Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Sue Ibrahim

Merril D. Smith

@merrildsmith.bsky.social

Good morning! With Thanksgiving and houseguests, I wasn't going to participate in #PoemsAbout #NoFuture this week, but I felt the urge to write--so a quick one from me. I'll be back to read when I can. Thank you @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk

Darkest Nightmare, Brightest Dream

The possible impossibility of no future,
the universe’s flawed design,

a bug in its brilliant breath,
a break,
a slow bleed--

or a flashbang—

the syncopated rhythm of stars
collapsed

jazz-hands flutter and fall

time folded, an accordion
waiting to play
every song and none

here, not here

a hummingbird, an azure sky,
green vines, orange lichen,

a soft-pink lotus flower opens,
a laugh.

November 29, 2025 at 11:50 AM

Sue Ibrahim

@sueimnw.bsky.social

There is no future without Roger. 👏👏😁

roger waldron @throwawayreg.bsky.social · 1d

Morning Friday 🙋‍♂️
here’s my little “throwaway”
poem for #PoemsAbout #NoFuture
and thank to @alanparrywriter.co.uk
& @thebrokenspine.co.uk
#poetry #poems
#WritingCommunity
here’s hoping everyone everywhere
has lovely weekend 🚶🏼‍♂️‍➡️🚶🏻‍♀️

November 28, 2025 at 9:23 AM

Reposted by Sue Ibrahim

Rachel Burrows

@rburrows.bsky.social

Morning poets! There is a break in the slimy trail of mollusc poetry to bring you one about fenugreek! 😊 I’ll leave it to you to decide whether it fits the prompt or not! Happy Friday!
#PoemsAbout #NoFuture @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk #poetry

November 28, 2025 at 6:49 AM

Reposted by Sue Ibrahim

C. Oulens

@owlnsquirrels1111.bsky.social

For #PoemsAbout #NoFuture , , , and maybe breaking the hourglass?
Will return later to read others’. Thank you for reading! 🙏💫

@thebrokenspine.co.uk
#Oulens #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry
#poetrycommunity #poetry

There’s NoFuture in This Bound Hourglass
- C. Oulens

That which wecamearoundto prepondering—
the future—
thatwhichpresseddownpoundingona
couple of poor grains at
the narrow
neck
piling up
piteously at the
bottom of this time-plagued
hourglass
Is
nothing but
the past flipped and posing as Future
everforevernever to be a
to be,,,
,,,oh! I forget! I’m trying to break
free of shards that came t o b e.

November 28, 2025 at 3:25 AM

Sue Ibrahim

@sueimnw.bsky.social

For #PoemsAbout #NoFuture with thanks to @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk and all poets participating.

November 28, 2025 at 7:14 AM

Reposted by Sue Ibrahim

David Birch

@davidbirch.bsky.social

Many thanks, Paul @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social
for your brilliant prompt #OnRoofs, which brought to mind a recent encounter with a former student. Looking forward to reading other responses from #BlueSkyPoets during the course of the week #PromptCombo

November 25, 2025 at 7:20 AM

Reposted by Sue Ibrahim

Jan Peters - Solivagant Wisdom

@janpsolivagant.bsky.social

🙏 @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social #PromptCombo
Out of season & they nest under #eaves, rather than #OnRoofs, but fits, I guess. 😁

#poem: ©Jan Peters/Solivagant Wisdom, 2025

#swifts #swallows #NaturePoem #BirdPoem #poetrycommunity #bskypoetry

Swifts, Swallows

Swifts, swallows: ghostly
Doubles meeting at Whitsun -
Sky god’s full-throated

Season echoing the
Abyss. Forebear tongues and
Sagas revelled in

Whirlpools and swallies,
Devoured by the sweeping,
Churning presences

Glimpsed in sky and sea.

Swifts, swallows: ghostly doubles,
Aerial nomads,

Custodians of
Ancient songlines etched with a
Thumbtack of neurons.

