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.
Ken Evans
There are No Words on a Dead Planet Be yourself. Be one of many. Shout with the only weapon you have. Be nicely raging. Be credible. Be insistent. Be alive. Be floppy in their...
Edward Lee
Un Chien Andalou My Father as a dog lies on the road Sunning as clouds roll overhead And the breeze dons the scent of the olive bushes. He raises his foot to scratch his ear And...
Jacob Silkstone
Night Train It seems so long ago, now, that I took the night train across the border aware only of the fury to flee anywhere, the numb indifference towards the destination. Does...
Kitty Coles
Below Zero The night is freezing, freezing and thick as velvet, and the little stars stand out as thin as pins. The bath is hot and I lower myself, I sink, beneath the water: it...
Christopher Prewitt
Cowboy Church After I came out of the coma, it was explained to me that I had (repeatedly) tied cherry stems with my tongue. Reporters in attendance of my waking took pictures,...
Nicholas McGaughey
Cold Kitchen Willow has bred in the cold of our kitchen like some internal coppice; where hot cakes and rolls cooled on racks, we have “Shoppers” and wreaths and little else...
Laura Potts
Swansea Son He is here in my autumn of age the riverlight through windowpanes, the small-hour laughter, the slim-supple night and moonlight eyes on the history page. I remember his...
Holly Magill
Tuesdays she is a cat Sadly it never happens Fridays; there would be more chance of fish. Even in this she is fated to be left wanting. No loved one to present mouse heads to, she crunches...
Sharon Phillips
 : Something’s wrong This is how it will start: from the other side of a room you’ll hear your mum talk, loud but so fast you won’t be able to follow and she will see you’re...
‘Truth’ for National Poetry Day: Sharon Phillips, David Van-Cauter, Terry Quinn
Something’s wrong This is how it will start: from the other side of a room you’ll hear your mum talk, loud but so fast you won’t be able to follow and she will see you’re...
Poetry Picks
Our favourite poems and ‘best of’ chosen from each month between 2007 and 2019
Maxine Rose Munro
He grows I gave birth to Restless, and oh how he prowls this house, testing, testing the strength of my walls. Pushing at limits to find weaknesses he stores for future use, careful with his words. He knows soon will come his time, not mine. I...
Dipo Baruwa-Etti
Seats Before a table of white People, I stand with ballet Slippers strapped/soft soles Head pointed towards the angels. A dance, I commence. Pirouette Grand adage, en point Followed by flight as a helium Addicted balloon. Circling a table of white...
Golnoosh Nour
Blood Days Break all our delicate cups, my love Shatter their bleeding flowers like you shattered us. I don’t mind; because I was that bad kid, the best student at the back of the class sleeplessly studying stoplessly for all the exams, writing...
Colin Crewdson
The Road to Kars Mevlana, or Rumi, Sufi poet and mystic, 1207-1273 spent much of his life in Turkey, where his tomb is still revered. Mevlana’s poems are also set to music. We’ve tried every trick. Gathered around the guts, black tubing,...
‘Because’ from Clementine E. Burnley is our Pick of the Month for May 2019.
When sifting through all the comments on our shortlist for May's Pick of the Month, in amongst the 'beautifuls', 'powerfuls', 'movings' and 'evocatives', one comment in particular stood out. In response to Clementine E. Burnley's poem which looks at the injustice and...
Sally Michaelson
Night Raider Creeping down at night to pillage the larder I am my own ghost on the stairs searching for Digestive biscuits, pungent oranges, hard cheese so I can sink in my teeth, leave a trail of crumbs, a waft of citrus. Mum will find...
Haibun, Tanka, Haiku, & Haiga
Haibun, Tanka, Haiku, & Haiga reviously published on the website.
Jeff Streeby
Late Hunt On a day this cold, you don’t even need the shotgun. They’re easy to spot, too, those beautiful birds dying in the tumbled stubble of harvest. Find their long tail feathers riffling prairie wind and you can take them alive out of little...
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan
Still Life I can see them, tweeting furiously as the slogans rise and fall, in ghazal-like cadences. It's chaotic, the only discipline being the hashtag. The police are far better organised of course — in rows behind their bamboo shields, their birchwood...
Stav Poleg
Circles Haikus inspired by the macarons of Patisserie Madeleine, Edinburgh ….. Here’s Fleur d’Oranger, Saffron Pistache, Sakura. Instead of breakfast. ….. Fleur d’Oranger The orchard’s wingspan. A child is hula hooping in the evening sun....
Violette Rose-Jones
No Neighbours that We Know of Around Here my husband smiles in his sleep I could spend the rest of my life here then he rolls over, settling back to slow, calm breathing. this house is echoing-empty. wind rips up the valley, up this hill, beneath...
Caroline Skanne
Haiku shadow boxing will I come out a better person * crimson leaved … the Japanese maple becomes my sunset * new moon knows the secret of letting go Caroline Skanne is a poet, originally from Sweden,...
