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.

Sam Burt

      A Consensus One bright morning in December, the court agreed unanimously that: the former prime minister was two months dead; he was guilty of treason in absentia; he had...

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Julia Gibson

      Staying Put When you stick around for long enough, you get good at being in a place. You know the best secluded spots where you can watch stars or sunbathe on a rock, letting...

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John Porter

      Bear hunt The mistake was leaving the window open an exit to fly to the forest at the moon’s invitation and track the smell on the sweat from the firs. Is she hiding tonight? Or...

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Leah Larwood

      Alchemy of sleep When night turns to ice, and where walls turn to rain turn to sea, after half light turns to day dark, and where beds turn to urns and time turns to you, and...

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Rachel Goodman

      Composition 10/ Pier and Ocean – Piet Mondrian a peeled eye prickling turned to the outside I am already here underknowledge poking through I itch with the shame of it follicles...

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Vivien Thomason

      Louche Old Man in Tartan Trousers Swaggering up Upper St Denim jacket Wild grey hair 70 if a day Heading to the Hope and Anchor? Dragging on a Soubrani What have you lived...

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Ruth Kelsey

      Invigilation In fifty years there’ll only be the sanitised versions, adaptations printed in school text-books, papers analysed to death by academics; another chapter of our...

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Lee Prosser

    White-Knuckles In the force of the fall, it’s OK to call your screams outbursts of joy as long as they don’t shrill. You can fool everyone, if you keep your body still and maintain a...

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Poetry Picks

Our favourite poems and ‘best of’ chosen from each month between 2007 and 2019

L Kiew

      Rhubarb ear-deep amid the petioles engorged and pink listening to the rain striking a timpani of leaf-blades my eardrums itch after that slither adder crowning the rhubarb its hissing wire-brushes my cochlea crimson stalks     A...

Anna Saunders

      Blake Draws The Ghost of a Flea Blake says the flea complains of a haunting. He says he will draw the ghost within the flea. From the darkness of the mahogany board, Blake exhumes a body. Not a pinprick creature that could be crushed under the...

Derek Adams

      Auto-da-fé (London 1955) In the mirror of fitting room at Harvey Nichols. I am wearing a black sanbenito by Tomás de Torquemada, decorated with devils from my past. Outside the London streets are foggy, in Lewes they will already be stacking wood...

Silas Gorin

      Last Kiss She landed, her first hours totally floored. Away from the nest far away as a star. Her wings are a lattice of straw with lachrymal dope binding the pale rose-raw reed of her skin; her eyes are a blessing of fear thrumming the lids as...

Haibun, Tanka, Haiku, & Haiga

Haibun, Tanka, Haiku, & Haiga reviously published on the website.

Three haiku by Jac Cattaneo

Sea Palling – three haikuWhite tern arrows at waters of the wind-ripped bay –glides before plungingTall poles stand rusted sentry over strips of green,purple, turquoise seaSwallows weave acrosscloud-nets of gauze, thread through theinsect-heavy skies* Jac Cattaneo is...

New haiku + illustration

With the UK having already had its coldest winter for 25 years (and there's plenty more to come say weathermen) here's a seasonal haiku by regular IS&T contributor Patsy Goodsir, along with a photo she took at sunset yesterday (Sunday)...A New Year...

Midsummer haiga by Rachel Green

It's Midsummer's Night Eve (well it still is here in the UK) and what better than a faerie themed haiga...* Rachel Green is a regular IS&T haiga contributor – as well as a novel writer who will shortly become an novel author but she starts every day with...

12 Days of Christmas

All the poems from our regular 12 days of Christmas feature.

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Words & Images

Words with images previously published on the website.

New podcast by The Joy of Six

Here's our latest poetry podcast recording, courtesy of PoetCasting.co.uk. The poem – Package – is by The Joy is Six, a collective of published and prize-winning poets based in England who collaborate and perform at events throughout the UK. The tracks is taken...

New podcast by Hannah Silva

Here's our latest poetry podcast recording, courtesy of PoetCasting.co.uk. The poem – Talking to Silence – is by another IS&T contributor Hannah Silva. Hannah Silva performs her poetry regularly in the South West. In London she has performed within La...

New podcast by Ken Head

Here's our latest poetry podcast recording, courtesy of PoetCasting.co.uk. The poem – Winter Collection – is by regular IS&T contributor Ken Head and taken from his new digital chapbook published by Snakeskin.* Instructions: To access this podcast: click on...

New poetry podcast by Jo Bell

Here's the first of our poetry podcast recordings, courtesy of PoetCasting.co.uk. The poem – Things I Should Have Said At The Time, But Never Did – is by Jo Bell. An archaeologist by training, Jo Bell is the Co-ordinator of National Poetry Day (October 9th) and...

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. Books of haiku available from www.leatherdyke.co.uk

Blogs and news

Blogs and archived news from 2007 to 2020.

Reviews

Archived reviews from 2007 to 2020.

Interviews

Archived interviews from 2007 to 2020.

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