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thepaulconnolly.bsky.social
Paul Connolly
@thepaulconnolly.bsky.social
16K followers 1.1K following 10K posts
Writer
Poetry: 100+ poems in Agenda, Stand, Poetry Salzburg, Chiron Review, IS&T etc
Poems on BBC
Charles Causley & (two) Bridport Prize shortlists
Magna Carta Comp (3rd)
Best of the Net Nominated (Lothlorien)
Prose: Orwell Prize & Bridport Novel longlists
Posts Replies Media Videos
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thepaulconnolly.bsky.social
Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 5d
I am delighted that my #poem Devon Gothic is longlisted for the @walklistencreate.org WRITE ABOUT WALKING IN THE DARK competition. My huge thanks go to WLC & competition judges @marcellenewbold.bsky.social & Damaris West. You can read the poem in the link below 👇

#poetsonbluesky #poetrycommunity
Devon Gothic
write.walklistencreate.org
thepaulconnolly.bsky.social
When listening to Vivaldi, who basically wrote the same concerto hundreds and hundreds of times, I reach back through the centuries, grab his collar and cry, ‘Antonio, for God’s sake. Surprise me! Amaze me! Appal me even. But please: do something DIFFERENT. You know you can.’

But he so rarely does
November 11, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Reposted by Paul Connolly
thepaulconnolly.bsky.social
I am also delighted to say that the link in the post below now comes with my recording of the poem. Thanks to @walklistencreate.org for uploading 🙏🙏🙏
thepaulconnolly.bsky.social Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 5d
I am delighted that my #poem Devon Gothic is longlisted for the @walklistencreate.org WRITE ABOUT WALKING IN THE DARK competition. My huge thanks go to WLC & competition judges @marcellenewbold.bsky.social & Damaris West. You can read the poem in the link below 👇

#poetsonbluesky #poetrycommunity
Devon Gothic
write.walklistencreate.org
November 10, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Paul Connolly
carmellapoetry.bsky.social
Wonderful poet Paul Short reviews The Liminal Light of the Night published by @hedgehogpress.co.uk he has also taken the time to pair it with a beautiful playlist, including Tracy Chapman & Joni Mitchell. Thank you so much Paul! This was a lovely surprise.🖤
#reviews
#pamphlet
#TheBookBag
#liminality
paulwritespoems.bsky.social Paul @paulwritespoems.bsky.social · 2d
This week in The Book Bag we cross the lines between light and dark in The Liminal Light of the Night by Carmella de Keyser, published by Hedgehog Poetry Press.
This prize-winning pamphlet is a combination of stellar poetry and stunning art.

Plus recap, news, playlist and more...
The Book Bag: The Liminal Light Of The Night by Carmella de Keyser
Welcome back to The Book Bag. I hope you’ve had a poetic week. I’ve had a great week. On Sunday just after sharing my thoughts on Merril D. Smith’s book, I saw two deer running just in front of my house, a doe and an infant. Then my wife and I did a spot of shopping and enjoyed a delicious pub lunch. On Monday we visited The Laing Art Gallery which currently has an exhibition on Miniature Landscapes including work from the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Excellent. We also celebrated my Mother-In- Law’s birthday & retirement with a couple of meals and a delicious cake.
paulwritespoems.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Reposted by Paul Connolly
paulwritespoems.bsky.social
This week in The Book Bag we cross the lines between light and dark in The Liminal Light of the Night by Carmella de Keyser, published by Hedgehog Poetry Press.
This prize-winning pamphlet is a combination of stellar poetry and stunning art.

