Every time you wear a mask, you reinforce for other people that it's okay to do it, in addition to the protection it provides. I refuse to feel bad or weird about it. It's just a thing I do. And I hope I'm helping others feel more confident about masking as well.
12.03.2026 16:49
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It's okay - I can just down three litres of water and hallucinate an incorrect answer while telling myself I'm right and everyone else is just being unreasonable.
In fact, if someone wants to pay me to drink a bunch of water and tell them the truth (in a kind and constructive manner), I'm down...
12.03.2026 13:47
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Stop. Trying. To push. AI. On me. You faeculent cysts.
12.03.2026 11:51
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Get more from Fay Roberts on Patreon
Poet, Musician, Storyteller, Teacher, Voice Artist
If you'd like to see these earlier in the week, why not subscribe to my Patreon...?
patreon.com/fayroberts?u...
12.03.2026 11:00
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Having decided to post my topical poems every time they don't get selected by the lovely @rattlepoetry.bsky.social's "Poets Respond" challenge (give them a gander!), here's this week's, a glosa prompted by this whole "are we heading into WWIII?!" shenanigans.
12.03.2026 11:00
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Sunk Cost
I’ve been writing a lot more lately, and submitting pieces to different places. One of the places I’ve started submitting to is the Rattle “Poets Respond” – a weekly call to write something topical, inspired by the news. Since these are going to go out of date very quickly, I’ve decided that, when they’re rejected, they’ll get posted on my Patreon (and, a few days later, here).
The inspirations for this glosa are outlined below the poem.
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
– Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
In for a penny, in for a pounding,
drowning the sounds of instruments,
the tallying, the rallying, the
shrillness of the endless quest for
excellence at the behest of a head who
rules with a stern eye and high talk,
storming and sending them out with blessings.
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest.
And we are cresting, testing the envelope,
groping around for the best place to
play pax – tracking the difficult,
the ultimate target,
crafting headlines, fed lines and
by Christ it’s better to be up here,
peering into the distance and bringing an end
to children, ardent for some desperate glory.
Hallelujah, we’re imbued with duty,
booting up and jacking in,
scintillating with certainty,
accreting so many hit points.
Adroit like tigers, we roar
adorations and praise to the glory
of all we survey, made bold by
the old Lie: Dulce et decorum est.
We are investing – we’re very sweet and fitting,
grips tightening, slipping over new lands,
bruised hands battling
dissolution, finally calling an end to
rumours of pedantry,
picking up the kids and dipping them in the Styx,
tipped for Pyrrhic victory,
pro patria mori.
Charge of the 2nd Lancers at El Afuli - in the Valley of Armageddon, 5 am, Friday 20th September 1918 by Thomas Cantrell Dugdale, courtesy of Picryl, which also supplied most of the image description
This piece is inspired by not only the sinking of the Iranian frigate by the US, but also the rather perturbing reports that:
commanders have been invoking extremist Christian rhetoric about biblical “end times” to justify involvement in the Iran war to troops, according to complaints made to a watchdog group.
There are oblique references here also to the bombing in Iran that destroyed a girls’ school in late February. I used the Spanish poetry form called the Glosa/ Glose, taking the last four lines of Wilfred Owen’s seminal war piece Dulce et Decorum Est as the cadenza/ epigraph (the famous piece that’s incorporated into the tribute), but decided on internal rhyming/ assonant free verse for the rest. (The Latin quote seems to have inspired me to mix in some Classical references to boot.)
12.03.2026 08:34
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I wonder if OP deleted the post because the replies didn't go as they expected...
11.03.2026 21:16
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If you'd rather not access via Patreon, then it'll be going up on my main poetry blog on Thursday.
07.03.2026 18:44
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Sunk Cost | Fay Roberts
Get more from Fay Roberts on Patreon
Having decided to post my topical poems every time they don't get selected by the lovely @rattlepoetry.bsky.social's "Poets Respond" challenge (give them a gander!), here's this week's, a glosa prompted by this whole "are we heading into WWIII?!" shenanigans.
www.patreon.com/posts/sunk-c...