John Hawkhead
Haiku gravel in my knees from the pilgrimage to you your gentle tweezers * gradual rain pattering the willow leaves her hand slips from mine * purple night clouds buffeting under moonlight her lingering scent * under winter clouds the old rook...
12 Days of Christmas
All the poems from our regular 12 days of Christmas feature.
On the Twelfth Day of Christmas we bring you Bethany W Pope, Ben Banyard
Christmas Card Shirley lay in the bed in her prim, backless robe, surrounded by the breath of other mothers and the milky scent of babies. Her own newest child lay beside her, as wrinkled as an apple past its prime, but active and large in the...
On the Eleventh Day of Christmas we bring you Grant Tarbard, Agnes Marton
Encore Is it absence that dwindles the candle wicks I lit last year? I have to capture vials of the pale moonlight and dip them in the goats trough who gulp amniotic fluid, kissing my future wounds on wrists and ankles, laying amongst the sudor of...
On the Tenth Day of Christmas we bring you Rosie Miles, Laura McKee
Take the stress out of entertaining Taking our inspiration from chefs marinated in spicy vodka we’ve got lots of intrepid sprout trends to add a little sparkle as the centrepiece of a Boxing Day hanging. The traditional way makes it even more...
On the Ninth Day of Christmas we bring you Rachel Burns, Sue Wallace-Shaddad
Words Damascene describes the field in moonlight we have to look the word up in the dictionary to ornament (e.g. iron or steel) with wavy patterns. Your sister is colouring SpongeBob in her SpongeBob Christmas colouring book. She sits at my desk...
On the Eighth Day of Christmas we bring you Rose Scooler (trans. Sibyl Ruth) and Debbie Strange
Smugglers in memory of Frau L. This blanket of dark; perfect conditions for our latest trip to the siding together. A woman can’t see what’s next to her nose as we clamber down, clutching bags and each other by the elbow. Mind out, it can’t be far...
On the Seventh Day of Christmas we bring you Joanne Key, Holly Magill
The Snows They arrived overnight, gossip fogging the lane in muffled footsteps, heavy breath. Silver-tongued and ice cool, the knitting club cast off Mr Snow as another fool who could break the heart of a mirror, turn the sky into a swan's feather and...
Words & Images
Words with images previously published on the website.
Chris Guidon
Chris Guidon is a confessional artist and poet from Kidderminster. Like a snake he needs sunshine to...
Paul Sands
Paul Sands was born in 1962 and spent his formative years close to the River Trent in Nottingham. He began writing in 2010 . He self-published his first collection of poetry,” ego…ergo” in June 2012 and is currently talking himself out of...
Veronica Von Pegg
Veronica Von Pegg is a mixed media artist, a photographer and writer, who expresses a past life through images and words. She collects second hand items, and is a firm believer in reincarnation
Word & Image from C. Albert
Flora the Poet In Roundling time when days were young and she grew younger – Flora who dressed in blossoms of the seasons: poinsettia, pansy, honeydew and rose, whose dewy topiary hair was adorned with watermelon-colored dumplings and her face painted...
Rob Stuart
Rob Stuart is a college lecturer, screenwriter and poet from London. His credits include Lighten Up Online, Magma and Snakeskin.
Chris Guidon
Chris Guidon is a confessional artist and poet from Kidderminster. Like a snake he needs sunshine to live.
Blogs and news
Blogs and archived news from 2007 to 2020.
‘Tree Surgery’ by Sally Beets is your Pick of the Month for October 2016
It was a tightly fought contest and from a dark and sombre shortlist, Sally Beets' wonderfully caustic 'Tree...
Our Pick of the Month for September 2016 is ‘Leda Meets Helen’ by Angharad Walker
A surge in voting in the final hours saw Angharad Walker just pip her nearest rival at the post with her moving...
And the Pick of the Month for July 2016 is Theophilus Kwek’s ‘Psalm 19 ‘
It was a particularly powerful and emotional shortlist this month out of which Theophilus Kwek's transcendent 'Psalm...
Reviews
Archived reviews from 2007 to 2020.
Christine Whittemore reviews ‘Ghosting For Beginners’ by Anna Saunders
Ghosting for Beginners’ amusing title poem plays on the idea of social-media “ghosting,” the act of...
Matthew Tett reviews ‘More than you were’ by Christina Thatcher
Losing a parent is hard and when it happens, it’s tough. It brings a glut of unexpected...
Jonathan Edwards reviews ‘Better Houses’ by Susie Wild
Susie Wild’s Better Houses announces a new, highly distinctive and exciting poetic voice. The subjects of this...
Interviews
Archived interviews from 2007 to 2020.
What makes writers tick – Penelope Shuttle answers IS&T's questions
Nine QuestionsIn this new series Ink Sweat & Tears talks to practicing writers about their process and craft.1....
What makes writers tick – James Sutherland-Smith answers IS&T's questions
Nine QuestionsIn the fourth episode of our new series, Ink Sweat & Tears talks to practicing writers about their...
What makes writers tick – Tom Warner answers IS&T's questions
Nine QuestionsIn the third episode of our new series, Ink Sweat & Tears talks to practicing writers about their...