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

Mark Smith

In the portacabin that morning, men smoked
and looked at last week’s paper again.
There was no water to fill the urn.
The first job – to get connected

Toby Cotton

A blustery day –
the wind too strong for kites
or for lifts to the sky.
“To a thoughtful spot,” it cites
and pins me to the earth.

Ansuya Patel

except this burnt red vase.
Hand shaped in the muffled roar,
devouring flame in the furnace’s mouth.

Hannah Ward

Look, Drew, the
plums are in

pieces beneath
us. I dreamt:

Andrea Small

a flower is not a heron
does not stand on one leg
spear-billed over golden carp

Previously featured

Beth Davies, Fee Marshall and Fiona Broadhurst for Day 2 of our Pride Feature

Trick Question

It was a simple game.
One wall meant Yes. The other meant No.
The teacher would ask a question and we’d each run towards our answer.

Once, she asked “Have you ever been in love?”
At six years old, I ran with certainty towards Yes.
I reached it but found myself alone.
Surprised, I looked over at the others
crowded together on the other side.
“Don’t you love your parents?” I asked,
with all the indignance of a child
who doesn’t understand her mistake.
“Don’t you love your friends?”

Beth Davies

Ace Sex

Sex is when a train runs into a portal
Flies off to outer space
It’s when you suddenly remember the old block tellie
With no channels
That you had to switch on at the block
Sex is
I think it’s an ice cream
One of them novelty flavours like
Popping Raspberry Unicorn
It’s a weird fad but we’re pretty sure
Salted Caramel’s making a comeback

Fee Marshall

Polyamory is wrong
(Mixing Greek and Latin roots? Wrong!)

Polyamory is less orgies, or threesomes
& more Google calendar, blocking out
precious time, increments of love
portioned out as slices of 3.14159,
infinite, neverending & always fulfilling

Fiona Broadhurst

read more

Lara Mae Simpson and Siobhan Dunlop for Day 1 of our Pride Feature

How to Love the Word “Lesbian”

We took the bus in tutus & fairy wings,
gripped on to the cowboy hat
trying to fly from your curls in July’s breeze.
In Trafalgar Square, floats of rainbow
companies waltzed by & we rolled
our eyes, couldn’t see past tall men,

– Lara Mae Simpson (they/she)

On nights I am

a girl again
I am unemployable as
woman don’t do the
work beg  at corner
of ends on leg
too short for the cripwalk

-Noah Jacob

dreaming of the velvet goldmines

i want to be a skinny pretty boy rockstar
without the height or the coke habit
or needing to strictly be a boy at all

-Siobhan Dunlop (they/them)

read more

Recent Prose

Jo Bardsley

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

Neil Weiner

Chad, an aspiring author, sank into his easy chair and drifted into a
reverie.

Stephanie Aspin on ‘Why Words Help’ for Mental Health Awareness Week

Writing is both a way of making life more liveable and of making ourselves more whole. Words have a being-ness: when we write poetry, we tap into a network of resonances.

Recent Haiku

Rhonda Melanson

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

Chen-ou Liu

this fresh morning
so much like the others …
yet starlings shape-shift

Stephen C. Curro

calm river
again, his fishing line
caught on a tree

Diane Webster

lightning flashes
everyone stands
still

Chen-ou Liu on International Haiku Poetry Day

end-of-day catch
our wicker basket full
of salmon sunset

News

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Word & Image

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Filmpoems

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Featured Poetry/Prose of the Day

Mark Smith

In the portacabin that morning, men smoked
and looked at last week’s paper again.
There was no water to fill the urn.
The first job – to get connected

Toby Cotton

A blustery day –
the wind too strong for kites
or for lifts to the sky.
“To a thoughtful spot,” it cites
and pins me to the earth.

Ansuya Patel

except this burnt red vase.
Hand shaped in the muffled roar,
devouring flame in the furnace’s mouth.

Hannah Ward

Look, Drew, the
plums are in

pieces beneath
us. I dreamt:

Andrea Small

a flower is not a heron
does not stand on one leg
spear-billed over golden carp

News

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Word & Image

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Filmpoems

No Results Found

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Previously featured

Beth Davies, Fee Marshall and Fiona Broadhurst for Day 2 of our Pride Feature

Trick Question

It was a simple game.
One wall meant Yes. The other meant No.
The teacher would ask a question and we’d each run towards our answer.

Once, she asked “Have you ever been in love?”
At six years old, I ran with certainty towards Yes.
I reached it but found myself alone.
Surprised, I looked over at the others
crowded together on the other side.
“Don’t you love your parents?” I asked,
with all the indignance of a child
who doesn’t understand her mistake.
“Don’t you love your friends?”

Beth Davies

Ace Sex

Sex is when a train runs into a portal
Flies off to outer space
It’s when you suddenly remember the old block tellie
With no channels
That you had to switch on at the block
Sex is
I think it’s an ice cream
One of them novelty flavours like
Popping Raspberry Unicorn
It’s a weird fad but we’re pretty sure
Salted Caramel’s making a comeback

Fee Marshall

Polyamory is wrong
(Mixing Greek and Latin roots? Wrong!)

Polyamory is less orgies, or threesomes
& more Google calendar, blocking out
precious time, increments of love
portioned out as slices of 3.14159,
infinite, neverending & always fulfilling

Fiona Broadhurst

read more

Lara Mae Simpson and Siobhan Dunlop for Day 1 of our Pride Feature

How to Love the Word “Lesbian”

We took the bus in tutus & fairy wings,
gripped on to the cowboy hat
trying to fly from your curls in July’s breeze.
In Trafalgar Square, floats of rainbow
companies waltzed by & we rolled
our eyes, couldn’t see past tall men,

– Lara Mae Simpson (they/she)

On nights I am

a girl again
I am unemployable as
woman don’t do the
work beg  at corner
of ends on leg
too short for the cripwalk

-Noah Jacob

dreaming of the velvet goldmines

i want to be a skinny pretty boy rockstar
without the height or the coke habit
or needing to strictly be a boy at all

-Siobhan Dunlop (they/them)

read more

Recent Prose

Jo Bardsley

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

Neil Weiner

Chad, an aspiring author, sank into his easy chair and drifted into a
reverie.

Stephanie Aspin on ‘Why Words Help’ for Mental Health Awareness Week

Writing is both a way of making life more liveable and of making ourselves more whole. Words have a being-ness: when we write poetry, we tap into a network of resonances.

Recent Haiku

Rhonda Melanson

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

Chen-ou Liu

this fresh morning
so much like the others …
yet starlings shape-shift

Stephen C. Curro

calm river
again, his fishing line
caught on a tree

Diane Webster

lightning flashes
everyone stands
still

Chen-ou Liu on International Haiku Poetry Day

end-of-day catch
our wicker basket full
of salmon sunset

Picks of the Month

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Reviews

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