07.03.2026 18:44
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I loved it. And I'm good with it staying as it was. And Whedon not profiting off anything else ever again.
So no. Not excited.
05.03.2026 22:57
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Also: Whedon would have to be nowhere near it.
05.03.2026 22:50
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Same. What with so many favourite characters dead and all.
05.03.2026 22:50
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A cartoonish, probably mallard drake (green head, yellow bill, brown chest, greyish everything else) executed with a digital stylus using the "oil paint" tool on some generic MS Paint-like package on my work computer. It is standing, looking like a slightly smug cross with a pigeon, yellow feet overlapping somewhat, against a white background because the meeting wasn't that long, come on...
Was in a departmental meeting just now where the majority were in a swanky conference centre and a handful of us were remote. Presumably in order to have us not feel left out of the post-it note exercise, we were asked to list five capabilities outside work and "try to draw a duck". Behold, my duck!
05.03.2026 16:14
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Palimpsest for the end of February
I’ve been writing a lot more lately, and submitting pieces to different places. One of the places I’ve started submitting to is the Rattle “Poets Respond” – a weekly call to write something topical, inspired by the news. Since these are going to go out of date very quickly, I’ve decided that, when they’re rejected, they’ll get posted on my Patreon (and, a few days later, here).
This is the first one! A sestina for the repetitive nature of the news cycle and social media right now:
*
The sins of men these days seem… uncountable,
and we petition the mighty to conduct
us – they signed on to drive
this vessel, after all.
And they tell us being powerful is hard!
Don’t scupper the ship, we need them; don’t pull the trigger!
We’ve turned, we’ve pointed – we’ve seen the rigger
of the system; the evidence is countable
but so, so hard,
while we try to keep eyes on the conduct
of them all –
every single one, from birth, was taught to rive.
And yet, now we’re asking them to drive
forth the sinners, snip the strings of riggers,
their rigour’s suddenly forgotten in the calls
for clemency; we’re begging those accountable
to ditch excuses, conduct
proper searches, come down hard.
But even getting drip-fed poison is hard,
a larger world emerging under our feet, as we drive
home the messages, the revelations of misconduct
abducting our attention, while trigger after trigger
is pulled, and sins litter our screens, uncountable,
undoubtable – big and small.
No wonder, for some, reality begins to pall:
it’s all too hard,
and here’s a game, a way to keep from feeling accountable,
just trust the voice of the virtual, it’ll drive
the hurt away, let’s play ArtIst, while the downrigger
trawls the spoils of others’ talents to reconduct.
What’s the score? Who’s conducting?
The product is ready, laid out on the stall
don’t stop – you can’t let these spriggers
rob us of everything you’ve worked for, so hard.
Words are malleable – libido doesn’t just mean sex drive
it’s an appetite for living, would you deprive us, The Accountable?
It just takes a touch to trigger a witch hunt – gold is a great conductor,
locked in virtual stocks – unaccountable? Maybe not all…
If you can’t take it with you, burn everything – especially the hard drive…
*
If you’d like to write your own sestina, you can access the tool I created here. let me know how you got on if you do!
Image made clumsily with CorelDraw and MS PowerPoint (because fuck AI)
05.03.2026 08:34
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Not B4 I've said my piece…
04.03.2026 14:27
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I was just lucky to log in mere seconds after the page sizes post was made and couldn't resist pushing the envelope.
Call that AD4D...
04.03.2026 13:13
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Oh, now this can ABSOLUTELY fuck off!
03.03.2026 22:56
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I guess that's us wearing the foolscap, then…!
03.03.2026 22:43
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Palimpsest for the end of February | Fay Roberts
Get more from Fay Roberts on Patreon
I've been writing and submitting more. Which means being rejected more, which is... okay... character-building, right?
Anyway, I thought I'd start sharing some of the things it would be more difficult to recycle on my Patreon:
www.patreon.com/posts/palimp...
03.03.2026 14:45
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A screenshot of a page from Fish Publishing. The text says: "
Flash Fiction Prize
Tania Hershman
Tania Hershman,
judge for 2026.