Plus recap, news, playlist and more...
The Book Bag: The Liminal Light Of The Night by Carmella de Keyser
Welcome back to The Book Bag. I hope you’ve had a poetic week. I’ve had a great week. On Sunday just after sharing my thoughts on Merril D. Smith’s book, I saw two deer running just in front of my house, a doe and an infant. Then my wife and I did a spot of shopping and enjoyed a delicious pub lunch. On Monday we visited The Laing Art Gallery which currently has an exhibition on Miniature Landscapes including work from the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Excellent. We also celebrated my Mother-In- Law’s birthday & retirement with a couple of meals and a delicious cake.
paulwritespoems.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Reposted by Paul Connolly
thepaulconnolly.bsky.social
If I think about when I’ve found writing hard, when my creative conscience frowned and said ‘not good enough’ as I agonised over draft 30 or spent days on one word, when I stumbled and raged, I’m thinking of moments when I was writing at my best, when fluency hit sceptical standards

And sparks flew
November 11, 2025 at 9:12 AM
thepaulconnolly.bsky.social
If I think about when I’ve found writing hard, when my creative conscience frowned and said ‘not good enough’ as I agonised over draft 30 or spent days on one word, when I stumbled and raged, I’m thinking of moments when I was writing at my best, when fluency hit sceptical standards

And sparks flew
November 11, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Paul Connolly
victoriaspires.bsky.social
The host for #promptcombo this (forthcoming 😉) week is the lovely @hool415.bsky.social with the rather intriguing prompt of #workinglove and a rather charming poem to start us off 💖
hool415.bsky.social Julian (Hool) @hool415.bsky.social · 2d
@rfsmith.bsky.social @dragonslayerma.bsky.social @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social
@victoriaspires.bsky.social I’m hosting #promptcombo this week.Use the #promptcombo and post me @hool415.bsky.social for the theme of #workinglove Anything on love, work or a mix of both! All welcome till 5pm Friday!!
Working Love I fell for you in work amid the photocopier’s paparazzi-flashing, had no control over seating so, between floors giddy elevator conversations snatched. Once, outside, during a fire evacuation test I stood by you, aware my ruddy-face was so obviously smouldering. Hold the note you gave me for supposed help on an urgently demanded spinning-hamster-wheel type task, just a rather economical: ‘Thank you v v much’ but I imagined that first word unexpectedly promoted and H.R. formally introducing its shyest new replacement: Love. Since that day to my certain knowledge you’ve never used ‘v v’ again… though I make sure those twanging Cupid arrowheads are near daily kept still in play.
November 9, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Reposted by Paul Connolly
fhpowellwriter.bsky.social
#promptcombo #workinglove
November 10, 2025 at 7:27 AM
Reposted by Paul Connolly
janpsolivagant.bsky.social
🙏 to @hool415.bsky.social #PromptCombo
#DeepTime take on #workinglove

