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Bad Lilies
@badlilies.bsky.social
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A digital poetry journal, edited by @kathryngray.bsky.social and @andrewjamesneilson.bsky.social Enjoy our blooms! badlilies.uk
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Bad Lilies @badlilies.bsky.social · Jun 19
OUT NOW: Issue twenty-four: 'Hopes Unspool' badlilies.uk/issue-twenty-four
Issue twenty-four — Bad Lilies
Issue twenty-four of Bad Lilies
badlilies.uk
Reposted by Bad Lilies
badlilies.bsky.social
An update for those who recently submitted to us...we've been a bit delayed on processing your work thanks to a whole lot of day-to-day life stuff impinging. But we're trucking on now and should be in touch over the next few weeks.
Les Sept Nains de Blanche-Neige
ALT: Les Sept Nains de Blanche-Neige
static.klipy.com
September 27, 2026 at 5:19 PM
badlilies.bsky.social
An update for those who recently submitted to us...we've been a bit delayed on processing your work thanks to a whole lot of day-to-day life stuff impinging. But we're trucking on now and should be in touch over the next few weeks.
Les Sept Nains de Blanche-Neige
ALT: Les Sept Nains de Blanche-Neige
static.klipy.com
September 27, 2026 at 5:19 PM
badlilies.bsky.social
One for the New Englanders...our co-florist @andrewjamesneilson.bsky.social is reading on Tuesday 17 November at Bank Street Books in Mystic, CT. More info here: www.jamesmerrillhouse.org/event-detail...
Merrill Fellow, Andrew Neilson to read at Bank Square Books | James Merrill House
Andrew Neilson will read at Bank Square Books.
www.jamesmerrillhouse.org
September 26, 2026 at 9:15 AM
badlilies.bsky.social
Festival-goers of Edinburgh! Our co-florists, Kathryn Gray and Andrew Neilson, will be reading poems in a cracking lineup on Wednesday, 26th August. Wine, candlelight, poetry...
Les Bijoux: Poetry at The Boundary KATHRYN GRAY ANDREW NEILSON AMY JO PHILIP RACHEL PLUMMER ROSS WILSON 26th August 2026 6.30 Doors Open 397 Leith Walk Wine, candlelight, poetry
August 9, 2026 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Bad Lilies
ewenglass.bsky.social
Adore this poem by @emmaharding.bsky.social that I stumbled across in @badlilies.bsky.social ( 🔗 to full poem below )
August 1, 2026 at 3:30 PM
Reposted by Bad Lilies
badlilies.bsky.social
Just under a week left for submissions! badlilies.uk/submit
Judge's Impatient Gesture
ALT: Judge's Impatient Gesture
static.klipy.com
July 26, 2026 at 6:25 PM
badlilies.bsky.social
Just under a week left for submissions! badlilies.uk/submit
Judge's Impatient Gesture
ALT: Judge's Impatient Gesture
static.klipy.com
July 26, 2026 at 6:25 PM
Reposted by Bad Lilies
badlilies.bsky.social
badlilies.uk/submit
Bad Lilies SUBMISSIONS FAQ Our submissions window is open for the month of July.
July 5, 2026 at 4:31 PM
badlilies.bsky.social
badlilies.uk/submit
Bad Lilies SUBMISSIONS FAQ Our submissions window is open for the month of July.
July 5, 2026 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Bad Lilies
badlilies.bsky.social
📣 News alert! We are opening submissions up for the month of July. More info soon at badlilies.uk/submit
Submission FAQ — Bad Lilies
Guidelines to submit to Bad Lilies
badlilies.uk
June 28, 2026 at 5:29 PM
badlilies.bsky.social
📣 News alert! We are opening submissions up for the month of July. More info soon at badlilies.uk/submit
Submission FAQ — Bad Lilies
Guidelines to submit to Bad Lilies
badlilies.uk
June 28, 2026 at 5:29 PM
Reposted by Bad Lilies
badlilies.bsky.social
We've finished spotlighting the poets in our latest issue! Read the whole thing here: badlilies.uk/issue-twenty-four
Issue twenty-four — Bad Lilies
Issue twenty-four of Bad Lilies
badlilies.uk
June 27, 2026 at 11:34 AM
badlilies.bsky.social
We've finished spotlighting the poets in our latest issue! Read the whole thing here: badlilies.uk/issue-twenty-four
Issue twenty-four — Bad Lilies
Issue twenty-four of Bad Lilies
badlilies.uk
June 27, 2026 at 11:34 AM
Reposted by Bad Lilies
badlilies.bsky.social
Two poems by Ben Verinder badlilies.uk/ben-verinder
Perseids I'm on the dead grass by the laundry block. Planes wink in transecting arcs and bats, touched by the courtyard lights, pluck at the extremities of thought. The warm air smells of bay and smoke from coals. A hare stretches out of the tender dark. The meteors appear scratch their itch of night and just as suddenly depart. I watch the steady passage of a satellite, a star unfixed and always falling.
