Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Elizabeth Osmond

Jessica Mookherjee @jessmookherjee.bsky.social · 16h

Im judging this years @cafewriters.bsky.social poetry competition - its now open so send me your best poems. www.cafewriters.co.uk/home/poetry-... #poetrycompetition

Poetry Competition | Cafe Writers

www.cafewriters.co.uk

3 4

Elizabeth Osmond @bethosmond.bsky.social · 18h

Thanks for sharing these! The Herschel museum in Bath is amazing if you are ever in that area 🔭 ✨

1

Reposted by Elizabeth Osmond

David Morley @profdavidmorley.bsky.social · 4d

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, a celebration of women in science, technology, engineering and maths. I’m proud to share my poem 'Ada Lovelace' and a sonnet to Caroline Herschel, published in the London Review of Books.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

David Morley · From ‘Seven Women Scientists’

www.lrb.co.uk

1 4 17

Reposted by Elizabeth Osmond

Helen Ivory 🪠🐈‍⬛ @helenivory.bsky.social · 22h

Hey sorry I've been away. What do you mean you didn't notice!? Anyway, it's #worldmenopauseday ! Let's celebrate! ( from Constructing a Witch @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social )

1 4

Reposted by Elizabeth Osmond

Sarah Doyle @poetsarahdoyle.bsky.social · 19h

For #WorldMenopauseDay: my poem 'Sea Gooseberries', which was highly commended in the 2022 Ginkgo Prize and is included in my V. Press pamphlet '(m)othersongs'. The poem merges ecological fragility with body crisis, and was inspired by witnessing a mass beaching in Norfolk.

$Sea Gooseberries by Sarah Doyle The tideline wears you like a broken necklace, sun-glittered gems strewn along its foamy contours. Plump glass marbles: stranded, stilled, alien as fallen moons. How vulnerable you seem in your naked transparency, insides on show, sand refracted through the bright lenses of your bodies. Displaced pearls sent airwards, the vagaries of navigation exiling you beyond the salt-safety of submergence. Your exposure is exquisite, for all its tragedy. You look to me like I imagine ovaries might when they outlive their use – flawless crystal ornaments, slow-fired and vestigial in death. Half gentle, half frantic, I cradle your sparkling ovoids in my palms, return you to your fold of sea: fearful you have already atrophied in the late-summer glare, hoping furiously time has not run out for you as it has for me. (c) Sarah Doyle$

1 5

Reposted by Elizabeth Osmond

𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · Dec 13

Love the end of this poem from @JoanneLimburg's 'The Autistic Alice'. Haven't we all felt, at some time, like we live on the nonsense side?

1 1 3

Reposted by Elizabeth Osmond

Gita Ralleigh @gitaralleigh.bsky.social · 5d

It was such a pleasure and privilege to speak to the Student BMJ team (including two of my ex students!) about creative writing and its role in medicine! And we had some great recommendations!
#academicsky #MedSky #writingforwellbeing
Listen here:
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/s...

1 3 8

Elizabeth Osmond @bethosmond.bsky.social · 5d

Sounds great will listen

1 1

Elizabeth Osmond @bethosmond.bsky.social · 5d

Lovely pamphlet from Kristina Diprose - recommend! She has a knack for capturing tiny details which brings the writing to life
@blackcatpress.bsky.social

1 3

Reposted by Elizabeth Osmond

Maya C. Popa @mayacpopa.bsky.social · 6d

“What kind of world / would let loose / a low orange moon”

3 13

Elizabeth Osmond @bethosmond.bsky.social · 6d

Sending love x

1

Reposted by Elizabeth Osmond

Michael Stipe @michaelstipe.bsky.social · 7d

and I feel fine

jamma10.bsky.social @jamma10.bsky.social · 8d

Toilet, Bristol UK circa 2015

28 380 3K

Reposted by Elizabeth Osmond

The Broken Spine @thebrokenspine.co.uk · 6d

Thanks for tearing it up on last week’s #PoemsAbout. This Friday we shift: #BreakTheMould. Think refusal, escape, iconoclast energy. Start posting Friday—early drops get buried. Use Alt Text. Tag #PoemsAbout to be seen. Sign up for deeper prompts: shorturl.at/0Xm7A

2 14 31

Reposted by Elizabeth Osmond

Eleanor Holmes | Eliot North @eleanorholmes.bsky.social · 8d

Morning all, I'm going to be looking through posts later today for #poemsabout & #imperfectme

This has taken me back to an old project, 'Flora Speaks' where I created the character Flora to say things I struggle to. Basically she is badass!

