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.

Ali Jones

      The Mathematics of Past and Future Selves  There’s a small child sobbing, oppressed in her Sunday best, red velvet dress, patent mirrors scuffed. There’s a bear, one eye...

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Tom Kelly

    Memory Stairs (Terry Kelly 1958-2016) It’s not a constant ache, more longing, email will suffice, something bridging this gap. I see your doppelganger in a city street: high forehead,...

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Michael Bloor

      The Night I Ordered the Smoked Eel It’s late, late at night and I’m sprawled on the couch watching a DVD of Mel Brooks’ ‘The Producers.’ Somebody says, in a low drawl, ‘Must you...

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Dennis Tomlinson

    Danesbury Neurological Centre On a green hillside we found your clinic, wrote down our names at the day-bright reception, took the lift down to floor minus 1 - in a shared room you sat...

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Antoni Ooto

    A Garden There was something I wanted to say, now, I can’t remember. Something about a garden and a young man’s terrible illness. Yes, a garden… Richard’s garden. Nights of planning,...

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Poetry Picks

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

Mark Farley

  Gleaning Mother wears the vines of summer, hawthorn hackles raised in grief. She’s my father’s stubborn mourner, pecking at his horehound leaves. Nurses scatter apple blossom, bleach is masked in meadow scent. Father burrows under holly, glossy spines can’t...

Victoria Gatehouse

  Velvet Shells After an installation by Suze MacMurray. They’ve passed the test - that tap from Chef’s blade, a glimmer of muscle from those still alive before the pile-up, blue and black, on a white plate. She imagines lovers scooping out wine-soaked flesh,...

Julian Dobson

      Re-reading Theses on Feuerbach at the allotment I • Filthy as new potatoes freshly dug, muck on the hands is everything. II • My thoughts are solid: I imagine into life broad beans, Swiss chard, earthed leeks, curly kale. III • I practice...

Lucía Damacela

      The Angel in My Cupboard The angel living in my cupboard doesn’t flaunt angel hair his mane looking rather like a spoonful of whipped cream cheese the angel hidden in my cupboard is most visible when the evening light penetrates the room through...

Jean Atkin

      My grandmother teaches me Her flat swings through the mirrored door and we are wafted with mothballs. Her nylons hiss when she crosses her legs. Her shoes are mauve, with little heels. I trawl my fingers in the deeps of the rug, stir talcum...

Haibun, Tanka, Haiku, & Haiga

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

Two haiku by Juliet England

Rejection Dumped in Pizza Hut And it took me Four SeasonsTo get over it. Telephone HaikuOne four seven oneYou’ve no new calls to returnAnd no friends, either.• Juliet England is a regular contributor to IS&T

New haibun by Charles Hansmann

Seduction of the Poem  I am talking you away from the lover who promised to be faithful – that isn't a typo, and that lover's still me.  Get into the car.  That's all that it takes.  You're being talked to the place where nothing...

Two new haiga by Shanna

• Shanna Baldwin Moore is a teacher, poet and musician based on the Kona Coast of Hawaii, she describes her interests as wine making, painting and singing. She adds "I'm an old beat poet and have just found this form (haiga) in the last two years and am having...

Two tanka and one sedoka by Ken Head

Now the glue has dried,pages fall out easily.I have neglected the book and it smells of age.Decrepitude is winning.The ink flowed well thenwhen this brush was new and fresh.Laughable, I know,if you look at these old hands.Arthritis?  What a bad joke.Dreaming of...

Two haibun by Jeffrey Woodward

The Water's Way Look into the shallow and winding stream.  Water over stone, water over sand – what shall resist it?  Light dances hither and thither on an eddy, now shimmering like spangles or sparkling like diamonds, now lancing the eye like a...

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.

Interviews

Archived interviews from 2007 to 2020.

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