June 26, 2026 at 12:56 PM
Reposted by Bad Lilies
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'Becoming the Prayer' by Maryam Alsaeid badlilies.uk/maryam-alsaeid
Becoming the Prayer Some nights when I am flat and resentful (wishing God made me another way) I cannot bring myself to sit on the prayer mat my limp limbs cannot fold and sajda* needs a head that submits; remembers itself in the tapestry of dead things
June 26, 2026 at 11:19 AM
badlilies.bsky.social
Two poems by Ben Verinder badlilies.uk/ben-verinder
Perseids I'm on the dead grass by the laundry block. Planes wink in transecting arcs and bats, touched by the courtyard lights, pluck at the extremities of thought. The warm air smells of bay and smoke from coals. A hare stretches out of the tender dark. The meteors appear scratch their itch of night and just as suddenly depart. I watch the steady passage of a satellite, a star unfixed and always falling.
June 26, 2026 at 12:56 PM
badlilies.bsky.social
'Becoming the Prayer' by Maryam Alsaeid badlilies.uk/maryam-alsaeid
Becoming the Prayer Some nights when I am flat and resentful (wishing God made me another way) I cannot bring myself to sit on the prayer mat my limp limbs cannot fold and sajda* needs a head that submits; remembers itself in the tapestry of dead things
June 26, 2026 at 11:19 AM
Reposted by Bad Lilies
badlilies.bsky.social
'My House is Not on Fire' by @bookninja.bsky.social badlilies.uk/george-murray-1
My House is Not on Fire From the hammock, the leaves of the tree above are a green doily hung from a sill to catch the light. The season is unsettled again, the flagstone's heat vying with the northing wind in a gentle fight for control of the temperature. The sky is clear as thought, the mind zoned into a spot right
June 25, 2026 at 11:14 AM
Reposted by Bad Lilies
badlilies.bsky.social
Two poems by Eamonn Shanahan badlilies.uk/eamonn-shanahan
from A London Irish Lad #1 As I have to I imagine you coming home late Gladstone bag in hand you hang up your coat and hat in the kitchen spam fritters because we're still in rationing then chatting to mummy about the general election when you tell her you voted Phil Piratin the Communist Party candidate for Stepney and a week later she left you she went back to Portlaoise to her father to her Lord Jesus Christ. Piratin. She remembered his name.
June 25, 2026 at 9:12 AM
badlilies.bsky.social
'My House is Not on Fire' by @bookninja.bsky.social badlilies.uk/george-murray-1
My House is Not on Fire From the hammock, the leaves of the tree above are a green doily hung from a sill to catch the light. The season is unsettled again, the flagstone's heat vying with the northing wind in a gentle fight for control of the temperature. The sky is clear as thought, the mind zoned into a spot right
June 25, 2026 at 11:14 AM
badlilies.bsky.social
Two poems by Eamonn Shanahan badlilies.uk/eamonn-shanahan
from A London Irish Lad #1 As I have to I imagine you coming home late Gladstone bag in hand you hang up your coat and hat in the kitchen spam fritters because we're still in rationing then chatting to mummy about the general election when you tell her you voted Phil Piratin the Communist Party candidate for Stepney and a week later she left you she went back to Portlaoise to her father to her Lord Jesus Christ. Piratin. She remembered his name.
June 25, 2026 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Bad Lilies
badlilies.bsky.social
'Cartonnage' by Selena Wisnom badlilies.uk/selena-wisnom
Cartonnage Entropy tends the world to yellow skin turns to parchment parchment to papyrus bandaging bruises in bilirubin as magnolia shrivels like ageing paper. Your shell retains its olive tone wrung round in dark locks as you sleep enclosed in stuccoed poems discarded scrolls slapped with plaster
June 24, 2026 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by Bad Lilies
badlilies.bsky.social
'Committal' by @samueltongue.bsky.social badlilies.uk/samuel-tongue
Committal A hill to die on, not once but many times. Even in this airlock of a burial cairn, I hear the drumming of a big heart, a sizzle of rain, & the newly electrified trains running their static. This lair is a quiet den, a bone-deep home, the wind about its business outside, & the motorway full of toys. I lost my gloves climbing this wet street, a scuff quartered from a precious hill. The ancients ourselves knew to keep the dead tightly bound, ligatured for birth through death's tight canal. Fine pottery, stone-axe heads, food & drink. We have finished the bread you had left in the freezer, the last piece as good as the first. On a clear day, we can see coast-to-coast from here.
June 24, 2026 at 9:07 AM
badlilies.bsky.social
'Cartonnage' by Selena Wisnom badlilies.uk/selena-wisnom
Cartonnage Entropy tends the world to yellow skin turns to parchment parchment to papyrus bandaging bruises in bilirubin as magnolia shrivels like ageing paper. Your shell retains its olive tone wrung round in dark locks as you sleep enclosed in stuccoed poems discarded scrolls slapped with plaster
June 24, 2026 at 2:18 PM
badlilies.bsky.social
'Committal' by @samueltongue.bsky.social badlilies.uk/samuel-tongue
Committal A hill to die on, not once but many times. Even in this airlock of a burial cairn, I hear the drumming of a big heart, a sizzle of rain, & the newly electrified trains running their static. This lair is a quiet den, a bone-deep home, the wind about its business outside, & the motorway full of toys. I lost my gloves climbing this wet street, a scuff quartered from a precious hill. The ancients ourselves knew to keep the dead tightly bound, ligatured for birth through death's tight canal. Fine pottery, stone-axe heads, food & drink. We have finished the bread you had left in the freezer, the last piece as good as the first. On a clear day, we can see coast-to-coast from here.
June 24, 2026 at 9:07 AM