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@sunkernplus.bsky.social

#sealeychallenge late day 7: touson shimazaki's "nige-mizu" is .a parody of a hymn by phoebe brown and an expression that feels genuine in a fear that one's love for another person is inherently sinful, that one's desires make them broken. i know how this feels and that's why i resonate with it

image description: a portion of the poem "nige-mizu" by touson shimazaki translated into english. black text on yellow background reads:

"Nige-Mizu"
"(from Young Herbs)"

"As twilight settles on the grass
I pause, and so it seems,
am overcome a while and pass
into a world of dreams.

And soon the tears begin to flow.
I stand around the flowers;
a lover, you alone can know
the secret that is ours.

I think of how our love has fared.
Our love is sinful, yes." this portion of the poem ends here. end image description

image description: a portion of the poem "nige-mizu" by touson shimazaki translated into english. black text on yellow background reads:

"And yet the dangers that we dared
were lovely, nonetheless.

It comes to this: by work and prayer,
by prayer and work to win
release from guilt and worldly care;
forgiveness for my sin.

And one day, hand in hand at last,
we'll gladly walk ahead,
however threatening the mist,
however dark the dread." the poem ends there. end image description

October 12, 2025 at 1:21 PM Everybody can reply

2 likes

1 2

june/junius @ restore eslam's account

@sunkernplus.bsky.social

#sealeychallenge late day 6: yet another fascinating louise bogan poem, medusa tells of a horrific scene where a speaker of unknown gender comes to the mouth of a cave and is frozen by medusa herself. the attention to word choice really amps up the horror, which bogan is really good at conveying.

image description: the poem "medusa" by louise bogan. the poem reads:

"Medusa"

"Louise Bogan" "1897-1970"

"I had come to the house, in a cave of trees,
Facing a sheer sky.
Everything moved,--a bell hung ready to strike,
Sun and reflection wheeled by.

When the bare eyes were before me
And the hissing hair,
Held up at a window, seen through a door.
The stiff bald eyes, the serpents on the forehead
Formed in the air.

This is a dead scene forever now.
Nothing will ever stir.
The end will never brighten it more than this,
Nor the rain blur.

The water will always fall, and will not fall,
And the tipped bell make no sound.
The grass will always be growing for hay
Deep on the ground.

And I shall stand here like a shadow
Under the great balanced day,
My eyes on the yellow dust, that was lifting in the wind,
And does not drift away." the poem ends there.

below the poem reads "This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on July 14, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets." end image description

October 12, 2025 at 12:58 PM Everybody can reply

2 likes

1 2

Vikki C.

@vikkicwrites.bsky.social

Beyond grateful to @susanlleary.bsky.social for this post on WHERE SANDS RUN FINEST for Day 31 of the #SealeyChallenge.

Thank you for the love and all your support, Susan! 💙

@darkwinterlitmag.bsky.social
@sealeychallenge.bsky.social

#poetrycommunity

Susan L. Leary @susanlleary.bsky.social · Sep 1

Vikki C. 💙

from WHERE SANDS RUN FINEST (DarkWinter Press)

Day 31 - #SealeyChallenge

@vikkicwrites.bsky.social
@darkwinterlitmag.bsky.social
@sealeychallenge.bsky.social

Beyond The Knowing

Is it this world or the next?
Or the blue-green marble
held out in a child's open palm?

How pristine light passes through
and leaves as something boundless?

I see her pupil dilate with what must be wonder
— a constellated night no god has framed.

Today, we learn how small things hold an entire universe.
She is looking at me, through what men say is not the earth.
And I am looking back — just to be saved.

September 1, 2025 at 5:48 PM Everybody can reply

5 reposts 22 likes

2 5 22

Susan L. Leary

@susanlleary.bsky.social

Vikki C. 💙

from WHERE SANDS RUN FINEST (DarkWinter Press)

Day 31 - #SealeyChallenge

@vikkicwrites.bsky.social
@darkwinterlitmag.bsky.social
@sealeychallenge.bsky.social

September 1, 2025 at 5:24 PM Everybody can reply

5 reposts 1 quotes 19 likes

1 5 19

june/junius @ restore eslam's account

@sunkernplus.bsky.social

#sealeychallenge late day 1: adage by daphne gottlieb is a poem about vulnerability disguised as a fractured piece of sayings. The fracturing of the sayings, culminating in "kill two. Save nine. Bless the sow purse, the silk ear. Make hay. Shine." Examines vulnerability in folk sayings

image description: the poem "adage" by daphne gottlieb. this portion of the poem reads:

"Unbeing dead
isn't being alive."
"-- ee cummings"

"Don't borrow
spilt milk.