#newpoem / #photography:
©Jan Peters/Solivagant Wisdom, 2025/2022-24

#poetry #JohnCage #MechtildOfMagdeburg #AsSlowAsPossible #orgelprojekt #MysticMonday #thework
Fatal Day in Halberstadt 1361 Decameron‘s Twelfth Night. Lollards hitch their prayers, their Plight to the Morning Star. Pestis Secunda scourges Plantagenet England. Giotto’s Last Judgement Slumbers in umbrage on the Cusp of the Quattrocento. Halberstadt, Flush, bustling prince-bishopric - its Cathedral-treasure stash of Relics looted at the Sack of Constantinople – hosts the First of its Kind: Chromatic keyboard, Twelve half-tones arranged in Octaves. Halberstadt - where, at St. Burchardi’s Monastery, Cistercian Sisters Scale the canonical hours: Minor - Terce, Sext, None and Compline; Major - Matins, Lauds and Vespers, in Perpetual rounds of Work, prayer and Lectio Divina. A century before, They nestle in a fecund vessel of Mystical vision, where Mechthild of Magdeburg - Fluid, erotic, vernacular - Lights the way for Meister Eckhart; where Mechtilde, Helfta’s Nightingale, Dispenses Special Grace to Dante as Matelda. Six-hundred-and-thirty-nine years Slip by. Millennium tenor Deeds St. Burchardi’s to Zen musical maverick already Eight years passed: Bird now uncaged - Purposeless, intentionless - Pecking away at membranes - Temporal, musical – from the Beyond. The Six-hundred-and-thirty-nine-year Lease unfolds As Slow as Possible on an Organ fashioned for this purpose. Hiss of compressors, taut notes Coasting over billowing groans until 2640. Pauses a week before 9/11: seventeen months of silence, then Nine movements, each lasting Seventy-one years. Chord kept up over seven years, between Benedict’s flight to Castel Gandolfo and Second Lockdown. Austere piety, Avant-garde whimsy - ©Jan Peters/Solivagant Wisdom, 2025 Spurning utility, instrumentality - Partaking in visions that far Outstrip lifetimes, Current-day zeitgeist confines. Contemplative prayer, Playful contingency - Tentative forays into Deep Time, Possible only when one Listens closely with Open heart, Open mind. Eternity disclosed in Nugacity, ephemera: Birds, lilies, Mustard seeds. Cloistered life, Choral work Whetting one’s Keenness for the Core - Still and small. ©Jan Peters/Solivagant Wisdom, 2025 ©Jan Peters/Solivagant Wisdom, 2024 Highly contrasted monochrome image of a statue by Susan Turcot (2007/8) of mystic Mechthild of Magdeburg (1207-1282) ©Jan Peters/Solivagant Wisdom, 2022 Poster-sized mural of US avant-garde composer, John Cale (1912-1992)
November 10, 2025 at 7:37 AM
thepaulconnolly.bsky.social
I am also delighted to say that the link in the post below now comes with my recording of the poem. Thanks to @walklistencreate.org for uploading 🙏🙏🙏
thepaulconnolly.bsky.social Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 5d
I am delighted that my #poem Devon Gothic is longlisted for the @walklistencreate.org WRITE ABOUT WALKING IN THE DARK competition. My huge thanks go to WLC & competition judges @marcellenewbold.bsky.social & Damaris West. You can read the poem in the link below 👇

#poetsonbluesky #poetrycommunity
Devon Gothic
write.walklistencreate.org
November 10, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Paul Connolly
tammykomoff.bsky.social
Congratulations, @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social !!
thepaulconnolly.bsky.social Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 5d
I am delighted that my #poem Devon Gothic is longlisted for the @walklistencreate.org WRITE ABOUT WALKING IN THE DARK competition. My huge thanks go to WLC & competition judges @marcellenewbold.bsky.social & Damaris West. You can read the poem in the link below 👇

#poetsonbluesky #poetrycommunity
Devon Gothic
write.walklistencreate.org
November 10, 2025 at 2:13 PM
thepaulconnolly.bsky.social
A strange experience yesterday. Afternoon collapsed on itself, not with a star’s power, exploded radiance falling back in concentrated immensity, but a drear apotheosis, a hum just above silent amid soiled white light. It was emptiness, not meditative or inviting action but a special kind of nothing
November 10, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Paul Connolly
paulwritespoems.bsky.social
Quite overwhelmed by all the positive feedback from the inaugural Book Bag Open Mic Session that happened years evening.

The next session will take place in January.

Huge thanks to all the readers and audience members who made it a great evening.

The poetry was exquisite.

🙏
November 10, 2025 at 9:17 AM
thepaulconnolly.bsky.social
Brilliant open mic last night from @paulwritespoems.bsky.social As well as his own poetry great contributions from @helenlaycock.bsky.social @markantonyowen.com @victoriaspires.bsky.social @alicestainer.bsky.social @francesca-laura.bsky.social @rburrows.bsky.social @merrildsmith.bsky.social & others
November 10, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Reposted by Paul Connolly
paulwritespoems.bsky.social
@francesca-laura.bsky.social
@rburrows.bsky.social
@merrildsmith.bsky.social
@alicestainer.bsky.social
@leiabutler.bsky.social
@internetofwords.com
@thepaulconnolly.bsky.social

