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.
Agency Workers by Pat Jourdan
Agency WorkersWe sit on New York-style chairs,stainless steel on cloudgrey carpet.Here in the heat and lightis our morning's ration of luxuryas the register fills up. Each namea strengthening of...
Jim Carson says its a Gemini thing
A Gemini Thing It’s a Gemini thingMy secret worldOpposites attract yin and yangAngel devil lecher priestEach made more by the other’s beingHooded serpent fur and fangs writheIn deadly dance...
Nigel Pickard's seen This Couple
THIS COUPLEwho, ten years ago,were so well knownin local circles – both feared a little, sniggered at onlybehind their backs: we were very young –this couple pass usin a fashionablerestaurant....
Mandy Pannett's not sure about this anniversary
ANNIVERSARYshe peeled off the price which he had forgotten to do and cut the red roses free of their cellophane but adding them stem by stemto her crystal vasetogether with the contents...
Poets don't fit in – by Ken Head
Not Fitting InNo one at the table believes in the helpfulness of gods or poetry.Good-humoured, you sit and chat, replete among emptied plates and glasses, towards a comforting consensus: ...
John Irvine is looking at life thru the bottom of a martini glass
diminishing valuesin a world of...
New poetry by Geoff Stevens
LOVERSThis is the vacuum of the daynight takes the lightand you with your superior tugging strengthtake the duvet awaywith your extra lung capacitybreathe all my airPlease turn down your...
Three short poems by Rachel Fox
Sweet NothingsYou are nothingI am lessLet's admit itWe're a messWhy one is childish rather than pretentiousBecause quite enough other peopleAlready doPretentiousSo wellAnd so...
Bottle Bank by Helen Pletts
Bottle Bank A lean trousered scrabble;Pressed aside the green-breast-curve, toe-tippedArched form a-gape reaching,Visage-crimson-cold.A jagged white slit creases the cheek;And the human...
Flash fiction by Abbie Clark
RalfDiving from left to right and zig zagging across the floor sparks shot from his heels, Ralf had never felt so alive, as he flicked the prosthetic limbs that had neatly been attached by feather...
Poetry Picks
Our favourite poems and ‘best of’ chosen from each month between 2007 and 2019
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Haibun, Tanka, Haiku, & Haiga
Haibun, Tanka, Haiku, & Haiga reviously published on the website.
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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.
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Blogs and news
Blogs and archived news from 2007 to 2020.
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Reviews
Archived reviews from 2007 to 2020.
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Interviews
Archived interviews from 2007 to 2020.
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