Honoured to be part of this wonderful prize! Our chalk streams need YOU!

Our rivers are choking on pollution, we’re losing our precious woodlands, our seas are overfished & our peat bogs are being burned. Pledge to march with me on June 22nd in London. RestoreNatureNow.com #RestoreNatureNow

What a great initiative! Calling all poets. These wonders, ever more vulnerable to abuse, need your voices raised on their behalf.

*Launching!* Search for our Chalk Stream Poet Laureate. Open to all, young and old.🎖️to be won, closing date 31st May. More details at chalkstreampoet.net
Paul Jennings Ver Valley Society R. Chess Association @ColneValley ColneCAN ChilternChalkStreams Feargal Sharkey The RRC RiverActionUK

On this day in 1992 Faber Books published Ted Hughes's monumental study 'Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being'.

Read more about this great mythic study of Shakespeare in Ann Skea's article for the TH Society:

thetedhughessociety.org/shakespeare

This is important evidence, based on a field trial looking at the impact of Beaver in relation to flood risk Spains Hall Estate in Essex. The wetlands created by these creatures perform multiple valuable functions, including water storage at times of peak flow

gov.uk/government/new…

These podcasts, all edited by Mick Gowar, are such a resource as well as such a good listen for anyone interested in Ted Hughes. Highly recommended. The Ted Hughes Society

Thanks to new editorial team for putting this excellent edition together — and for including my review essay of the Letters of Seamus Heaney.

C’mon The Labour Party Keir Starmer Angela Rayner 🌹 Steve Reed please get a rock solid pledge in your manifesto that assures us that you would put a complete end to this unspeakable barbarity once and for all . If you want our votes we want a promise to protect our wildlife . Please RT

“I work all day, and get half-drunk at night.
Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare.
In time the curtain-edges will grow light.
Till then I see what’s really always there:
Unresting death, a whole day nearer now…”
Philip #Larkin , died 2 December 1985

#death #poem

The Wessex Rivers Trust team had to graft hard at short notice to cross the finish line, but this old mill leat is finally on its way to becoming a re-naturalised chalk stream habitat.

Next summer it’ll be a riot of plants, invertebrates, and fish 💚💙

#ChalkStream #RiverRestoration

I'm thrilled to have had my poem, 'Fox', nominated for a The Pushcart Prize by Modron Magazine Modron. Modron is devoted to writing that responds to ecology and the climate crisis, and I'm so pleased to have had 'Fox' appear there. Diolch yn fawr iawn!

Four scenes from 2024's calendar. 10 of the pictures are from our little road and two are fairly close by. Its quite a picturesque spot.

Our 2022 SmartRivers data highlights excess sediment and chemical pollution as key stressors for over 50 rivers across the United Kingdom in a report examining national water quality and biodiversity trends.  

Follow the link 👇 to find out more.
ow.ly/owm250QbAVh

Murmuration of starlings in Italy.. 😊

Everything that nature writing can be and should be is in this exquisite indoor firework of a piece. Light the touch papers and wax your wings:

We went down to Holyrood! A Paperboats Writers climate action, with choir led by Karine Polwart and Stephen Deazley. Poems, songs and origami for a swift and just transition. We need cross-party action, and we need it now.

It’s always such a delight to host Richard Beard for his brilliant public edits of student writing — practical criticism and creative practice in one. Then to hear Margaret Drabble talk so openly and generously about her writing was a joy. A truly memorable evening Pembroke College Cambridge

Murky or dappled. Turbulent or calm. Here's a glimpse of the beauty that lies beneath the surface 💙

📽️ thanks to Jack Perks

Mark Wormald Yes indeed. 20 mins walk from my house.