Beggars don't have another
shoe to drop.

The pot's calling
the early bird.

Don't count
your chickens before

pigs fly, before pearls.
Don't call the sow's ear.

Clothes make
others. A rolling boy

gathers. One man washes
another. Unto. Others." this portion of the poem ends here. end image description

image description: the poem "adage" by daphne gottlieb, highlighted in yellow. this portion of the poem reads:

Take the boy
out of the country. Kill

two birds. Save nine. Walk
a mile. Unto. It is better

to give. It is better to grieve.
It is better to grift.

Receive. The hand
that feeds you

must come down.
The bite is worse.

God only gives you
a stitch in the side.

Kill two. Save nine.
Bless the sow purse,

the silk ear.
Make hay. Shine." the poem ends there. end image description

September 1, 2025 at 4:15 PM Everybody can reply

4 likes

2 4

Susan L. Leary

@susanlleary.bsky.social

Nadine Hitchiner 💙

from SALAMANDER MORNING (Querencia Press)

Day 30 - #SealeyChallenge

@sealeychallenge.bsky.social

Driving Back from Torrevieja, I had Grieved My State of Mind

The moon had grown over the Highstreet.
I hummed. I hung
my arms out the window,

luring myself into the rocks.
We got out. Walked
with lilies on our heads—

the hilltop on the cape
like a dark thumb, pressed into the clouds.
Yellow dust dangling everywhere.

August 31, 2025 at 3:10 PM Everybody can reply

5 reposts 19 likes

5 19

The Poetry Society

@poetrysociety.org.uk

📚 It's August, which means the #SealeyChallenge is underway! To help you on your journey to read a book every day this month, The Poetry Society has gotten in touch with poets we've recently worked with for some recommendations.

Ellen McAteer recommends 'Altar' by Desree. "I love this for its clear, powerful voice, questioning Black, queer and female identity and its place in family, culture and society."

August 31, 2025 at 9:00 AM Everybody can reply

2 reposts 7 likes

1 2 7

Sarah O'Connor

@sarahocwrites.bsky.social

Book 22 of the #SealeyChallenge was a random selection that caught my eye in the library yesterday. Really excellent, absorbing poetry, I need to read more of her work! 💙📚

On Balance by Sinead Morrissey from Carcanet Press. The cover shows a range of prizes - Poetry Book Society choice, Costa shortlist & Winner of the 2017 Forward Prize

August 31, 2025 at 11:33 AM Everybody can reply

1 reposts 2 likes

1 1 2

Dr Catherine Redford

@catherineredford.bsky.social

Today’s #sealeychallenge read has been the gorgeous ‘Rescue Lines’ by @elcurwen.bsky.social. I was completely drawn in by these poems of loss and rescue, which are framed by the risk and comfort of the sea 💙

August 30, 2025 at 8:05 PM Everybody can reply

2 reposts 1 quotes 5 likes

2 5

bearofoses.bsky.social

@bearofoses.bsky.social

today i read THE ROAD NOT TAKEN by Robert Frost in the form of a children's book illustrated by Vivian Meneker & AMERICAN UTOPIA by David Byrne & Maira Kalman for the #sealeychallenge @sealeychallenge.bsky.social @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social #poetry #illustration #caturday #catsandbooks #booksky

a brown tabbly cat snuggled into a cozy chair with 2 illustrated poetry books in front of him: THE ROAD NOT TAKEN by Robert Frost, illustrated by Vivian Mineker, and AMERICAN UTOPIA by David Byrne and Maira Kalman.

August 30, 2025 at 8:43 PM Everybody can reply

12 likes

12

Flight: A Literary Sampler

@flightlit.bsky.social

Day 30 of the #sealeychallenge

August 30th- Book of Extraction, Adrian Dallas Frandle

This collection from @kithbooks.bsky.social by @adrianf.bsky.social covers a lot of ground while also being tightly focused—an impressive feat to say the least

The cover of book of extraction by Adrian Dallas frandle

Lingual Liturgy
Tongue, what's your role in the middle of all this wetness?
You're all muscle, should you not provide some defenses, or are these enemies so sneaky they secreted past your probing?
Do you trust them amidst this jagged decay, among all the treasonousness? You've got to work with me to be more careful about who and what we let in. I've long suspected the body of marshaling hidden forces to work against us (that's you and me, Tongue). The philosopher-fool of this loose kingdom. The Royal Exchequer, that brainiac upstairs, absolutely zero assistance. Organ of speech, you whose buds are never blooming, how can you compete for territory with kings? How your singing offends them.