Thank you 🙏
@alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk

ink blot

they tried to dip me in ink, press me on paper,
just like a specimen collected for show.

his Red Hot Poker was the last thing
they expected to find, between white sheets
of tree pulp, sweat, and the salt stain of tears.

a life size ink blot for fools, who would
try to understand the unknowable.

Rare Book Division, The New York Public Library. "Quanta neruorum tabula. [Human ervous system]" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1545. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dd-f38e-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

5 7 22

Reposted by Elizabeth Osmond

John Chmura @johnchmura.bsky.social · 9d

#PoemsAbout #ImperfectMe
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
I will put a reel in the comments.

IMPERFECT ME

On days my son was measured
in length rather than height
I held him shirtless in one arm
while I lathered my face to shave.
Leaned on my chest, warm,
he plunged an explorer’s hands, decisive,
into my foamy cheeks, gaining agency,
the intimation of form, and play
affirmed in his corporeal birthright.

And me, significant, generative,
like the god of the psalmist,
I could do no wrong.

Whiskey it wasn’t that imperfected me
in his eyes. I may never know
which particular betrayal
inspired that loss of grace.
But it did boost his swagger to say
for the first time fuck you, Dad,
and I absorbed the preordained assertion,
concussive, cracked like a plastic bucket
abandoned on the back porch
when water expands into ice.

36 33 74

Reposted by Elizabeth Osmond

Atrium @atriumpoetry.bsky.social · 9d

We will be opening a tiny but welcoming submissions window on Monday 13th October, just for a week. Full details of how to send will appear on the website on the day.

We're already excited!

7 16

Reposted by Elizabeth Osmond

Claire Walker @clairewalkerpoetry.bsky.social · 9d

A little heads-up that the Atrium inbox will be open for a short but sweet submissions window, beginning 13th October. If you have poems looking for a home, @hollyannepoet.bsky.social and I would be very pleased to consider your work!

Atrium @atriumpoetry.bsky.social · 9d

We will be opening a tiny but welcoming submissions window on Monday 13th October, just for a week. Full details of how to send will appear on the website on the day.

We're already excited!

3 8

Elizabeth Osmond @bethosmond.bsky.social · 9d

Thankyou for sharing!

1 1

Elizabeth Osmond @bethosmond.bsky.social · 10d

4

Reposted by Elizabeth Osmond

Clare Shaw @clareshawpoet.bsky.social · 12d

My latest Substack: moors, bogs, and 19 writers in a storm!

kimmoore30.substack.com/p/even-the-s...

Even the storm could not stop us!

News from Saturday's stormy multi-author launch - plus a free invite to our paid subscriber reading this Thursday 8th Oct

kimmoore30.substack.com

2 7

Reposted by Elizabeth Osmond

Mslexia @mslexia.bsky.social · 23d

Our 2025 Poetry Competition is ✨ OPEN FOR ENTRIES ✨

Prizes: 1st: £2,000; 2nd: £500; 3rd: £250; Unpublished Poet Prize: £250
Judge: Liz Berry
Entry Fee: £10
Closes: 8 December 2025

#AmWriting #WritingCommunity #Poetry #PoetryCommunity

Women's Poetry Competition 2025 - Poetry (Single Poem) - Competitions : Mslexia, a magazine for women's writing and women who write.

mslexia.co.uk

14 21

Elizabeth Osmond @bethosmond.bsky.social · 13d

I know what you mean - but it does make me worried as a creative that perhaps our best work is always behind us…. Hopefully not!!!

1

Elizabeth Osmond @bethosmond.bsky.social · 14d

Thanks Alan!

1

Elizabeth Osmond @bethosmond.bsky.social · 15d

Such kind and thoughtful feedback John -
Much appreciated!

1

Elizabeth Osmond @bethosmond.bsky.social · 15d

Thankyou so much Rachel !

1