Ink Sweat and Tears | The poetry and prose webzine

Ink Sweat & Tears is a UK based webzine which publishes and reviews poetry, prose, prose-poetry, word & image pieces and everything in between. Our tastes are eclectic and magpie-like and we aim to publish something new every day.

We try to keep waiting-time short, but because of increased submissions, the current waiting time between submission and publication is around twelve weeks.

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Featured Poetry/Prose of the Day

Tamara Salih

by Zakia Carpenter-Hall | March 23, 2026 | Featured, Poetry | 0 Comments

That winter the snow kept rising,
a slow white wall climbing the windows,
each morning untouched,

Alicia Byrne Keane

by Zakia Carpenter-Hall | March 22, 2026 | Featured, Poetry | 0 Comments

I’ve been reading about ghost apples.
They are a real phenomenon, like how
everyone we can see on the wide street
outside this building is still living,

Gareth Culshaw

by Zakia Carpenter-Hall | March 21, 2026 | Featured, Poetry | 0 Comments

I tried to work from a van. Sitting in the passenger
seat listening to a guy whistle. His frown, a cloud
he lost when his mother died. Each wrinkle

Jennie Howitt

by Helen Ivory | March 20, 2026 | Featured, Poetry | 0 Comments

Those full udders will slowly burst
spitting milk onto the grass strands.

Matt Bryden

by Helen Ivory | March 19, 2026 | Featured, Poetry | 0 Comments

at the cider farm, eight minutes
before handover, we strike on
feeding the donkeys –

Tristan Moss

by Helen Ivory | Feb 16, 2026

I try
not to think
about my daughter’s
condition
when I
hug her

Susan J. Atkinson

by Helen Ivory | Feb 15, 2026

I tell you my heart is breaking
but the heart has four chambers
and is not shaped like a heart at all

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Recent Prose

Joel Shelley

Dr Summers presses the ignition and the machine whirs to life.

Surmaya Talyarkhan

I first heard of aphantasia in a writing workshop – a poet told us she didn’t see visual images in her head. I had always thought everyone didn’t.

Louella Lester

When Mom flew off with the Canada geese you made me promise that we would never leave one another.

The little piece of newspaper, crisp and dark with age, flutters out of the gritty space between the fridge and the cabinet. I am cleaning the house while my wife is at school and at first I don’t understand.

Paul Goodman

They approach in hungry morning light, treading the path to the ridge and the row of giant’s teeth grown crooked with the ages

Wayne F. Burke

faces on a school bus:
petals of flowers
unopened

Debbie Strange

midnight sun
a polar bear’s breath
catches fire

Debbie Strange

winterberry
the first holiday
alone

On the Fifth Day of Christmas we bring you John Greening, Finola Scott, Philip Dunkerley

today, Christmas Eve,
my granddaughter visiting
her bright eyes – her faith

Rhonda Melanson

The magic of growing things, its tangible beauty, I did not understand.

Meet IS&T’s Newest Intern: IB

by Kate Birch | Mar 1, 2025

Abu Ibrahim (IB), a Nigerian poet and spoken word artist residing in the United Kingdom, has gained recognition for his work across various literary platforms.

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Word & Image

Beatriu Delaveda

Mar 31, 2025

Nothing goes without saying

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Filmpoems

Ofem Ubi

Aug 14, 2024

ANY LAST WORDS.
(Chapter 3 of film Back on Home Soil)

A friend says, grief leaves everyone behind
She ruminates on her words and goes grief leaves no one behind
It shows in the way grief leaves a fraction in memory…

« Older Entries

Next Entries »

Featured Poetry/Prose of the Day

Tamara Salih

by Zakia Carpenter-Hall | March 23, 2026 | Featured, Poetry | 0 Comments

That winter the snow kept rising,
a slow white wall climbing the windows,
each morning untouched,

Alicia Byrne Keane

by Zakia Carpenter-Hall | March 22, 2026 | Featured, Poetry | 0 Comments

I’ve been reading about ghost apples.
They are a real phenomenon, like how
everyone we can see on the wide street
outside this building is still living,

Gareth Culshaw

by Zakia Carpenter-Hall | March 21, 2026 | Featured, Poetry | 0 Comments

I tried to work from a van. Sitting in the passenger
seat listening to a guy whistle. His frown, a cloud
he lost when his mother died. Each wrinkle

Jennie Howitt

by Helen Ivory | March 20, 2026 | Featured, Poetry | 0 Comments

Those full udders will slowly burst
spitting milk onto the grass strands.

Matt Bryden

by Helen Ivory | March 19, 2026 | Featured, Poetry | 0 Comments

at the cider farm, eight minutes
before handover, we strike on
feeding the donkeys –

Meet IS&T’s Newest Intern: IB

by Kate Birch | Mar 1, 2025

Abu Ibrahim (IB), a Nigerian poet and spoken word artist residing in the United Kingdom, has gained recognition for his work across various literary platforms.

« Older Entries

Next Entries »

Word & Image

Beatriu Delaveda

Mar 31, 2025

Nothing goes without saying

« Older Entries

Next Entries »

Filmpoems

Ofem Ubi

Aug 14, 2024

ANY LAST WORDS.
(Chapter 3 of film Back on Home Soil)

A friend says, grief leaves everyone behind
She ruminates on her words and goes grief leaves no one behind
It shows in the way grief leaves a fraction in memory…

« Older Entries

Next Entries »

Previously featured

Tristan Moss

by Helen Ivory | Feb 16, 2026

I try
not to think
about my daughter’s
condition
when I
hug her

Susan J. Atkinson

by Helen Ivory | Feb 15, 2026

I tell you my heart is breaking
but the heart has four chambers
and is not shaped like a heart at all

« Older Entries

Next Entries »

Recent Prose

Joel Shelley

Dr Summers presses the ignition and the machine whirs to life.

Surmaya Talyarkhan

I first heard of aphantasia in a writing workshop – a poet told us she didn’t see visual images in her head. I had always thought everyone didn’t.

Louella Lester

When Mom flew off with the Canada geese you made me promise that we would never leave one another.

Jo Bardsley

Paul Goodman

They approach in hungry morning light, treading the path to the ridge and the row of giant’s teeth grown crooked with the ages

Wayne F. Burke

faces on a school bus:
petals of flowers
unopened

Debbie Strange

midnight sun
a polar bear’s breath
catches fire

Debbie Strange

winterberry
the first holiday
alone

On the Fifth Day of Christmas we bring you John Greening, Finola Scott, Philip Dunkerley

today, Christmas Eve,
my granddaughter visiting
her bright eyes – her faith

Rhonda Melanson

The magic of growing things, its tangible beauty, I did not understand.

Listen to and Read ‘everyone’s version of heaven is different’ by Elisabeth Sennitt Clough, the IS&T Pick of the Month for June 2021

Jul 22, 2021

It reads like a simultaneous slap in the face, and a hug. I love it Sometimes you just have to laugh and that, together with the poem’s authenticity, relatability and its shape, language and...

’Twas a long summer of thin air by Jayant Kashyap is the IS&T Pick of the Month for May 2021

Jun 8, 2021

READ AND HEAR THE POEM HERE. Maybe it’s the heat. Maybe it’s the near-apocalyptic world we are living in, the raging pandemic, the creep of global warming. Maybe it’s simply the depth, beauty and...

Celestine Stilwell’s ‘Little boy dream’ is the IS&T Pick of the Month for April 2021

May 18, 2021

READ and HEAR their poem here. ‘Beautiful... and provoking’ Add memories of ‘long lost summers, childhood curiosity and innocence’ to that as well as an excellent metre, rhythms, imagery and...

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