August 31, 2025 at 1:23 AM Everybody can reply

3 reposts 6 likes

1 3 6

Susan L. Leary

@susanlleary.bsky.social

More Etheridge Knight 💙

from THE LOST ETHERIDGE: UNCOLLECTED POEMS OF ETHERIDGE KNIGHT (Kinchafoonee Creek Press)

Day 29 - #SealeyChallenge

@sealeychallenge.bsky.social

FAITH

Struggle with it,
allow it to evolve, shift, distort.
Use any and all means necessary for
its survival. Guard it as if it's
the essence of you. Above all
things, know that its existence is
your existence, and its death is
your death.

August 30, 2025 at 4:13 PM Everybody can reply

7 reposts 1 quotes 36 likes

1 7 36

Davi Gray (she/they)

@davigray.bsky.social

Sealey Challenge, Day 29 — One who journeys in foreign lands: WAYFARER; plus, a hollow metallic device.

Publisher is @graywolfpress.bsky.social

@sealeychallenge.bsky.social
#SealeyChallenge

news.davigray.com/p/sc25-day-t...

SC25 - Day Twenty-Nine (Graywolf Press)

One who journeys in foreign lands: WAYFARER; plus, a hollow metallic device.

news.davigray.com

August 30, 2025 at 3:18 PM Everybody can reply

1 reposts 3 likes

1 3

Elsbeth Kwant

@elsbethk.bsky.social

Today's #Sealeychallenge features Rowan Williams - again, thanks to @michaelcymro.bsky.social . Apposite today:
'Under the trees, the muttered conversations
of rain on leaves, wood, mast;'

August 30, 2025 at 6:52 AM Everybody can reply

3 likes

1 3

The Poetry Society

@poetrysociety.org.uk

📚 It's August, which means the #SealeyChallenge is underway! To help you on your journey to read a book every day this month, The Poetry Society has gotten in touch with poets we've recently worked with for some recommendations.

Di Slaney recommends the elimination game by Mary Mulholland. "It's a witty evocation of the trials and triumphs of ageing, showing how resilience can win through against an array of adversities. Mary Mulholland has a lovely, knowing tone and never overplays her hand."

August 30, 2025 at 9:00 AM Everybody can reply

2 reposts 4 likes

1 2 4

bearofoses.bsky.social

@bearofoses.bsky.social

today i read THE TIGERS, THEY LET ME by Anis Mojgani @mojgani.bsky.social for the #sealeychallenge @sealeychallenge.bsky.social @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social #poetry #booksky #pigeonsky #catsky 🪶 📚

a cozy brown chair in which a brown tabby cat is napping and upon which sit 2 pigeons - one on an arm and one on the back - and against which is propped the poetry book THE TIGERS, THEY LET ME by Anis Mojgani

August 29, 2025 at 11:36 PM Everybody can reply

17 likes

17

hansentor.bsky.social

@hansentor.bsky.social

Day 22 of the #SealeyChallenge (for me). A collection of #poetry by Rainer Maria #Rilke.

#BookSky 📚💙 #poems

August 29, 2025 at 11:52 AM Everybody can reply

4 likes

4

Kymm Coveney

@kymminbarcelona.bsky.social

Found this poet at the fabulous #frugalbookstore. Today’s #sealeychallenge #jamesbaldwinlegacy

August 10, 2024 at 3:52 PM Everybody can reply

J-T Kelly

@j-tkelly.bsky.social

#SealeyChallenge No. 19
Barbie Chang
by Victoria Chang

August 18, 2024 at 1:53 AM Everybody can reply

1 likes

1

Luke W. Henderson

@lukewhenderson.bsky.social

#SealeyChallenge Day 13!

Got a new chapbook from @bullcitypress.bsky.social (who’s doing a sale for this month) Henry Kissinger, Mon Amour by Conor Bracken

#poetry 💙📚👀

A picture of me holding my kindle with the cover for Henry Kissinger, Mon Amour on its screen. Abstract collage art where a close up of a levee or dam merges with a city on the right side.

August 13, 2024 at 2:11 PM Everybody can reply

1 reposts 2 likes

1 2

A.D. Harper

@adharper.bsky.social

6/31
Alycia Pirmohamed – Another Way to Split Water
“How I know I have returned from dreaming: / if I reach out, I will touch oranges. // I prefer ghosts.” (Lapse)

#SealeyChallenge #theSealeyChallenge

August 6, 2024 at 5:25 PM Everybody can reply

2 likes

2

june/junius @ restore eslam's account

@sunkernplus.bsky.social

#sealeychallenge late day 24: not to be blasphemous on a sunday but "batter my heart, three person'd god!" is the ICONIC "i want to fuck god" poem. john donne you have contributed SO much to queer catholic/ex catholic and queer ex-baptist culture (i doubt there are much queer baptists lol)