Formed in 2009, the Archive Team (not to be confused with the archive.org Archive-It Team) is a rogue archivist collective dedicated to saving copies of rapidly dying or deleted websites for the sake of history and digital heritage. The group is 100% composed of volunteers and interested parties, and has expanded into a large amount of related projects for saving online and digital history.
There are now fourteen days left before my metaphorical mortar board is hung up in the cupboard for the last time … and I feel like getting something off my chest. I have many happy memories of working in schools as a teacher and deputy head. In my time I have known and worked with…
In Boots Like These … Kendal Mountain Literature Festival Goes Virtual
Kendal Mountain Festival is a wonderful four day event in November that brings a much needed boost of colour and excitement to the town and has done for four decades. A tented basecamp village springs up overnight in the Brewery Arts Centre, the main arteries of Kirkland, Highgate and Stricklandgate throb with quilt jacketed bodies,…
One Step Beyond
Published in The Blue Nib May 2020
Quick October Update
An opportunity has arisen to write for The Yorkshire and Lancashire Times on the internet. The poetry blog entries I upload here on WordPress have attracted the attention of a group that publishes news, arts and literature features on the web and I have been asked to supply the occasional piece for circulation under their…
Life In The Third Person … On The Road To Samaria
On The Road To Samaria by Jonathan Humble In these shoes, I negotiate life in the third person; toes swathed in top quality calfskin, safe from random shit and shards, where neither grass nor paved path can sully these soft arches and soles. I wear these suits; an actor avoiding the fourth wall, costumed and…
Then it rains …
#MentalHealthAwareness #Depression #Poetry Then It Rains You ask on my behalf to rise and leave, to dress without the hindrance of bootlace worms returning at our feet. In vain we anticipate permission from spiders who watch in shadows, spinning webs that constrain all action. Standing, squatting, sitting, we are opposed, resisted. We are tangled marionettes,…
Provenance
A face distorts in a fractured glass eye. In the wreckage of a house clearance, painted on gesso and northern white pine, old acrylic eyelashes flash a recognition. Stippled like a stormy summer, worn and battered flanks shiver in the dust. A torn rosette from a forgotten fete, sharpens with returning memories: the abandoned joy…
Life Inside The Poetry Fridge
On the train to Carlisle at silly o’clock in the morning, I began having examination flashbacks; you know the sort of thing … nightmares involving turning up for O Levels or A Levels, university end of year progress exams, SATs or whatever in just your vest. Don’t be daft, I told myself, you’re properly prepared…
Verbalise
Looking forward to the Verbalise gig next Saturday. The Zoom room opens at 7.30 pm and the running order is open mic first, then me for 15-20 minutes and then Louise Fazackerley to close the evening. I’ll be reading mainly from Fledge and the link to find out more is below: CLICK FOR MORE INFORMATION
Contains Strong Language 2020
So onto the next thing … At the end of September, the BBC are descending on Carlisle to run a three day festival of poetry and spoken word. This will be the festival’s fourth year since 2017 when Hull in its capacity as City of Culture kicked the whole thing off. This year, the events…
I have become Patience Strong …
Why bind the days inside that self-embrace? Alight, a life should shame the brightest star; refuse the mask that hides a truthful face. Imperfect lines in faith do not disgrace when claimed as fact and owned for what they are. Why bind the days inside that self-embrace? Deny all ignorance a growing space. Offended eyes…
In Boots Like These
My poem in the Through The Locking Glass anthology published by Inspired By Lakeland in response to the current coronavirus crisis.
