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.
To Round Out our Celebration of International Women’s Day, a New Poem from IS&T Editor Helen Ivory.
Six Signs You Might Be a Slattern Are you a little draggle-tail; do your skirts bedevil leavings from the gutter? When you take a turn around the park do bitches bevy close...
Editor Deborah Alma on the #MeToo Anthology, for International Women’s Day
#UsTogether I remember back in October, listening to some of those many conversations that started up in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein allegations and was surprised to hear male...
Julia Webb, on the Eve of International Women’s Day
All the Women all the women, all the women of Texas flock towards it (Hilda Sheehan, The Box of Books 1) all the women, all the women are inside me now shouting that this is a fine day...
Stephen Claughton
Musical Ear Then there was the Welsh, male-voice choir that followed you around. They’d been at it for weeks, you said, turning up unannounced like carol singers at...
Rachel Carney
Coming Home Bridal ghosts of cherry trees welcome me home: still, mute, white omens in thick night, their laced branches held out like an offering – a glimmer of...
Neil Richards
Sectioned The light chatters to itself It’s never known darkness Each hour we are cut from sleep To check we are still breathing The door to sleep must be...
William Bedford
Listening to the Cock* I lived and worked in America. As the years passed by, I did not grow any younger. Marc Chagall. New York! New York! O my America! my new-found land of...
Matt Duggan
New Beginnings We watched a man chase rainbows off the estate a starched pattern circled his greased back hair sipping a boiler maker with a brandy chaser, a glass of Cherry B...
George Sandifer-Smith
Nude in flux Bold typed I filled the silver page set in alchemical frame of wardrobe doors post-shower and pre-afternoon. Toady contours and pregnant boy jabs howl to the...
Deborah McClean
Milk and Honey It's 22:37 and I look down and see you. You've had another hard day; I'm not surprised you look so sad. I'm sure you are thinking of the good old days; those days when you were...
Poetry Picks
Our favourite poems and ‘best of’ chosen from each month between 2007 and 2019
Stella Wulf
Double Take It was my birthday. In time-honoured wont I took the bus to the Rubicon for tea and cake with Uncle Pete, Master of Treats and Ceremonies. The Tea Room chinked and tinkled, snug with radio hum and finger crooked genteel...
Barbara O’Donnell
Itch Stacks of National Geographics filled the wardrobe to my waist. The dust inviting sneezes. Misaligned yellow spines. Careless visitors would toss them back any old way. My fingers would itch to restore their rightful order. Oh...
Josep Chanzà
Conversation The night he was taken my father's fingers danced like icy spiders: dab-dab-dab at his hospital gown. He talked to his drip obliged to welcome every drop to the coven of wild spirits digging their heels on his skin. The white...
Chrissie Cuthbertson
For the last time With a mother's practised care I grasp your greenstick frame and hoist you to your unsure feet though you would be easy to hurt. A time will come that will be the last I perform this simple service and neither one...
David Ishaya Osu
Trance the whole world was traveling yesterday in a big boat that couldn't carry a star nor a grain of sugar. the whole world still couldn't reach its room before the piano girl's voice by midnight as of this morning when the whole world...
Josephine Corcoran
Old Girls In the library, we lost ourselves gazing out at traffic, yearning for stories of adventure and flight. Now, every night, we fly and hum, our bodies carrying the pollen of our lives: dust from cinema seats, grains of...
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.
Ken Head reviews Bridge, by Laura Elliott
Bridge by Laura Elliott (Cafe Writers Norfolk Commission) Gatehouse Press Ltd. 2010ISBN: 978 - 0 - 9562083 - 7 -...
Fiona Sinclair reviews 'Advice on Wearing Animal Prints' by Selima Hill
Advice on Wearing Animal Prints by Selima Hill, £5.50 Flarestack Poets, 2009Selima Hill’s pamphlet Advice On Wearing...
Penelope Shuttle reviews 'Whistle' by Martin Figura
Whistle by Martin Figura, Arrowhead Press 2010When Martin Figura was a ten year old boy, his father Frank...
Interviews
Archived interviews from 2007 to 2020.
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