Summary:
Open
Judge: Tania Hershman
Word Limit: 300
Closes: 28 Feb '26
Results: 18 April '26
Anthology Published: July '26
Entry Fees: €16 / €11 subsequent entries. (Optional Critique €45)
Prizes:
Top ten stories will be published in the FISH ANTHOLOGY 2026.
1st: €1,000
2nd: Online Writing Course + €300
3rd: €300"
And there is a black and white headshot of Tania Hershman.
Not long left to submit your 300-word gems to Fish Flash Fiction Prize. I'm judging and I'm reading ALL the entries, so you know I'll see your story. Deadline Feb 28, send your word-shapes even if you think they might be "too weird" or "not flash enough"! fishpublishing.com/competition/...
20.02.2026 15:16
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#27 - Strange Beasts Arrested
@FayRoberts.bsky.social’s final sonnet this year is inspired by Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s romantic, mythic, surreal creation, the Thai movie Sud Pralad (2004), written by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and starring Banlop Lomnoi, Sakda Kaewbuadee, and Huai Dessom
I do not want to watch this fi@leannemodenpoet tonight.
Don’t get me wrong: I want to see the thing,
to get engaged with strangers’ layered plights,
suspend myself, and feel my spirit sing.
The critics call it vivid, taut, and lush;
ambitious, beautiful, and quite surreal.
The thing is – art that good should not be rushed,
but, damn it all: I signed up for this deal!
Well, fine, I’ll check the platforms it was on;
both English phrase and Thai to be quite sure…
It’s disappeared; it’s vanished – up and gone!
So was it ever there, or just a lure?
It seems they’ll have to wait another day
(until I’ve found a price I’m game to pay).
Image from the Sabzian listing of the press kit for the movie
Humph! I was really looking forward to this one, but was worried I didn’t have the spoons to focus on subtitles and complex, mythic symbolism tonight. Now we’ll never know! If you have access to the DVD, which is the only legal place it seems to be (and too short notice for my deadline), you can watch the 1:58 long, Thai language movie there. Content warnings include: violence, homophobia, heartbreak (I guess… from the stuff I’ve read!). Let us know what you thought if you’ve seen it!
The latest sonnet: #27 - Strange Beasts Arrested #28sonnetslater #classicmovies #FayRoberts #sonnet #SudPralad
27.02.2026 09:34
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#24 - Sikiliza Kwa Wahenga
(@russell.j.turner)
This year we are using fi@leannemodenpoets from the Sight and Sound 2022 list as prompts
Sixth up from me is Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017 - #100), a curtal sonnet taking inspiration and its title from a Swahili refrain used in the soundtrack
Listen to the elders as the stories begin,
drinking brews of mesmerism ‒ a sunken place
manifests affected care and narcissism.
Monuments to second chances, trophies of skin ‒
blind are they that seek to use another’s face,
deaf to the tranquil, the wild and quiet rhythm.
Listen to the last songs of deer that lay dying,
dance in disbelief the gods may grant you their grace,
crack the artifice and glamours that imprison.
Listen to the sorrows, to the children crying
“listen, listen, listen…”
RJT
The latest sonnet: #24 - Sikiliza Kwa Wahenga #28sonnetslater #curtalsonnet #GetOut #Kiswahili #SightandSound
24.02.2026 07:34
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I've been having fun with "Gloss Badloss", personally...
27.02.2026 12:42
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I've been having fun with "Gloss Badloss", personally...
27.02.2026 12:42
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There are so many to choose from…
27.02.2026 10:50
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The Blue Sky Left is once again divided.
Are you team Matt Badloss (n.) or Matt Badlose (v.)?
27.02.2026 09:08
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“The anti-trans machine is co-ordinated and funded by dark money.” Highlighted words emphasise “co-ordinated” and “dark money.” Below, text reads: “We pledge to: investigate and expose them.”
Sex Matters raised more than £60,000 to bring a case seeking Trans+ exclusion from ponds.
We're asking for just a fraction of that amount - to expose the lies, misinformation and dark money fuelling this movement's agenda.
Support us: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/queeraf2026
27.02.2026 10:36
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