John Looker
@johnlooker.bsky.social
Poems in the anthology of the Austin International Poetry Festival, the anthology of NZ’s Caselberg international competition and journals incl Magma, Poetry Salzburg, Artemis (USA). Books by Bennison Books.
Lives in SE England. johnlooker.wordpress.com/
Lives in SE England. johnlooker.wordpress.com/
Pinned
John Looker
@johnlooker.bsky.social
· Mar 16
“That is precisely the dynamic my first Reith lecture describes: institutions censoring themselves out of fear of those in power …”
November 27, 2025 at 2:22 PM
“That is precisely the dynamic my first Reith lecture describes: institutions censoring themselves out of fear of those in power …”
Reposted by John Looker
Rutger Bregman: ‘I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
video.twimg.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Rutger Bregman: ‘I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
And now the poor stupidly dazed BBC has proved his point through a lack of courage – running scared they censored him, deleting a sentence from his lecture. There will be repercussions
Such a stimulating broadcast: the 1st of this year’s Reith Lectures.
His opening talk deepened my gloom at the state of the world. But his message seems to be a call for action.
If I’ve heard right, he’s calling for virtue to find courage. Well worth a listen.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
His opening talk deepened my gloom at the state of the world. But his message seems to be a call for action.
If I’ve heard right, he’s calling for virtue to find courage. Well worth a listen.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
The Reith Lectures - Rutger Bregman - Moral Revolution - 1. A Time of Monsters - BBC Sounds
Dutch historian Rutger Bregman delivers his first BBC Reith Lecture: Moral Revolution.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 8:09 PM
And now the poor stupidly dazed BBC has proved his point through a lack of courage – running scared they censored him, deleting a sentence from his lecture. There will be repercussions
Such a stimulating broadcast: the 1st of this year’s Reith Lectures.
His opening talk deepened my gloom at the state of the world. But his message seems to be a call for action.
If I’ve heard right, he’s calling for virtue to find courage. Well worth a listen.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
His opening talk deepened my gloom at the state of the world. But his message seems to be a call for action.
If I’ve heard right, he’s calling for virtue to find courage. Well worth a listen.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
The Reith Lectures - Rutger Bregman - Moral Revolution - 1. A Time of Monsters - BBC Sounds
Dutch historian Rutger Bregman delivers his first BBC Reith Lecture: Moral Revolution.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Such a stimulating broadcast: the 1st of this year’s Reith Lectures.
His opening talk deepened my gloom at the state of the world. But his message seems to be a call for action.
If I’ve heard right, he’s calling for virtue to find courage. Well worth a listen.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
His opening talk deepened my gloom at the state of the world. But his message seems to be a call for action.
If I’ve heard right, he’s calling for virtue to find courage. Well worth a listen.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Reposted by John Looker
What a gorgeous poem. #poetry #DerekMahon
November 24, 2025 at 12:50 PM
What a gorgeous poem. #poetry #DerekMahon
Reposted by John Looker
I’m remembering an evening 5yrs ago this month when this poem was given an airing in Dunedin.
“…watching the ocean stirring and arching its back
and the clouds pacing the sky
I begin to sense a thread of kinship with you”
#poetry #aotearoa #NZ #life
johnlooker.wordpress.com/2025/11/22/c...
“…watching the ocean stirring and arching its back
and the clouds pacing the sky
I begin to sense a thread of kinship with you”
#poetry #aotearoa #NZ #life
johnlooker.wordpress.com/2025/11/22/c...
Conversation with a Sea Lion
I’ve remembered that it was five years ago this month that a poem of mine, that had been highly commended in New Zealand, was read aloud in the Dunedin University Bookshop. The poem? ‘Conversation …
johnlooker.wordpress.com
November 22, 2025 at 2:36 PM
I’m remembering an evening 5yrs ago this month when this poem was given an airing in Dunedin.
“…watching the ocean stirring and arching its back
and the clouds pacing the sky
I begin to sense a thread of kinship with you”
#poetry #aotearoa #NZ #life
johnlooker.wordpress.com/2025/11/22/c...
“…watching the ocean stirring and arching its back
and the clouds pacing the sky
I begin to sense a thread of kinship with you”
#poetry #aotearoa #NZ #life
johnlooker.wordpress.com/2025/11/22/c...
Reposted by John Looker
Waves in Margate: Bridget Riley Streak 3, Turner view of Margate in a storm, the North Sea.
November 19, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Waves in Margate: Bridget Riley Streak 3, Turner view of Margate in a storm, the North Sea.
Reposted by John Looker
@rbreich.bsky.social: "The richest man on earth owns #X
The family of the 2nd-richest man owns Paramount,which owns US TV network #CBS,cd soon own Warner Bros,which owns #CNN.
