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.
Michael Bloor
Bishop Shock at Inverallan Games Sandy Brodie pushed open the door of the Inverallan Barber’s. Lachie Brown was in the chair, with Jim MacBeth, the barber, in attendance and...
Robert Ford
Lobster tail Uncommon to find such a thing up here, beyond the exhausted seaweed, vacated mussel shells and limp trawlermen’s gloves in bleached out blue or yellow rubber, their...
Paul Vaughan
Man’s Best Friend You showed up again out of the blue. Your shaggy parasitic black fur a blight on my hearth-rug. You turned your wet nose up at the Tescos own brand dog food....
John Horváth Jr
They Break Their Bread and Drink The mother with her blackbread meal And watered soup dreams peace The cross she bears is its own grace She breaks her bread and drinks Grandmother...
Michael Estabrook
Defiance At my age I shouldn’t be outside when it’s 95 degrees, too dangerous, stay hydrated, stay indoors. Seems like the perfect time to get up on the ladder shirtless at...
Serge Neptune
First Rain Not sure how to get back home, are we? The frost has stuck its nails to the inside of the mouth and pulls. The roundabout we were treading upon crawled up with...
Terence Dooley
The 73 The steel-blue bus sailed round the wide rain-darkened esplanade that cordoned off the city hall, late Doric, grandiose, and Mussolini grey. I ran because I could and landed on...
Grant Tarbard
Gingham Have you ever seen a scarecrow's babe? On a rough hessian teat nuzzling, mewling at the shadow of out-of-the-way crows, Death's hands in the sky, lunatics of dew’s...
Carl Griffin
Sea Change The sea hoards broken drink dispensers and bones sinking in hot dog rolls. It’s been stained with red sauce. I heave my burger cart over sand dunes, shatter plastic spades...
Clive Donovan
White Blues The icebergs float in stately queues Cracked off from a continent fringed by blue. Come close, the boatman says, You can tap them, make them speak. We drift by nearer,...
Poetry Picks
Our favourite poems and ‘best of’ chosen from each month between 2007 and 2019
Gill McEvoy
Assignation A white moon waits for the sun to get to bed. Inside her room a woman waits till footsteps cease along the corridors, until the house is still, all breathing slow. Moon creeps up the sky. She whispers to his...
And the ‘Pick of the Month’ for July 2015 is Kinga Fabó
We are very pleased to announce that Kinga Fabó’s Not Because It's Chic is the voters’ choice for the IS&T Pick of the Month for July. Kinga has asked that her prize be donated to Age UK Not Because It's Chic Here I have a place where I can be sad. I...
Kinga Fabó
Not Because It's Chic Here I have a place where I can be sad. I adore it. I adore it. I exist only in roles. I want colors! Colors! Just as above me the sky is always blue. Not because it's chic. Not because of that. ...
Susan Castillo Street
Voices Oaks rumble in deep bass that thrums straight down their roots, draws from the earth. Hornbeams belt out Sixties pop songs, twist and shout. Willow divas wail soprano dramas in a minor key. In the blades of grass, whispers coil....
Ilse Pedler
Breathing Sometimes in the car I forget to breathe, almost. Respiration reduces to tiny transactions reluctant to leave any trace. Warm skin and car seat a new union, matter overcoming mind, the windscreen a cornea to see through,...
Jill Sharp
Leda plucks a swan Old now, the body that enchanted him grown coarse, how could he know her? Yet she knows him, this creature, even with fallen wings, eyes empty of desire. Not hers. She’s spent a lifetime finding what he stole from her, doing it...
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 'Snow Calling' by Agnieszka Studinska
Snow Calling by Agnieszka Studzinska Salt Publishing 2010 ISBN:978 - 1 - 84471 - 559 - 6 Hardback: £12.99 45pp“I...
Fiona Sinclair reviews 'Yes' by Caroline Gilfillan
Yes, by Caroline Gilfillan, Hawthorne Press, 2009: £5The title of Caroline Gilfillan‘s pamphlet seems to represent the...
Director of Nasty Little Press, Luke Wright answers Ten Questions for IS&T
This is part of new series called Ten Questions in which IS&T will be talking to small presses. Here,...
Interviews
Archived interviews from 2007 to 2020.
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