Tim Green
Regine Ebner
Michael Du Bon
Evie Carlyn
November 9, 2025 at 10:26 PM
thepaulconnolly.bsky.social
Here's another thread of starter packs. First here's @charlottedonlon.bsky.social's brilliant starter pack of Poets and Poems. Please follow and repost if you can #poetsonbluesky #poetrycommunity
November 10, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Reposted by Paul Connolly
hool415.bsky.social
@rfsmith.bsky.social @dragonslayerma.bsky.social @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social
@victoriaspires.bsky.social I’m hosting #promptcombo this week.Use the #promptcombo and post me @hool415.bsky.social for the theme of #workinglove Anything on love, work or a mix of both! All welcome till 5pm Friday!!
Working Love I fell for you in work amid the photocopier’s paparazzi-flashing, had no control over seating so, between floors giddy elevator conversations snatched. Once, outside, during a fire evacuation test I stood by you, aware my ruddy-face was so obviously smouldering. Hold the note you gave me for supposed help on an urgently demanded spinning-hamster-wheel type task, just a rather economical: ‘Thank you v v much’ but I imagined that first word unexpectedly promoted and H.R. formally introducing its shyest new replacement: Love. Since that day to my certain knowledge you’ve never used ‘v v’ again… though I make sure those twanging Cupid arrowheads are near daily kept still in play.
November 9, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Reposted by Paul Connolly
thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social
Hi @hool415.bsky.social Ju, here's my first response to your excellent #promptcombo #workinglove. It describes the effect of temporarily having 99% hearing loss due to a middle ear blockage:
The Lost Buzz Helping folk gave me such satisfaction. Teenage Saturday worker stacking shelves finding books, answering peoples questions. Now I restock these supermarket shelves, apologising to customers that I can't hear them, but know somebody who can. My smile no longer a welcome mat, More: Private. Do Not Disturb. Can't hear you. I'm changed into what I don't want to be. Unhelpful. Anxious. Angry at myself because I can't listen. This is not me. Stranger shuts a heavy door on myself. I will find that buzz, again. I must learn new skills. Listen differently. Unlearn.
November 10, 2025 at 7:52 AM
Reposted by Paul Connolly
thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social
Welcome To The Starbeck Orion, Issue 13, Day Seventeen featuring the poetry of C. Oulens:
the880.substack.com/p/welcome-to...
Welcome To The Starbeck Orion, Issue 13, Day Seventeen featuring the poetry of C. Oulens
A Feast Of Words And Image
the880.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:04 AM
Reposted by Paul Connolly
thepaulconnolly.bsky.social
In truly shocking poetry, it’s the shock of the shock that tells. An obvious pileup of ‘shock’ words is scarcely shocking at all. But when terror lurks then tears through in a Symbolist tale of violation, in ‘love poetry’ that’s suddenly about abuse, or trauma rendered anatomic & cold, that is shock
October 9, 2025 at 7:55 AM
thepaulconnolly.bsky.social
The timing and nature of Tim Davie’s resignation, as well as his period in office, guarantee him a peerage for services to the Conservative Party, the Daily Mail, the Telegraph and Reform
November 9, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Reposted by Paul Connolly
thepaulconnolly.bsky.social
I am delighted that my #poem Devon Gothic is longlisted for the @walklistencreate.org WRITE ABOUT WALKING IN THE DARK competition. My huge thanks go to WLC & competition judges @marcellenewbold.bsky.social & Damaris West. You can read the poem in the link below 👇

#poetsonbluesky #poetrycommunity
Devon Gothic
write.walklistencreate.org
November 6, 2025 at 6:20 AM
Reposted by Paul Connolly
thepaulconnolly.bsky.social
I'm delighted to announce that
my poem Prefab (which can be found in the link below)
has been nominated for BEST OF THE NET
My boundless gratitude goes to @stridermarcusjones.bsky.social & @lothlorienpoetryj.bsky.social for nominating me 🙏

#poetrycommunity #poetsonbluesky #BOTN
Five Poems by Paul Connolly
Lothlorien Poetry Journal Edited by Strider Marcus Jones Poet - Publishes poetry and fiction online and in print periodically. https://lothlorienp
lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com
October 1, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Reposted by Paul Connolly
regretteruane.bsky.social
If you’d like to learn more about Mary Bishop & her extraordinary work, I wrote this for The Wellcome Collection in 2023.
But more than that, I would recommend looking for yourself at some of her work which is available to view online through their catalogue
wellcomecollection.org/stories/mary...
November 9, 2025 at 1:50 PM