pack a pub
give ‘em beer
pints of virus
shots of fear
watch ‘em fall
gutter sick
cull the poor
kill ‘em quick
parliament
let nurses down
clapclapclap
for the clown
open pub
covid beer
pour libations
costs us dear
lies and shame
drink or bust
ashes to ashes
dust to dust
Please can we gather and have an Octavia Butler day on July 20th 2024 when her Parable Of The Sower begins, “all that you touch, you change, all that you change, changes you, the only lasting truth is change…” powerful work, beautiful book, so prophetic. Read it! Xx
Earthseed Day: Octavia Butler Day. It is July 20 2024, the first page of the diaries of Lauren Oya Olamina. Massive global read along. I urge you to read or listen to the audiobook THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER. Support your libraries and bookshops!
“The only lasting truth is change”
This! You tweet tears for Notre Dame. The Amazon Rainforest is the greatest cathedral on the planet. Now where are the billionaires to pray to this god, to save this church, to save these forests, animals and people. This is oxygen, rich or poor, we all need air
The Amazon rainforest provides 20% of the world's oxygen. People are deliberately starting fires in effort to illegally deforest land for cattle ranching. President Bolsonaro is letting this slide!!
#AmazonRainforest
#PrayforAmazonas
We observe
two minutes silence
in a Costa in a
motorway services
muted customers
hold hot drinks
awkward
silently
remembering
the futility of war
in a Costa
owned by Coke
whilst buying petrol
from billionaires
that profit
from the trading
of arms and oil
and life
Watch your tone when expressing valid concern for the deaths of other human beings; watch your tone when communicating facts and sharing the grief and fury felt globally and by so many; watch your tone when speaking the truth with brown face and female tongue in the masters house
For the record: I don’t believe Boris Johnson. He has consistently proved himself false. Not just during this pandemic but throughout his career. I do not want to take risks with my life and the lives of others and throw away months of being safe. Does anyone else feel like this?
Why are you filming refugees fleeing war, famine and atrocities? Why don't you film the billionaires in yachts, the men that profit from bombs, war and chaos? I mourn the deaths of millions caused by the greed and ineptitude of world leaders during this pandemic. Save the human.
I’ve been on my own for nearly 4 weeks and this is my living room coffee table, alone and left to my own devices I turn my house into a bookshop, more beautiful books in the kitchen and bedroom too, it’s been a tough time but books are my friends, amazing books, thank you books!
Anyone else just folded and put away a pile of clean clothes that you’re not wearing because you’re not going out and you sit on your bed in your tidy bedroom looking at clothes on hangers like ghost shapes of an old life wondering if you can have wine now as a reward...
Thank you
@SadiqKhan
absolutely all of this!
“Rather than bestowing Trump with a grand platform of acceptability to the world, we should be speaking out and saying that this behaviour is unacceptable”
History teaches us of the danger of being afraid to speak truth to power.
Across the world, the far right is on the rise. Against this backdrop, London stands out as a beacon of hope. And that’s worth defending.
Note: Making a list of black and brown writers, please include books of joy and art, science and nature, space and history, beauty and laughter. The struggle is our life, the effort to get published. Not all black literature is essays on hurt, the pain is there but also the hope
My father born this day, April 24 1941, here's a poem by him:
'Do not be afraid then, worry nor even
Miss me overmuch. Between us, over us
Longer than us both, this love.
Circumstance, separating miles
Or chance, but aspects of the one
Insoluble thing, this love.'
Paul Godden
Now watch
struggling
Artists
rally round
to help
to raise funds
for hungry kids
The very same Artists
Writers, Musicians
that were told to
retrain last week
We need Art
Art is community
Art raises us
Art saves lives
Art is life
Art does the work
of your elected MP
I prefer the original photo where Fatima isn’t alone. I imagine they are friends, two outstanding young women, striving to make excellent art, blazing a trail, breaking barriers, fulfilling their dreams and smashing the system. Be more Fatima and her friend.
Excited bookshops are opening: This is a tweet for books, bookmakers, booksellers, booklovers, I salute you, writing books, editing, designing, reviewing and sharing books, all under lockdown, it’s been one helluva of a phenomenal effort. Books are Hope. Hope is a group project.
