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On Viewless Wings

@onviewlesswings.bsky.social

2.5K followers 4.7K following 1.8K posts

Writing, reading, running. Poetry PhD: vital instability in the 2nd generation Romantics. Am actually writing. Interested in the amplification of working class voices, northern voices, & kind & talented voices. Writing, I swear. Meliorist, still.

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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 19h

BREAKING: Shabana Mahmood announces that immigrants will have to recite Beowulf in its entirety in Old English, without notes, before being allowed entry to the U.K.

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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 13h

#SFF fans and academics: I have a bright student writing coursework on power in #Dune and #DouglasAdams. It's interesting work, but as is often the case when students stray deliciously into the spiral arms of the Canon, lit crit is hard to come by. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 16h

I've got a bunch of A Level English Language exam questions sitting right here next to me and a mark scheme. Happy to send it out to all MPs and see how they do. This is a f***ing stupid idea, and nasty with it.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

Migrants will need A-level standard English to work in UK

Toughening up language requirements latest move in Labour’s immigration crackdown

www.independent.co.uk

Reposted by On Viewless Wings

Tom Reagan’s Hat @rufustsuperfly.bsky.social · 20h

I’m an immigrant who taught secondary level students English Language & Literature at GCSE and A Level for 32 years.
I did not have A Level English Language.
Pricks.

The Independent @the-independent.com · 22h

Migrants will need A-level standard English to work in UK

www.independent.co.uk

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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 1d

We've had 'the call'.

Elizabeth d'Anjou @elizdanjou.bsky.social · 2d

In honor of Hallowe'en coming up, share a 4-word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

Copyedit this in Adobe.

Jacqueline Antonovich @jackiantonovich.bsky.social · 2d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand:

She burned their letters.

On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 1d

Love this poem. Love Seamus.

Faber Books @faberbooks.bsky.social · 3d

‘Masons, when they start upon a building,
Are careful to test out the scaffolding.’

Listen to Seamus Heaney read ‘Scaffolding’
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNYB...

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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 1d

Great publisher, this.

Bluemoose Books @ofmooseandmen.bsky.social · 3d

Many thanks to all the librarians at Hebden Bridge @calderdale.bsky.social for this magnificent display of Bluemoose authors with a nod to the upcoming @bbc 6 part b series of Leonard and Hungry Paul by @ronanhession.bsky.social . Brilliant.

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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 1d

If you're names not down you're not cawwwming in...

Reposted by On Viewless Wings

Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 1d

A personal thread about using rhyme in poetry🧵
Despite once being a mainstay of form & despite its persistence in popular song, rhyme has lost favour with many poets. Some eschew it on principle. Others, even those who use it, are nervous of it. To many it seems old-fashioned, trivial, nursery stuff

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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 1d

I am glad Tony Harrison gets a mention here. I've been thinking about him a lot the last week or two. We lost a giant.

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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 1d

Well, were they wearing little blue hats with UN on them?

On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 1d

As the saying goes:

One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a massively distracting fucking rumble.

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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 2d

And the default answer to the question "which 'h' is associated with tragedy" has sadly reverted back to "hamartia".

On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 2d

(The Bee Gees never got a look in, obviously.)

On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 2d

I knew one day this moment would arrive. It's been coming for several years. But I'm sad to report that, when I say the word 'tragedy' to a Lit class, for the first time not a single student does that little move in their seat which showed that Steps still clung to collective cultural memory.

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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 2d

You need Macauley Culkin, some cardboard cutouts, and a train set.

On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 2d

Sounds very much like Galloway and Porter. I still have a bunch of books I bought from there, including a copy of King Lear with the whole of Act 3 missing. :)

On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 2d

The Tiffany Aching books are some of the greatest children's books ever written.

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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 3d

They've still got cushions and mugs and goodness know what else. There should be a Merch Clan.

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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 3d

I mean, historically speaking, I'd have to disagree with this.

On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 3d

Ah, Warrior Cats. Mine were incredibly into them. They got me a Yellowfang soft toy for Father's Day a few years back :)

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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 3d

Larkin was right the first time about that bloody toad.

I have a picture of Robert Tressell by my desk at work giving me the side eye that says: don't let it keep you from the pen and the page. But the toad has kicked the crap out of me this month. Absolutely battered.

On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 3d

Work has battered my mental health this past three weeks. Desperate to recuperate and find some time and headspace to write. Not sure I can quite see the light at the end of the tunnel yet, but can maybe now just about conceptualise the notion of one existing.

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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 3d

This is such a fetch post.

On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 6d

Yes. I was in Dunedin in New Zealand many years ago, and it felt like another little pocket of Scotland in one or two respects.

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