©Jan Peters/Solivagant Wisdom, 2025

November 24, 2025 at 8:56 AM

Sue Ibrahim

@sueimnw.bsky.social

For #PromptCombo #OnRoofs with thanks to wonderful host, Paul, @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social

November 24, 2025 at 10:26 AM

Reposted by Sue Ibrahim

Julian (Hool)

@hool415.bsky.social

Hullo @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social and to #promptcombo #onroofs
Love the theme, as great as Fidel’s from last week!

Ben Nevis

First seen from a petrol forecourt
as perching on top
the next block’s trading estate:
it’s not a good look,
this mountain’s all slouch,
no poised, sky-scratching nib of summit,
but a fist of dull clenched crayons,
though I can just pick out
its small menagerie of pepper-corn birds.

There should be more aloof arrogance here
for I stand at the foot of the roof of the land,
yet this peak is drawn and redrawn
behind net-curtain clouds:
an unexpected shyness
tentatively
peeping
back and forth.

November 24, 2025 at 8:24 AM

Reposted by Sue Ibrahim

Paul Brookes

@thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social

@rfsmith.bsky.social @jitterbugwrites.bsky.social @helenlaycock.bsky.social @sueimnw.bsky.social
@johnadlam.bsky.social@janpsolivagant.bsk.social @julianday.bsky.social @rhonagreene.bsky.social

bsky.app/profile/thew...

Paul Brookes @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you @dragonslayerma.bsky.social for last week's stormer. All are welcome to contribute to this week's. I am the host. Please use hashtags ##promptcombo #OnRoofs and tag me @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social:

The Roof

He needs a hit, so

on the roof
of the ex bank, ex post office
needs to break in

sees somebody spot him
so he changes his mind

shouts I will kill myself.

Ambulances and police
talk him down.

November 24, 2025 at 8:00 AM

Reposted by Sue Ibrahim

roger waldron

@throwawayreg.bsky.social

Evening Sunday
a bit late for #PoemsAbout #dogtag
And thanks to @alanparrywriter.co.uk
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
#poems #poetry
have a great week everyone everywhere 🚶🏼‍♂️‍➡️

November 23, 2025 at 7:18 PM

Reposted by Sue Ibrahim

Sue Ibrahim

@sueimnw.bsky.social

Thank you so much, Roger. I really appreciate that.🙏😊

November 21, 2025 at 6:00 PM

Reposted by Sue Ibrahim

roger waldron

@throwawayreg.bsky.social

Love these tiny poems
excellent Sue 👏👏👏

Sue Ibrahim @sueimnw.bsky.social · 8d

For this week's #PoemsAbout #DogTags with thanks to @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk and everyone involved.

November 21, 2025 at 5:56 PM

Reposted by Sue Ibrahim

Andy Williamson

@andywilliamson.com

Maybe a bit off-script for #poemsabout #dogtags but it's what emerged - a quick poem on names and seasons of a relationship. Thanks @alanparrywriter.co.uk & @thebrokenspine.co.uk #poems #poetry

Call me by any name

spring sunshine graces your smile
birds sing in praise of all the saints
as we amble through the market holding hands
you call me by any name that means love

summer heat warms to our conversation
young birds fledge, their nests left behind
we run for the bus, not fast enough to catch it
you call me by names only we can know

autumn comes early, rains close around us
the birds will leave for warmer lands
as smoke from cosy hearths fills the air
you call me in a hushed voice

winter is hard, a northerly wind brings snow
those who are left search for shelter
you are wrapped up against the elements
you call me to say goodbye

November 21, 2025 at 9:01 AM

Reposted by Sue Ibrahim

Jan Peters - Solivagant Wisdom

@janpsolivagant.bsky.social

🙏 @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk #PoemsAbout #DogTags

#newpoem: ©Jan Peters/Solivagant Wisdom, 2025

#WarTrauma #FamilyTrauma #ancestry #WBYeats #20Century #snafu #fubar #aviation #prosepoem #vegemite #RoaldDahl