What if we said:
it’s just food
with family
we can
meet later
I want everyone
healthy, happy
not anxious and
panic shopping
in a plague
not wasting
what little we have
on plastic shit
that chokes oceans
turn off the adverts
stop the hype
count your blessings
love
🥳 Good morning! My debut novel ‘Mrs Death Misses Death’ is published today
@canongatebooks
, hardback books out in bookshops, ebook and an audiobook read by the author which is me. Very emotional day for me today. Thank you to everyone everyone everyone
@canongatebooks
@OWNITLDN
❤️📚 So excited talking to mum on the phone this morning, she’s planning how she will go into bookshops and say “hello please may I buy my daughters debut novel Mrs Death Misses Death!” How excited we both are, how it means so much. Thank you bookshops!
#ChooseBookshops
🥳 It’s my birthday! I share my birthday with George Michael and George Orwell. Today marks 30 years of London and poetry but just 6 months as a published novelist. It feels like I only just got started. Passion is everything! Hope is an energy! Love is love! 🎉❤️
Fatima was an ugly duckling. She had to work twice as hard as her privileged class mates. She worked two jobs and saved to study ballet. She dreams of being the lead, to be Odette in Swan Lake. She blazes a trail. Her passions and determinations are a miracle. Be more Fatima.
So
this is
how it
starts
in books
they burn
or ban books
in books
that imagine
a world that
burns or
bans books
it starts
with books
that dare
to say
this is how
it is or was
or could be
and if you
read books
you’ll know
from books
that this is
how it ends
#PublishingPaidMe
All I want to say is this: I started this life aged 19 and didn’t fit in so I made my own garden. I published a book for the first time age 40. My voice has been here for you for over 25yrs. For decades publishing paid me no attention so I grew my own flowers.
What a strange feeling this is, feels like the moment in the film when the vampires are dead, we sit in first golden light of morning, we fought hard, we are covered in vampire guts, catch our breath, but now we must prepare to fight all the werewolves snarling in the undergrowth
BIG NEWS: So honoured and excited to see Mrs Death Misses Death win The Indie Book Awards Fiction Award!! Thank you to all book sellers and book lovers, congratulations to all shortlisted authors, BIGlove and thanks to
@booksaremybag
@canongatebooks
@OWNITLDN
@hannahknowl3s
🧡📚
It isn't healthy to be regularly lied to about big and important things, like murder and death, to be laughed at or gaslit about genuine concerns, valid grief and fury. It isn't good for a people as a whole, or for the heart and morale of a country to be deceived daily.
So I have a sweet story to share: When I was a very little girl I had a lovely school friend who I sat next to in class. She taught me to ride a bike and to swim underwater. We went to brownies and girl guides together. I always wondered what happened to her…
Good morning. Check out this thread if you can stomach it. It looks like America had a really shitty open-mic poetry slam last night. This poem ‘human sex drug traffickers’ is outstanding bollocks. We shouldn’t laugh, but ... 😂
When this was first published and read it I felt understood. I was a kid but here was an adult eloquently voicing my teenage concerns and greatest fears, one of my biggest fears was that the people will be lied to and killed in their beds. Visionary. Rest in power!
#raymondbriggs
Well, this week has been ALOT I hope you’re ok. Please eat something, take breaks, nourish your soul, read books and stay hydrated. This dragging the world into the 21st century, smashing the patriarchy and standing up to centuries of systemic racism and sexism is thirsty work.
Writing a book? Good. By doing this you say I invest in our future, that there will be a good future, a future where people have eyes, a future where libraries still stand, a future where reading is still our thing. Keep writing. Write a better tomorrow. Visualise it. Thank you.
If you wept today then you're probably feeling the moon. If you wept today you are surely a poet. If you did not yet weep, damn it cry now. Look up! She is the sad and cold Snow Moon dancing with Mars in a timeless endlessness, human, you are monkey dust, weep damn you, weep...
Ok here's me aged 20 - This photo by Olivia Rutherford, it was taken as a test shot to try to get work modelling or as an extra in films and pop videos.
Often in TV crime shows the wife who has seen too much has to quickly marry the bad and morally corrupt man so she cannot be forced to testify against him, is this a real thing in the UK? Asking for a country and the families of over 150k dead people
Calling for a black woman to be paraded naked through the streets and shamed reveals nothing but the truly ugly heart of the man that wrote that and the people that published it. I tweet this in solidarity and in disgust that his violent egomaniac fantasies were even printed.
I have lovely news today! I'm excited to announce I'm now a FRSL and honoured to be included on this list among heroes and writers I love and look up to and admire. Thank you to
@RSLiterature
and Happy 200th Birthday!
#RSL200
🥳Today is our 200th birthday! We’ll be celebrating throughout the day, sharing short films featuring our new Fellows, Honorary Fellows, Vice-Presidents & Companions of Literature. Huge thanks
@ALCS_UK
for making our digital celebrations possible.
