Home of the Otwituaries - tweet-length poetic elegies for the departed, plus assorted poetry-related malarkey from Andy Jackson.
Scotland, United Kingdom
Joined March 2009
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An #Otwituary for poet #DouglasDunn
I must revisit the library of times,
to browse, to study, to be renewed.
The books within call me, brimming
with ideas, yet easy as an old suit.
Its doors are heavy, but always open;
my friend, say you’ll come with me.
Otwituarist retweeted
Huge game at Anfield this weekend
The team who are disliked, have been cheating for years and who have had the refs in their back pocket forever will take on Man City
An #Otwituary for actor #EveMarieSaint
The house lights go up; just me
at movie’s end…and a woman
on her own, three rows back,
svelte and luminous, hair like
threads of platinum. She lights
a cigarette, says Great movie,
and time stands still, and so do I.
Otwituarist retweeted
🎙 "The rules were concocted by Arsenal, Liverpool & Man Utd that decided nobody else was joining their club" 😡
"The cartel came and said, we dont like this! We can't have #ManCity coming in and doing the same"👏
"We need to get rid of these obscene, anti-competitive rules" 👀
An #Otwituary for film & tv composer #GeorgeFenton
Wait, I know this one; composed,
scored, played, absorbed, proof
that we hear with square-eyes, that
we remember the lives I have seen
when we can whistle their theme.
Shoestring. Sorry We Missed You.
An #Otwituary for disgraced politician and novelist #JeffreyArcher
The church clock stands
at ten to three; words are
priceless in the mouths
of chiselers and shysters.
The benches groan with
fabulists, and the book
writes the man. Nothing
of this, of course, is true.
An #Otwituary for singer #LenaMartell
Yesterday’s gone; the ballrooms fall
to the wrecking balls of talent show
and karaoke. A woman takes the mic
and rakes among the ruins of a heart,
pokes at the embers of a gospel tune,
does every day what she has to do.
Otwituarist retweeted
More Ivory Cutlery for #NationalPoetryDay!
Apparently the #SelectedPoems is out today - ie you can wander into a shop* and order a copy (the actual copies will follow shortly).
Here’s the back cover. (Text of the blurb in thread.)
*Preferably a bookshop.
#IvorCutler
It’s #NationalPoetryDay again! Which means it’s time for another Patchwork Poem assembled from work written by members of the Federation of Writers Scotland. One line from each person, stitched into a poem on the theme of ‘wonder’…
youtu.be/QjVy-BZZQOg?is=G7Kk…
The 53rd transmission from #ProjectAbeona was just picked up on an uncoded channel - another poem beaming in from a speculative future.
projectabeonapoetry.substack…
#DoubleDactyl of the Week features some pop singer none of us over 30 have ever heard of…from Christophe Gowans
An #Otwituary for #EstherRantzen
Turn down the volume on the froth;
the talking dogs, phallic vegetables,
odd odes and high street vox pops.
Can you hear it? A child, repeating
to themselves a telephone number
given out by a woman on TV with
funny teeth, promising to answer.
An #Otwituary for Scottish crime novelist #PeterMay
The isles are full of bodies,
weighted down in dark lochans
or buried under lush machair.
The heart is a blackhouse, and
there is blood to be written of.
It's a privilege to be involved in the Dymphna Bursary; seeing this testimonial from 2025 recipient Elizabeth Kelly makes it all worthwhile. Thanks to @ByLeavesWeLive
If you’re a poet who identifies as neurodivergent, why not apply for the 2026 grant?
An #Otwituary for actor #StephanieCole
I speak as I find, and when I speak,
I find the voice of the woman inside;
matron and matriarch, hard-faced
yet tender-eyed, perfecting a look
that could sharpen a bread knife.
Otwituarist retweeted
I’ve often thought* those signs on the tops of taxis could double up as toasters.
‘Follow that car!’
‘Certainly, sir. And some hot buttered toast?’
*As always when deploying this phrase, the idea has only just occurred to me BUT it feels like I’ve been thinking it for years.
An #Otwituary for cultural commentator #BonnieGreer
How to live without portfolio:
ask more questions, provide
fewer answers; disagree
agreeably; offer your truth
without assuming it to be
universal; counter hate with
reason; take it easy, but take it.
Crash-bang-wallop, what a #DoubleDactyl! We return after a summer recess, and we're on the last leg. Will we make it to 200? We hope so...
This week's posting is from the evergreen Alice Meynell
Abeona is the Roman goddess of outward journeys. Project Abeona celebrates the outward journey of humankind into space with a sequence of speculative poems from ordinary lives. #52 sees Ian Badcoe looking back at a dwindling Earth.
projectabeonapoetry.substack…