$Collateral Relative ©Jan Peters/Solivagant Wisdom, 2025 “No Parachutes!”, Decree the Brass Hats, mindful that pilots all too readily bail out of those Newfangled pyre-caskets, ash-framed and taut with doped linen fabric. In frostbite, sun-scorched high heavens, he sits astride a Dolphin - Mired and bloodied from dogfights with pods of Fokkers above Flanders. Lateral ancestor, collateral relative – Great War Flying Ace with DFC before twenty – his hometown rag credits him with eight kills. Life prospects capped at days, weeks, minutes - He swoons at settling down with Gladys in a cottage near the Solent. Son – Second War Flying Ace with DFC before twenty - Like Robert Gregory, meeting his fate aged thirty-seven, Somewhere among the clouds above Lincolnshire, forty years hence. Navigator on Canberra jet bomber bound for Malta, his Arm broken on exit fails to pull the ripcord. Back in 1919, with Croix de Guerre pinned to his chest by King Albert, Lateral ancestor maladapts to the loss of friends and comrades who Fireball out of the sky before they can even enter combat. Mystery of skull fractured at 1923 mess party. Drunken brawl? Chair, bottle, paperweight smashed over his head? Monumental concussion, contusion tipping him, not into creativity like Roald Dahl, but into Intelligence; into unmapped deserts west of Basra; into three years with the Bedouin; into Searing heat and sandstorms; into flies, revolting food and foul water; Into OBE, Wing Commander and Air Commodore; into Chief Intelligence Officer; into Monumental fuckup in Far East Command. Now Brass Hat, he Transfers his nephew, my grandfather, from Eastcote to the Dutch East Indies. Freshly-minted mathematician, aviation nut, clever young chap, my Grandfather becomes NCO tasked with constructing radar stations on Java. Vital equipment gets relocated to the Middle East. They improvise with aircraft crates and tapped Civilian telephone networks - …$ $They warn the Brass Hats, who wave all this “newfangled nonsense” aside. As the island is overrun, they give an hour’s notice of the enemy’s approach – all To no avail. Uncle Brass Hat Delivers his nephew - collateral relative - into Japanese captivity: Mosquitos, meagre food, foul water, monsoon rains; Beriberi, cots on beaches or in runway ditches awash with dysentery shit; Forced labour, beatings, killings. Seven months of fortnightly malaria bouts Mark him out as a “goner”, but my grandfather pulls through. Crammed onto two wooden diesel coasters, they are strafed, pounded by Wham! Bam! Thank you, Ma’am! Liberator bombers in the Macassar Strait. Terrified captors give them leave to scrawl POW across bridge and hatches in Paint composed of tapioca flour and water. Liberation. Original cohort whittled away, cut down to a mere fraction. Vegemite habits acquired while Recuperating in Perth Fail to stay the Brimming tides - Fury, Resentment, Mistrust, Optical neuropathy, Arterial stenosis - that Claim him before he turns eighty. I catch him at it once or twice: Curses muttered to himself in Japanese while he Deadheads the roses. ©Jan Peters/Solivagant Wisdom, 2025 *DFC, Distinguished Flying Cross$

November 21, 2025 at 8:49 AM

Reposted by Sue Ibrahim

Fiftywords

@fiftywords.bsky.social

What does it mean to hold onto your name when the world and your mind starts to forget it?This #PoemsAbout #Dogtags looks at memory, identity, and the quiet defiance of holding on. @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk

Dog Tag Not the metal but the certainty that your name
once fit your body. You carry it because the world keeps trying to rename you: patient, veteran,
burden, relapse. A small plate of fact
against the drift. You touch it just to feel the sentence of yourself
still whole. And you wonder what a name is worth when the mind
walks off without it. A tag, a trace, a held fragment of the man you insist
was real. Identity, reduced, only just refusing
erasure.
Until the day
Until

November 21, 2025 at 6:39 AM

Sue Ibrahim

@sueimnw.bsky.social

For this week's #PoemsAbout #DogTags with thanks to @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk and everyone involved.

November 21, 2025 at 7:10 AM

Reposted by Sue Ibrahim

Julian (Hool)

@hool415.bsky.social

Hullo @dragonslayerma.bsky.social Thanks for such a stellar theme.
I love the idea that whatever our beliefs, as energy is never actually destroyed we will always continue!
#promptcombo #northstar