Matt Gilbert

Extract from a description of a character reading in ‘O Caledonia’ by Elspeth Barker.

What a way to describe an avid reader. From the excellent ‘O Caledonia’ by Elspeth Barker. It’s filled with brilliant, distinctive and memorable passages like this. 😀

A century of care: Wildlife Trusts mark 100th birthday with woodland project First of the trusts, formed with 12 people in a Norfolk pub in 1926, buys swath of farmland to restore to nature

The air is full of singing skylarks that this year will nest on the arable fields without disturbance from the plough. Roe deer gaze at us from a distance and a Chinese water deer bursts from a sallow thicket beside an old pond.

An 18 word fragment of a poem. Either, I’m an inept spy, or a pole-reversed St Francis.   Creatures scatter, even gnats are scathing, yet I’m certain what I seek is waiting, somewhere in the trees.

Hello @matthewmcsmith.bsky.social @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social here’s something for 18 word #fragmentsfriday

Wild Hearted Woman Helen Ivory on belonging, identity and finding a voice – even if it has a Luton accent

Wild Hearted Woman
open.substack.com/pub/thefrida...

How an underground fungal map of the world's oldest, slowest-growing rainforest trees can boost Earth's resilience The temperate rainforests of the Chilean Coast Range are home to a spectacular array of life: iridescent blue lizards, tiny wild cats called kodkods, and curly vines of waxy red bellflowers. Towering ...

Globally, mycorrhizal fungal communities move roughly a billion tons of carbon per year into Earth's soils, above all in old-growth forests.

Wild, natural ecosystems are the bedrock of a healthy planet. It's time we started recognising and acting on that.
share.google/afcBcyPH7lVc...

Water firms sent bailiffs to tens of thousands of homes for debts under £1,000 Most recorded visits are for smaller debts, data from England and Wales suggests, though method of recovery is a postcode lottery

www.theguardian.com/business/202... “The system is more interested in prosecuting families that are struggling to pay their water bills than the company directors responsible for polluting our rivers and seas while lining their pockets…at the expense of both their customers and our environment.”

🚨 It looks like the UK government is gearing up to upend copyright law in favour of AI companies, legalising the theft of their work.

This is despite creatives' huge protests, and despite previous proposals being roundly rejected by the public.

Please spread the word.

🧵 1/4

Wonderful slip by Rachel Reeves in her statement to the Commons.

The ‘changes we promised’ morphed into the ‘promises we changed’.

The Book Bag: Poetic Voices – March 2026 It's March already. Spring approaches with pace, clocks are changing this month and I fell like time is something we can't grasp both figuratively or metaphorically. As we slide gently into the (hopefully) warmer months, it's my pleasure to bring you another Poetic Voice. I first encountered this poet on social media and was startled at the beauty and elegance of language used in poems that always include multiple layers and deep emotional connection with readers. I feel very lucky to be able to share original work from this tremendously talented writer.

As we slip gently in to the (hopefully) warmer months, meteorological Spring begins today. The Book Bag: Poetic Voices also has a new featured poet and I feel lucky to be sharing original work from a tremendous talent...

Click to find out who the new Poetic Voice

In order to understand UK politics in 2026 you must realise that a plumber & plasterer doesn't represent the interests of the working class because she is left-wing but a wealthy broadcaster & former academic does represent the interests of the working class because he is right-wing. Hope this helps

Have you seen Starmer’s letter to Labour MPs? He uses the term himself. 😬

Hmm, blinkered, wilful head in sand bollocks & insulting to voters & Green Party. Seems Starmer really doesn’t get it, or would rather lose and finish off Labour than change direction from Reform-lite ‘Hero Voter’ insanity. Reads as if he doesn’t like Labour’s own actual past or potential voters.

Ancient by Luke Barley review – the secret history of Britain’s woodlands A former ranger tells the story of how the UK’s forests intimately shaped – and were shaped by – its people

Ancient by Luke Barley review – the secret history of Britain’s woodlands

"The bitter wine of narrow defeat" is a magnificent Day Today-ism. The stretched twig of electoral peace is indeed at melting point. Personally I'm imbibing the hazy IPA of political vindication

Communion Wafer – Louise Machen Communion Wafer . . Louise Machen has an MA in Creative Writing from The University of Manchester. Her pamphlet, The Words of Others, is published with Hedgehog Press and her debut collection, I Am…

Communion Wafer – Louise Machen @louloumach.bsky.social

atriumpoetry.com/2026/02/27/c...

Well done Hannah Spencer and The Greens. Glad to see there is a progressive, anti Reform movement out there. Maybe Labour will learn that chasing the sort of voters who want Reform - who with their traditions they should never be courting anyway - is not a winning strategy.

Greens’ victory in Labour stronghold is first ever in Westminster byelection and establishes party as credible anti-Reform alternative.

Will deepen Labour MPs concern that party is haemorrhaging voters on left to thwart rise of Reform & prompt further scrutiny of PM’s decision to block Andy Burnham

Seems legit.

this has been true forever

I absolutely love this. February’s Verve Poem of the Month, by the brilliant @corrintachibana.bsky.social

Ghosts of Myself – Paul Stephenson Ghosts of Myself . . Paul Stephenson’s debut collection is Hard Drive (Carcanet, 2023), shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award and Polari Book Prize. His last pamphlet was Selfie with Waterlilie…

Ghosts of Myself – Paul Stephenson
atriumpoetry.com/2026/02/24/g...

Poetry of Departures Muldoon, Allnutt, Kunial and the art of the soft landing

open.substack.com/pub/jwikeley...

Ooh, witty, wise and observant post on poetic endings [insert clanking symbol/unexpected rhyming couplet or unearned abstract profundity here…]

Chalk streams are finally mentioned in the National Planning Policy Framework - but it’s not enough. They must be formally classed as irreplaceable habitats for stronger protection from damaging development.

Speak up: use our quick e-action template here 👇 https://ow.ly/7tpS50YiKSH

'My friends, both white,
turn pink to see me point,
but he is keen to speak.'

- from 'Country Marks'

My poem, recently published in 'FROM HERE TO THERE', is a true story of a cab ride years ago. Hope you enjoy reading it. 🌿

Agent sues over book about Andrew MB being dropped by US publisher.

Meanwhile, in further tone-deaf, entitled arsehole grasper news…

When a novelist starts writing poetry

A short poem by Matt Gilbert Revenant Legion   The mad parade shambles out from fetid rooms, each lurching step an obdurate attempt to reverse our progress.

Hello @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social @matthewmcsmith.bsky.social Here’s one for #fragmentsfriday

SHARE AWAY!!! Announcing a new project - a platform each Friday.

#FRAGMENTSFRIDAY’ - 18 words or less
- a startling, inventive poem.

Tag in #fragmentsfriday and @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social & share one startling fragment of your own poetry.

No A.I. generated poetry!

In Our Time - John Keats - BBC Sounds How one of the great Romantic poets produced so much in his brilliant but short life.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...