The 3rd-richest man owns #Facebook, #Instagram + #WhatsApp. The 4th-richest man owns the Washington Post+Amazon MGM Studios"
The family of the 2nd-richest man owns Paramount,which owns US TV network #CBS,cd soon own Warner Bros,which owns #CNN.
The 3rd-richest man owns #Facebook, #Instagram + #WhatsApp. The 4th-richest man owns the Washington Post+Amazon MGM Studios"
What makes the #BBC unique? It's funded by ordinary people paying less than 48p a day. It's not beholden to advertisers. It doesn't have a proprietor. Its mission is to be impartial. And crucially, it's *independent* of any UK government. Let alone the government of a foreign state. 1/
November 19, 2025 at 2:53 PM
@rbreich.bsky.social: "The richest man on earth owns #X
The family of the 2nd-richest man owns Paramount,which owns US TV network #CBS,cd soon own Warner Bros,which owns #CNN.
The 3rd-richest man owns #Facebook, #Instagram + #WhatsApp. The 4th-richest man owns the Washington Post+Amazon MGM Studios"
The family of the 2nd-richest man owns Paramount,which owns US TV network #CBS,cd soon own Warner Bros,which owns #CNN.
The 3rd-richest man owns #Facebook, #Instagram + #WhatsApp. The 4th-richest man owns the Washington Post+Amazon MGM Studios"
There are some haunting verses from Rowan Williams in #PNR 286: his rendering of medieval Welsh 'Songs of Heledd'
The speaker laments the death of her brother, slain by war bands. RW writes
'Not much is needed to hear ... women's voices from Sudan, Gaza or Ukraine'
So very true.
#poetry #war
The speaker laments the death of her brother, slain by war bands. RW writes
'Not much is needed to hear ... women's voices from Sudan, Gaza or Ukraine'
So very true.
#poetry #war
November 19, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Reposted by John Looker
Marianne Moore (with Allen Ginsberg) - BOTD
💙📚 #LiteratureSky
💙📚 #LiteratureSky
November 15, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Marianne Moore (with Allen Ginsberg) - BOTD
💙📚 #LiteratureSky
💙📚 #LiteratureSky
Reposted by John Looker
Giving a lecture on the drafts of The Waste Land tomorrow and all the strange and haunting lines that Eliot and Pound decided to cut
November 12, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Giving a lecture on the drafts of The Waste Land tomorrow and all the strange and haunting lines that Eliot and Pound decided to cut
A wet grey Monday morning: the archetypal Monday.
Spurs fixed? Check.
Sword polished? Check.
Breakfast stains wiped off breastplate? Check.
Mount that steed!
Spurs fixed? Check.
Sword polished? Check.
Breakfast stains wiped off breastplate? Check.
Mount that steed!
November 10, 2025 at 9:32 AM
A wet grey Monday morning: the archetypal Monday.
Spurs fixed? Check.
Sword polished? Check.
Breakfast stains wiped off breastplate? Check.
Mount that steed!
Spurs fixed? Check.
Sword polished? Check.
Breakfast stains wiped off breastplate? Check.
Mount that steed!
Reposted by John Looker
“Large Language Models (LLMs) cannot do anything else but create plausibly sounding text with no concern for truth”
Print and hang on your bed and on your desk 🧐
Print and hang on your bed and on your desk 🧐
AI slop and the destruction of knowledge irisvanrooijcogsci.com/2025/08/12/a...
November 9, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Reposted by John Looker
I just mistyped into existence the novelist Irish Murdoch. And now I want to read one of his books.
November 6, 2025 at 4:08 PM
I just mistyped into existence the novelist Irish Murdoch. And now I want to read one of his books.
Reposted by John Looker
Our poetry class (with women from Ethiopia, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Ukraine, Palestine/Jordan) at Melissa today had musical instruments as a prompt--we had poems about ouds and qanuns and kalimbas, and ended with spontaneous singing and a bit of dance demonstration.
November 6, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Our poetry class (with women from Ethiopia, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Ukraine, Palestine/Jordan) at Melissa today had musical instruments as a prompt--we had poems about ouds and qanuns and kalimbas, and ended with spontaneous singing and a bit of dance demonstration.
All of us must:
‘… align against the beast/ that prowls at every door and barks at every headline’
Further lines from Louis MacNeice’s 1938 poem Autumn Journal, which I’ve been rereading.
He had a way of putting it.
#poetry #literature
‘… align against the beast/ that prowls at every door and barks at every headline’
Further lines from Louis MacNeice’s 1938 poem Autumn Journal, which I’ve been rereading.
He had a way of putting it.
#poetry #literature
November 7, 2025 at 3:08 PM
All of us must:
‘… align against the beast/ that prowls at every door and barks at every headline’
Further lines from Louis MacNeice’s 1938 poem Autumn Journal, which I’ve been rereading.
