Welcome to the Ink Sweat & Tears Poetry Archive
This archive is formed from all the posts from that original Ink Sweat & Tears website, it now consists of everything we have published up to the end of 2019. IS&T was founded by Salt author Charles Christian in 2007 as a platform for new poetry and short prose, and experimental work in digital media. Charles ran the site single-handedly, publishing new work every day till 2010, when now sole editor, poet and artist Helen Ivory came on board as Deputy Editor. The Ink Sweat & Tears website continues to run and can be found here.
You can either click on the poems below which run from most recent to oldest, or you can search for particular poem or poet, there is also a list of all the categories to click through. From Prose & Poetry to Words and Images, Haibun, Tanka, Haiku & Haiga, in addition we have all of the Poems of the month and Poetry picks, old blogs and news, award nominated, reviews and interviews.
Please do take a look.
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Prose and poetry
Poems and prose published on the website from start to finish.
L.B. Jørgensen
Up in the Air Do you have any legroom up front, what is the view like from your seat and do you know the atmosphere; can you tell cumulus from cirrus? Have you heard of the supercooled...
William Kemp
Manuel, The Unfortunate after Paula Rego’s Last King of Portugal Both sides of the story of your death involve striped pyjamas, a maid and the deep rich red of your bedroom...
Jessica Sneddon
Notes on Architects Gold lambs’ tails on hazel break the pause anticipate the Equinox dipper flies, a white spark over Rothay lands at the curve, pilfers a swatch of moss,...
Sally Michaelson
Night Raider Creeping down at night to pillage the larder I am my own ghost on the stairs searching for Digestive biscuits, pungent oranges, hard cheese so I can sink in...
Arji Manuelpillai
an IKEA flat pack shelving unit I am following you up the aisle along the checkout beside you as you drive it’s in the back bubble wrapped I’m tearing the box ...
Sarah Barr
Orchids They are guilt-inducing like unwanted pets. Not being completely heartless, I water them every few months over spring and summer. Otherwise, I neglect and starve them....
Laura Rimmer
My First-Born When my first-born was formed in my womb, she called up to me for seven long weeks but I didn’t listen ’til the tiredness brought me down. Four tests I took,...
John Grey
Looking in on a Six Year Old It’s that time again. The time to look into the room. The door’s cracked open slightly but I nudge the entrance slightly wider, make width enough...
Helen Rye on National Flash-Fiction Day
Flat Pack He lays the pieces out on the rug in Euclidian point order. She spreads the instructions flat among toast crumbs. Stray curls of butter slick the paper down. He fixes A to B...
Melanie Branton
Cemetery Death lives on a hillside with a dirty virgin an angel with her face smashed in a baby who is “safe with Jesus” an anchor wrapped in a chain as if Hope would escape if...
Poetry Picks
Our favourite poems and ‘best of’ chosen from each month between 2007 and 2019
Philip Rush
A Dose of Chaminade At the end of the lawn as you contemplate the gentle lake and do your best to translate the poetry of the crows, you can hear against a small wind the drawing-room piano. It is playing a piece called L’Ondine, a piece which wears an...
Samuel Wilson-Fletcher
from Wave Diary Sunday I would have swallows nesting in my church and moss on the pews. I would have the tide wash in twice a day, to decorate the church with sacred cuttlefish bones and rosaries of shells. I would have the walls barnacled up to...
Isabelle Thompson
For Dad After ‘The Lark Ascending’ by Vaughan Williams When we walk down to the canal, through the industrial estate with its units of noise and smell, past the field, so green I swear I can see every blade needling its way through the alert...
Grant Guy
The Waitress Brought Him the Menu his wife threw him out told him he was not handsome told him he was not romantic told him he did not earn enough told him he was a bore in bed pulling the pickup out of the driveway like a thunder clap over the...
Maryam Gatawa
...And tell the stars Then tell the stars To take their leave too For within our breasts Shines the inward light To sail us through These fields of darkness Why wait for the gardens to Bear you sweet roses Or rent the cloaks of your hope To greedy...
‘Epoch’ by Rebecca Sandeman is your Pick of the Month for July 2018!
It came right down to the wire this time but Rebecca Sandeman's 'Epoch' edged home to be the Pick of the Month for July 2018. This 'powerful' 'empathetic' poem moved voters and marked Rebecca, in her words 'usually a fiction writer', as one to watch in poetry. Rebecca...
Haibun, Tanka, Haiku, & Haiga
Haibun, Tanka, Haiku, & Haiga reviously published on the website.
Four haiku from Neal Whitman for a Monday
clapping cormorantsstrung along the shorelinesun downa common murrebehind the Sea & Sandbar Grilla generous tipthose two runningunder his upended coatearly spring rainthe nurse's gentle knockends visiting hourswinter twilight* Neal Whitman is a poet who splits...
New haiga by Rachel Green
* Rachel Green is a novel writer who will shortly become an novel author but she starts every day with walking her dogs and writing poetry. She has also started 'tweeting' an early morning haiku from her Twitter account – you can find her here...
