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Clare Bryden

@clarebryden.bsky.social

330 followers 320 following 440 posts

Born at 325ppm clarebryden.co.uk For an intro, see the pinned post Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? — Mary Oliver May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder. — John O’Donohue

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · Nov 19

By way of an intro

Interests
#ContemplativePrayer #Monasticism #Theology #Bible #Trees #Walking #Poetry #Reading #Writing #Deutsch #Cymraeg #Alto

Home
#Exeter #Devon #UK #Europe

Work
#Director #TeaLady #CodeMonkey @WebsitesAhoy

Misspent adult years
#Maths #Environment #Energy #Economics #Weather

Leat in Creason Wood, Mary Tavy, west Dartmoor.
There is a dark tree trunk in woodland on the left, then a grass verge, path of small stones leading into the distance, grass bank, black surface of the leat, bank covered in ferns, more woodland above. The greens are extremely vibrant.

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Reposted by Clare Bryden

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 1d

Trump took office with a Israel-Hamas ceasefire in place, then announced a vision for Gaza as a US-owned resort, with most Palestinians living there gone. Israel restarted military ops in March and imposed famine. Thousands of dead Palestinians later, the Trump admin helped broker another ceasefire.

Opinion | Trump’s Nobel peace prize campaign is the least important part of the Gaza deal

If the ceasefire holds, the administration deserves much credit. But the fixation on Trump getting a prize distracts from things that actually matter.

www.msnbc.com

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 20h

Ha! (Sob)
This is my favourite thing so far today

Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 20h

I made "Dress for overcast" 8 years ago, one of the many hacks of Taroko Gorge by @docmofo.bsky.social

clarebryden.co.uk/coding/mozfr...

#ALD25 #Random #Poetry #Javascript #Weather

Lines of Javascript code overlaid onto a fine blue cloudy sky

Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 21h

Happy Ada Lovelace Day!!

Here's a poem illustrating how far we've come in computing and its applications since her time clarebryden.co.uk/selling-my-s...

Thanks @ampliconpress.bsky.social for publishing it in ionosphere

#ALD25 @adalovelaceday.bsky.social #STEM #Technology #IT #Poetry #UKPoets

"Selling my soul for a low GI roll" - Clare Bryden

The internet knows me better than I know myself... maybe.

clarebryden.co.uk

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 21h

Reminds me of a book I enjoyed as a child en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mag...

The Magic Pudding - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 6d

@nationaltrust.org.uk tell me, do you blett your medlars?

Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 6d

Cleddon Falls not quite living up to its billing!
#WaterfallWednesday #WyeValley #Wales

Screenshot of website including a photo of the waterfall with a bit more water in it!

Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 7d

Citizen science in #Cotehele orchard

Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 12d

...and as the nights draw in, a different interpretation of #Play for #NationalPoetryDay2025, published in the lovely Thimble Literary Magazine

clarebryden.co.uk/uplift/

"Uplift" - Clare Bryden

Acknowledging something of the darkness at the lightest time of year might remind of the possibility of finding light at the darkest time.

clarebryden.co.uk

Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 12d

Something fun for #NationalPoetryDay2025 on its theme of #Play

A poem framed by two trees and a person reading in a hammock.

“Let’s do something nice today”
- - for David & Sue and all the others

Let’s see a Mozart opera
with post-performance chat,
or watch a splendid sweary film
and then go home and splat.

We’ll patronise that café
with the GIANT fresh cream teas,
visit bluebell woods in spring
and hug some well-loved trees,

try catharsis in a chanting crowd
no matter win or lose,
snuggle in a sunny nook
and write some (near) haikus,

swing in dappled shade and read
awhile and snooze awhile and read awhile and snooze awhile—

Let’s talk big ideas and books
over a bodged-together brunch,
or find a pub with proper beer,
have fish and chips for lunch,

wander off the beaten track,
watch a gameshow for the craic,
let’s do something nice today
and cut ourselves some slack!

Clare Bryden

Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · 12d

Tweaked a bit, corrected spelling of Jyothi's name, and now on my website at clarebryden.co.uk/article-13/

"Article 13" - Clare Bryden

My small, raw offering for Jyothi, Sue, and the other peaceful protestors arrested on 9 August 2025 under Article 13, and for environmental campaigners willing to risk the same. Respect. This what it ...

clarebryden.co.uk

Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · Sep 1

Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.

- Reinhold Niebuhr, "Children of Light and Children of Darkness"

#Quote #ForTheDay #ForTheYear

Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · Sep 1

Likewise!

Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · Aug 25

...and overtook a family of primary school age kids leaving the venue singing the @doughnuteconomics.bsky.social song #LeaveNoOneInTheHole

Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · Aug 25

Amazing show by @kateraworth.bsky.social on Saturday evening @greenbeltfestival.bsky.social involving some incredible young people volunteering their talents, and #TeachingBrianEnoBeatboxing

Reposted by Clare Bryden

John Harvey @mrjohnharvey.bsky.social · Aug 15

Eighty years since #VJDay, two moving ceremonies in #Exeter today… First, the minute’s silence at #ExeterCathedral Green War Memorial at midday, then the commemoration event in Northernhay Gardens this afternoon.

Your poem was brilliant @clarebryden.bsky.social.

#WeWillRememberThem #VJDay80

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · Aug 16

The Imperial War Museum holds photographs of the liberated PoWs in Burma—harrowing

www.google.com/search?q=bur...

#NeverAgain #NoMoreWar #Peace #Justice
#VJ80 #VJDay #VJDay80 #VPDay #WW2 #FEPOW

Google Search

www.google.com

Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · Aug 16

“And there will be no release for captives released
to stumble their way back
to an indeterminate existence...”

#NeverAgain #NoMoreWar #Peace #Justice
clarebryden.co.uk/vj-day-2025/
#Poem #Poetry for #VJ80 #VJDay #VJDay80 #VPDay #WW2 #FEPOW

"VJ Day 2025" - Clare Bryden

"hear the hundreds of thousands of shadows / prophesying / an unpeopled future"

clarebryden.co.uk

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · Aug 15

Thanks John! Saw you later in the Cathedral but didn't spot you up in Northernhay

Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · Aug 12

Sometimes the scientist starts writing poetry when they've grown up another 30 years, sometimes about science. Given that the more one knows, the more one knows one doesn't know, I'm expecting wreckage from all directions 💫

Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · Aug 12

Interesting angle - "the poem offers itself as a powerful document of what happens to communities, to social groups – to sociability itself – when watching, informing and being informed on become the norms of human interaction."

#Poetry #Poem #Keats

www.aber.ac.uk/en/news/arch...

Keats’s ode To Autumn warns about mass surveillance and social sharing - Aberystwyth University

www.aber.ac.uk

Reposted by Clare Bryden

Alan Rusbridger @arusbridger.bsky.social · Aug 11

Letter of the day (in the Times)

130 2.5K 6.3K

Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · Aug 10

My small offering, for Jyoti and the other peaceful protestors arrested under #Article13 of the #TACT2000, and for environmental campaigners willing to risk the same. Respect. This what it is coming to.

#Poetry #Poem

Numbers (522/532) and individuals taken from www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

522

When I first met Magna Carta I wept—
for it was a weekend in Salisbury March 2014
and after annexing Crimea unmarked Russian soldiers
were stirring up the Donbas in eastern Ukraine
but in the UK there was peace and habeas corpus
and access to Justice or Right by the Law of the land
and it was in gratitude I wept.

This weekend I wept—
for Millicent Fawcett from her plinth in Parliament Square
had witnessed 522 peaceful protestors
carted off by the Met
for the crime of free speech by means of placards
in contravention of Article 13 of the Terrorism Act.

Unlucky for some.
Unlucky for the 50% over 60 or 70 or 80 years old
and the 50% years from claiming their pensions.
Unlucky for the roll call
of the principled Sir former government advisor
and the professor of poetry emerita
and the son of a Holocaust survivor.
Unlucky for the 2.1 starving millions disproportionately
penned in Gaza.

From her grave Hannah Arendt proclaims
the banality of evil is again on the rise.
The Met and soldiers and spies were only following orders.

© Clare Bryden, 10 August 2025

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · Aug 10

It's never too late to start —

Quotes brought to mind by one of the threads in this morning's sermon — with @mrjohnharvey.bsky.social at @exetercathedral.bsky.social

#Poetry #Poetry #MaryOliver #Life

Mary Oliver
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? — The Summer Day

Ian Adams
I laugh. I had tried to read the river. But the river read me, asking How will you live your mayfly life? — A Wild Swim with Mayflies

Carol Ann Duffy
What will you do now with the gift of your left life? — Snow

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Clare Bryden @clarebryden.bsky.social · Aug 9

"a small number of hibakusha – survivors of the atomic bombings – [are] still able to recall the horrors they witnessed"
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

#NeverAgain #NoMoreHiroshimas #NoMoreNagasakis #MAD #Disarmament #Peace

Hiroshima’s fading legacy: the race to secure survivors’ memories amid a new era of nuclear brinkmanship

Eighty years on from the destruction of the city, registered survivors of the blast - known as hibakusha – have fallen below 100,000