He had a way of putting it.
#poetry #literature
‘… align against the beast/ that prowls at every door and barks at every headline’
Further lines from Louis MacNeice’s 1938 poem Autumn Journal, which I’ve been rereading.
He had a way of putting it.
#poetry #literature
I’ve been rereading Louis MacNeice's Autumn Journal. Well, this is November isn’t it. And perhaps there's a touch of 1938 in the air too.
This extract is from his famous canto XIV on the post-Munich by-election in Oxford.
A call for commitment by the good guys
#poetry #autumn #stateoftheworld
This extract is from his famous canto XIV on the post-Munich by-election in Oxford.
A call for commitment by the good guys
#poetry #autumn #stateoftheworld
November 6, 2025 at 5:50 PM
I’ve been rereading Louis MacNeice's Autumn Journal. Well, this is November isn’t it. And perhaps there's a touch of 1938 in the air too.
This extract is from his famous canto XIV on the post-Munich by-election in Oxford.
A call for commitment by the good guys
#poetry #autumn #stateoftheworld
This extract is from his famous canto XIV on the post-Munich by-election in Oxford.
A call for commitment by the good guys
#poetry #autumn #stateoftheworld
Woods … … path … … autumn … …
and the mind simply floods with metaphors, doesn’t it!
#autumn #fall
#poetry #photography
and the mind simply floods with metaphors, doesn’t it!
#autumn #fall
#poetry #photography
November 4, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Woods … … path … … autumn … …
and the mind simply floods with metaphors, doesn’t it!
#autumn #fall
#poetry #photography
and the mind simply floods with metaphors, doesn’t it!
#autumn #fall
#poetry #photography
Reposted by John Looker
Delighted to see my new selected edition of Anthony Thwaite’s poems (At the Garden’s Dark Edge, published by Baylor University Press) featured by George Szirtes in the Eastern Daily Press.
www.edp24.co.uk/news/2557097...
www.edp24.co.uk/news/2557097...
Poet and archaeologist who was part of the fabric of Norfolk life
‘This is the simple poem,’ wrote Anthony Thwaite OBE, poet, archaeologist, teacher, broadcaster, television presenter, traveller, critic,…
www.edp24.co.uk
November 3, 2025 at 3:26 AM
Delighted to see my new selected edition of Anthony Thwaite’s poems (At the Garden’s Dark Edge, published by Baylor University Press) featured by George Szirtes in the Eastern Daily Press.
www.edp24.co.uk/news/2557097...
www.edp24.co.uk/news/2557097...
Reposted by John Looker
Red kangaroo in emblematic flight.
#photography
#photography
November 2, 2025 at 4:53 AM
Red kangaroo in emblematic flight.
#photography
#photography
Reposted by John Looker
I love all the @badlilies.bsky.social babies (so to speak!) equally but this sequence by @ravoon.bsky.social is worthy of some attention ahead of his collection coming out next year badlilies.uk/graeme-richardson-1
Graeme Richardson — Bad Lilies
Three poems by Graeme Richardson
badlilies.uk
November 1, 2025 at 10:03 PM
I love all the @badlilies.bsky.social babies (so to speak!) equally but this sequence by @ravoon.bsky.social is worthy of some attention ahead of his collection coming out next year badlilies.uk/graeme-richardson-1
“Poetry, like all good writing, forbids either ‘head’ or ‘heart’ to flourish at the other’s expense.”
That speaks true for me.
(From Peter McDonald’s Louis MacNeice Memorial Lecture entitled The Pity of it All, broadcast by BBC Northern Ireland in 2007)
#poetry #literature #books
That speaks true for me.
(From Peter McDonald’s Louis MacNeice Memorial Lecture entitled The Pity of it All, broadcast by BBC Northern Ireland in 2007)
#poetry #literature #books
November 1, 2025 at 3:39 PM
“Poetry, like all good writing, forbids either ‘head’ or ‘heart’ to flourish at the other’s expense.”
That speaks true for me.
(From Peter McDonald’s Louis MacNeice Memorial Lecture entitled The Pity of it All, broadcast by BBC Northern Ireland in 2007)
#poetry #literature #books
That speaks true for me.
(From Peter McDonald’s Louis MacNeice Memorial Lecture entitled The Pity of it All, broadcast by BBC Northern Ireland in 2007)
#poetry #literature #books
This poem is glorious fun. (Of course, it’s chillingly spooky as well 😂)
October 31, 2025 at 9:20 AM
This poem is glorious fun. (Of course, it’s chillingly spooky as well 😂)
Beautiful scene! I’ve rationed myself to a single adjective – I could have deployed an entire thesaurus.
October 29, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Beautiful scene! I’ve rationed myself to a single adjective – I could have deployed an entire thesaurus.