#RSL200
A well-deserved win for this years Peoples Book Prize! Voted for by the public ❤️ Big congrats to
@salenagodden
and her intoxicating debut novel
#MrsDeathMissesDeath
🙌
Get your copy here:
Repeat after me: It is November. Christmas is just a nice lunch. No pressure. It is still November. Christmas is a month away. It is still November. Calm down. It is lovely. November. Lovember. Now. Love. Nowvember. All is calm. All is books. Live in the now. Love. Nowvember
💔💛💚🖤Heartbroken
#RIPBenjaminZephaniah
Goodbye my poetry brother, here's a tweet to send my love and condolences to our poetry community and family and friends, I feel such a huge loss, sharing some happy memories. BIGLove Xx
Fuck I am so sorry to hear this. The only reason I watched Peaky Blinders was to gaze in wonder at Helen. In every part she gave such powerful performances, compelling art and outstanding sass, I really enjoyed watching her work, a real moxie, RIP Helen...
#HelenMcCrory
✍🏾 I signed the big book! I was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
@RSLiterature
last night - here’s a pic of the signing and also the pens, I chose Jean Rhys green fountain pen. Sending love and thanks to all fellows and
@canongatebooks
@OWNITLDN
Personally I’m still observing lockdown and avoiding crowds. I hope by doing this I protect my family and friends and the underfunded NHS without sufficient PPE that will care for me if I get sick.
#StayHomeSaveLives
Ok one more for
#WindrushDay2019
Here’s my grandparents singing together, entertaining the troops. Grandfather was in the RAF and my Nan was a nurse. They both had music in their blood. I wish we could listen to old photographs...
Get up, stand up!
#Windrush
🇯🇲❤️
There's only
one breath
between you and
me and life and death
It's better to wear
a mask in town
than wear a nurses
patience down
Why am I sick?
you ask
'cos you never
wore a mask
Between you and me
and life and death
there is only one
last breath
#WearAMaskSaveALife
I love poets. I treasure my poetry friends, old poets, young poets, rebel poets, big hearts, big dreams. I love your poetry, you decorate my days, narrate the times, sing a truth, imagine a better tomorrow. Happy National Poetry Day you beauties. Thank you.
#NationalPoetryDay
I’m 50 in June. I was born 50 years ago under big blue skies. It feels like a big door to fling open. Light on the other side. It feels like a privilege to be here. All I wanted was to write, greet each decade with new poems and books. I dreamt of this age, I’m in that dream.
the only folk who
need retraining
are the Tories
as its been raining
scandal and failure
every morning
months of mix ups
a red flag warning
and each blunder
the lives we lost
the glitches and
the jobs it cost
save your soul
nourish hearts
save the human
fight for the arts
There’s no moral to this story or deep message. It is wonderful that beautiful connections we make as children might never fade. I write a lot about trauma that happened to me as a kid - But there was love and laughter, apples and snow and ferociously collecting brownie badges!
“Because it’s not always the quiet ones you have to watch” Excerpt from an essay I wrote on suicide and the loss of my father. He was larger than life, a gifted and talented jazz musician. So many questions unanswered. We’ll always love and miss him.
#SuicidePreventionDay
My baby sis Jo in tears on FaceTime because she doesn’t understand why I won’t go to see her, I dunno how we explain this to children or people like Jo with learning difficulties, and I’m crying right now wishing I could hold her, BIGlove to the wanna hug my people people today
Here We Are Now
Entertain Us
we will not
be numb
and share
images of
murder
we will not
sensationalise
headlines
as though
the news
is made for
entertainment
we feel this
we will not be
desensitised
we will not rent
grief and fury
and sell mourning
to sell more shit
Today is my Dad’s dead day, the anniversary of his suicide. I felt it as soon as I woke up and all day it’s like an alarm ringing in my head. The number of suicides in the UK is escalating. We need kindness, better mental health care, therapy and support.
#SaveTheNHS
#VoteCorbyn
Does the 100k death figure include suicide, domestic abuse fatalities, austerity related death, homeless and refugees? Please light a candle for those lost souls, the unseen and unaccounted for, all who died at the hands of the ineptitude of a PM who put profit before life.
#100k
I type this
message into
smashed glass,
I shattered my
phone screen,
it’s weird
the thing
still works,
I push soft
thumb flesh
into shards of
broken glass
your words
are jagged
splintered,
fractured,
broken,
like the
government
and the
climate
and the
truth
you celebrity poets are so demanding, demanding your voice be heard, your art be published and read and used as a tool to teach, to incite and inspire empathy, you demanding poets, demanding to get paid for your life labour, always so famous and demanding, you demanding poets
And so there we are saying hello and laughing and she says “hold your hand out” and I close my eyes and hold out my hand and she hands me the brownie badge for reading and writing “you’ve earned this one” she says and we laugh and I love it and will treasure it!