Mike Montreuil has a senryu sequence
VIDEO REQUIREMENTS a Senryu Sequence you must be able to handle existing views –smile for the camera! the frame ratemuch too slow –I’ve lost you again scalable graphicuser interface –say that five times!pan and tilt –you keep movingin bed at odd...
New haiga by John Irvine
* John Irvine is a regular IS&T contributor who lives in New Zealand – he adds that it's getting colder there now, with winter drawing on. He also has a collection of speculative fiction under development.
New haibun: Roger Jones is waiting for Labor Day
Labor DayTo my surprise, the boss tells me I can have the whole weekend off. I elect to drive home to see family – seventy miles north. Little traffic, mainly farmland, some modest towns, a small lake or two....
New haiga by Francis Masat
* Francis Masat is co-editor of Key-Ku (Florida Keys haiku) and author of Lilacs After Winter (haibun) and other books. The haiku used in this haiga received an honorable mention in the Tokutomi Memorial Haiku Contest, 2006.
12 Days of Christmas
All the poems from our regular 12 days of Christmas feature.
The Third Day of Christmas
How It Hits YouPicking up the Christmas postfrom the old house,I unclench my fingers one by one from the steering wheel,breathe out.And in the lowering lightagainst the hills of someone else’s home,the yellow advent squares of the traincome close to the road we...
The Second Day of Christmas
A Christmas UniverseFor CharlotteThis year you’ve grown too old for anagrams, that devil’s name within a Santa hat. You tell me that you have no need of things or wishes that you’ll later learn to curse: the Midas touch, the genii trickster’s lamp are all behind...
The First Day of Christmas
The Expat and the Angel Come to LunchI had high hopes. I have prepared mutabel and labneh, Arabic bread, salad leaves from Saudi, fresh conversation. My Englishneighbour shares her views on lazy maids, her husband's job in small drill bits, the cost of water,...
Fiona Sinclair's 'White Christmas'
'White Christmas' When the Christmas Eve snow silenced the trafficthat screamed through our village,mother and I , stolen chocolate andfrowning school report forgotten,trespassed with present opening thrillinto the middle of the highwayand thumbing our...
The Eleventh Day of Christmas
The Winter Outing of the Woolhope Naturalists Field Club, December 1870The ladies of the party are helped over the stileby whiskered botanists fond of a well turned ankle.Miss Taylor draws a notebook from her beaded reticuleand writes “The bunch of mistletoe was so...
The Tenth Day of Christmas
SnowWinter comes with the half-remembrance of rainand the sudden opening out of the city into wide white vistas of snow.A trail of footprints through unsullied whiteness,brings a memory of shuffling home frozen-footedwhere orange street light created pools and...
Words & Images
Words with images previously published on the website.
New animated Billy Collins poem
Our latest Billy Collins animation is of his poem Now and Then with animation by Eun-ha Paek of Milky Elephant.
New podcast by Graham Burchell
Here's our latest poetry podcast recording, courtesy of PoetCasting.co.uk. The poem – Still Waiting – is by Graham Burchell. Graham Burchell has published a pamphlet Ladies of Divided Twins (Erbacce Press, 2008) and a collection Vermeer’s buy lasix tablets Corner...
New podcast by Maureen Boyle
Here's our latest poetry podcast recording, courtesy of PoetCasting.co.uk. The poem – Invoking St Ciaran – is by Maureen Boyle. Maureen Boyle grew up in County Tyrone. She studied at Trinity Collge in Dublin, then the Universities of East Anglia and London. In...
Hunger – a Billy Collins poetry animation
Our latest Billy Collins animation is of his poem Hunger – the animation is by FAD.
John Irvine's lost his sheep
John Irvine says "This isn't exactly a haiga but rather a limerick set into a photo I took not far from where I live..."
The Country – a Billy Collins animation
Billy Collins reads his poem The Country – the animation is by Brady Baltezor of Radium.
Blogs and news
Blogs and archived news from 2007 to 2020.
So many riches!
Dear everyone Since the beginning of 2012 the submissions rate had been increasing considerably, and since we...
Some thoughts on poetry from Peter Daniels
Round up the usual precepts: a poetry manifesto Poetry is what you can get away with. There are rules, and ways...
Andrea Holland wins the Cafe Writers Norfolk Commission
The 2012 Café Writers Norfolk Commission, in collaboration with IS&TPoet and UEA tutor Andrea Holland is £3,000...
Reviews
Archived reviews from 2007 to 2020.
Tanmoy Bhattacharjee reviews ‘My Glass of Wine’ by Kiriti Sengupta
Going through the gorgeous, red-slim book My...
Geetu Vaid reviews ‘This Summer and That Summer’ by Sanjeev Sethi
Picking up this slim collection of poems, one wonders whether the dainty yellow paper boats peering at...
Grant Tarbard reviews ‘Fates of the Animals’ by Padrika Tarrant
This is Padrika Tarrant's third book, Fates of the Animals, following Broken Things (Salt 2007) and The...
Interviews
Archived interviews from 2007 to 2020.
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