Matt Guntrip @matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social · 5d

Yes, and how quickly they forgot who was key, and who was not…this world so hard to understand, or fit in.

I know it’s an insight to a character, but that’s what the poem made me think..

1 1 1

Reposted by Matt Guntrip

Paul Brookes @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social · 5d

Hi @rfsmith.bsky.social Ronnie. Here's my sixth for your great #promptcombo #characters. It's from my collection "Please Take Change":

A TEN BOB, TIN POT, TWO
bit millionaire I’m not.
I carry my own bags.
I’m not a slave to this selfie world.
No, I don’t want your chuffin bags
I’ll shove them up your arse.
I’m not your ten bob tin pot two bit millionaire.
I’ve got my own bags. See?
He grasps a fistful of bags out of his bag.
I ask politely Do you want a receipt, sir?
Of course I want a bloody receipt.
Don’t come it, with me, son.
I hand the customer his receipt with
a Have a good day, sir.

2 3 8

Matt Guntrip @matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social · 6d

For #nationalpoetryday some poems deleted when I left X thanks to that salute & a writer, almost as toxic.

Here by zero demand 🙄
#poetrycommunity #poetry

Vapour

Soft water-blanket
Nature’s gift
all around, but out of reach
As if like love itself
Cool mist
Still sky
This is how we wonder, isolated
until light from a star
burns water vapour
into cloud candy
Raindrop kisses
waiting to fall

Matt Guntrip

Final score

I drag lyrics
kicking and screaming
from the grip
of a talentless vacuum
Beside me
your eloquent verse
where accolades swoon at your feet
endorsements sought,
like moths to a flame
And I know,
even without
one more mediocre slingshot
across the staves of limited opportunity
that I am beaten

Matt Guntrip

Legacy

Nothing makes sense
even after accumulation
reflection and distance
Inexorable
the falling grains of sand
through the glass flute
crafted as if the flow
accelerates,
in proportion to declining stock

You are history now
like a dark age
Yet how long
the shadow of your reach
like a wall or ceiling stain
a daily reminder
the failures of aspiration
or the damage of love

Matt Guntrip

Oubliés

I am
irrelevance
forgotten history, of no consequence
I am
deleted collaborations
lining your trash, echoes on my Macbook
I am
unwanted submissions
outside the allure of sensual sophistication

I am
the wound
you left behind, still congealing
I am
the left-for
you gloated at, posting Jenny Xie

Someone told me you were cruel,
and that that, was deliberate

I am
that “knot of narrative”
almost written to equanimity now
I am
the exhausted ballad
several days short of unfinished rejection
I am
closer to peace
still tangled up, in the chronology of you

Matt Guntrip

1 4

Reposted by Matt Guntrip

James Mcconachie @jamesmcconachie1.bsky.social · 7d

Mine for #NationalPoetryDay and the theme of #play. Have a great day, poets.

2 1 7

Reposted by Matt Guntrip

Brian Tyler Cohen @briantylercohen.bsky.social · 7d

Swear her in.

1.2K 10K 30K

Reposted by Matt Guntrip

Helen Laycock @helenlaycock.bsky.social · 7d

Mark, as well as being a superb poet and astute editor, is an absolute perfectionist when it comes to producing @iambapoet.com

It's beautiful to behold... or you could just close your eyes and listen. 🤍

#spokenword #poetry

𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 24d

Was an absolute pleasure working with this cohort of consummate professionals to bring wave twenty-three of @iambapoet.com to birth. I'm glad to have had the chance to publish their poems – many of which are first-publication exclusives.

Visit, read, listen, share. Because iamb is what you make it.

𝒊𝒂𝒎𝒃 ~ 𝒑𝒐𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒅 @iambapoet.com · 24d

Autumn again. Trees put on their prettiest frocks, then get more naked day by day. Everything now is poetry – and it comes in waves. Leave the chilly air outside. Light a fire, make hot chocolate. Let senses and soul dive beneath @iambapoet.com's newest wave.

www.iambapoet.com/wave/23

1 3 13

Matt Guntrip @matt-guntrip-music.bsky.social · 8d

It’s all a blur now
Her venom contrails fading
damage, permanent..

#haiku
#vss365

2 21

Reposted by Matt Guntrip

The Broken Spine @thebrokenspine.co.uk · 8d

Something Gothic this way comes… Submissions are OPEN for The Havisham Steps: Modern Gothic Poetry. We want poems of neon dread, fractured love, haunted minds.

Closing date: October 31st

#PoetrySubmissions #SubmissionWindow #TheHavishamSteps #ModernGothicPoetry

Something Gothic This Way Comes: Submit to The Havisham Steps: Modern Gothic Poetry - The Broken Spine

Submissions Open Throughout October 2025 | Publication in 2026

thebrokenspine.co.uk

17 35