⚽️❤️👏🏾 Love this picture! What a game! Congratulations legendary
#Lionesses
#Eurofinal
#Euro22
Thanks for following tweets for my footie talk too. I loved it! Xx
We remember TM for the go home vans, for failing Windrush, Brexit, Grenfell, Yarl's Wood, for the DUP and for holding hands with Trump, for the rise in division, for drowned refugees, for hurting people with cuts, the rape clause, for the women of NI left with no autonomy. Thanks
Shout out to every single person that got up this morning and saw the news and then spent some valuable time writing a massive rant and then hid it or deleted it because you're so sick and tired of writing from a place of fury and reaction instead of a place of love and creation.
Very excited to be invited to curate an episode of Poetry Please
@bbcpoetryplease
@BBCRadio4
Thank you so much Roger! Just spending this afternoon making a top ten hit list of my favourite poets, it's very tricky to choose, tweet me your suggestions if you like, thank you!
First they came for the poetry and I did not speak up for I am not a poet, then they came for the science and I did not speak up because I am not a scientist, then they came for the maps and I did not speak up because I was lost, then they came for time and I had run out of that.
Poetry no longer has to be studied as part of the English GCSE syllabus next year in new OfQual rules. Time for warning posters in school libraries about the dangerous effects of sound, rhythm and imagery. There'll be Sylvia Plath parties behind the bike-sheds before you know it.
My year was dominated by publishing this one poem.
Scrolling 12 months of tweets and instagrams tagged
#pessimismisforlightweights
I feel despite everything, 2018 was a year of courage, resistance and love. Thank you, bold hearts, big dreamers, keep fighting the good fight! 🙌🏾💛
👀📚 Dream come true to see my debut
#mrsdeathmissesdeath
displayed like this in the window of
@Foyles
thank you! Happy paperback launch day! Thank you
@canongatebooks
@OWNITLDN
Thank you for every tweet and share. Thank you to everyone held in the pages of this book 🙏🏾💙💫
His mother called me a good time girl. I was a teenager, I thought a good time was a good thing. Her son gave me a good time alright. He called me darling. Later they called me prostitute forever and ever. How fast they turn, quick to betray daughters to protect the good old boys
If you have surplus foods and goods please consider donating to a food bank. Christmas may be cancelled but Christmas spirit isn't. Charity and kindness and love isn't cancelled. In fact feeding people and sharing all we have is a revolutionary act right now.
💜⭐️ Happy birthday to my beautiful mum, solstice lady, midwinter starlight. My mum is my superhero. This is one of a favourite photos of you, mum, I know you check on my Twitter sometimes and you might see this and smile. I miss you so much, I love you! Happy birthday Xx 🥳✨
💟 Hello Insomnia. Hot flushes. Extreme highs and lows. Shout out to all being misdiagnosed. Here’s to living with volcanic fury, passion and righteous rage. Menopause is a return to the source of your power and magic. Be kind and be patient with yourself.
#WorldMenopauseDay
💪🏾
I am having a problem with the term philanthropist: for a modern example they call Epstein a philanthropist. I’m starting to think the word philanthropist really means a bad man who buys silence, a man who buys friends in high places and greases his way into power and wealth.
I'm finding I can cope and I'm much happier if I spend the time it takes to enjoy the first two cups of tea in the morning reading a book. Clearly I have been doing lockdown wrong for a year trying to keep up on here and make this calamity make sense. Thank you books.
✍🏾 I’m off on a writing adventure today, taking time away to finish my new books. I am going to be writer in residence here and exploring these walls and windows and floors and ceilings and gardens and skies and ghosts, if you don’t hear from me for a bit I’m in here Xx
Hey thanks all who voted for this it is lovely thanks no don’t be shy it is perfect I love what you’ve done with the UK it’s vintage but edgy and when you look at it all it’s so nice and there is literally nothing to protest about on sexist racist rapey nazi plague death island
may people
mourn in peace
the grief justified
and a righteous fury
set mother free
to express
this injustice
this very real
and scary truth
we witness it
we carry it
under this sky
we changed
if one is hurt
we all feel it
solidarity
one love
sisters and
mothers
unite
Mrs May didn’t die. She resigned. We’ve all been there. For example I quit my paper-round because it was hard and up hills and knackering. Can everyone stop talking about May with the language of loss and bereavement. The bin fire she leaves us with is out of control.