Iain Morrison

Some shots of this weekend’s two Intrusions workshops with the un-intrudable-upon @caconrad88 , teaching us all how to get our poet armour on and KEEP WRITING. Activities involved close looking @geologicnotes exhibition from unusual angles, mandalas, and posing as giant thistles… then writing. @fruitmarketgallery

Here’s @caconrad88 reading on 12 May 2026 from @fruitmarketgallery ’s ‘the poem that could not wait’ publication at the fabulous @typewronger bookshop. Thanks to Nicky Melville for organising the reading where they also read along with @tbberring and @vikshirls1 .

Introductory material for the current Venice Biennale official presentation tells of its late curator Koyo Kouoh’s interest in ‘resonance, affinity, and possibilities of confluence’. The whole experience of this unrealest of cities exploding with contemporary art was demonstrably a simultaneity. What art was gathered in the city was undeniably coincident, even in its practitioners’ frequently stated desire for apartness and separation. That introductory material also cited Kouoh’s interest in poetics, and for any of us who enjoy the exploration of how language opens its dimensions within exhibition contexts, language was present in many places for us to appreciate its portals into impossible, yet imperative to imagine, speculative space. What can I share? Any of us attending the Biennale last week will have returned with bulging cortexes; processing is ongoing, but I can offer some of the places that poetics showed up in exhibition in ways that expanded my experience of what these presentations were asking of us. · Cauleen Smith, We Could Be Heard for Miles In The Night · Cauleen Smith, The Wanda Coleman Songbook · Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Unconformities: What Lies Beneath Our Feet (2 images) · Hagar Ophir, Bound with the Living (3 images) · Anne Waldman, from Gossamurmur · Genti Korini, A Place in the Sun (2 images) · Mays Albaik, Be, so that I may be as I say! [casts of the inside of artist’s mouth] · Alan Phelan, When the idea is extinguished the word sparkles · María Magdalena Campos-Pons leading Poetry Caravan in honour of Koyo Kouoh · Asmaa Jama, The Blood Coast · Warsan Shire, Home & Saint Hooyo · Hans Ulrich Obrist’s The Ear is The Eye of The Soul · Alexander Kluge (2 images) · Anna Ganzha ·

Here’s @annewaldman reading as part of the Poetry Caravan honouring Koyo Kouoh, the late curator of this year’s Venice Biennale. Event happened on Thursday 7th of May under hot afternoon sun in the Giardini, amid what Waldman called this ‘extraordinary map of this conglomeration of tendencies and communities’.

The medieval paintings in the crypt of Ghent’s St Bavo’s Cathedral have got my poetry pistons pumping. Hoping these sketches might turn into a project I’ve wanted to do for a while, inspired by 9th century artist-poet Rabanus Maurus (see last slide).

Have been editing Some People, a series of poems I wrote when hosting viewings for my old flat, when trying to move out of the centre four years ago now. Satisfying to be able to sit outside in winter Duddingston sun to do it, and be glad of the space I’ve cleared and stepped into. Enjoy the long-tailed tits chirruping in the background! 🌞❄️🧣🐦#iainmorrisonpoet #iainmorrison #poetry #somepeople

I’m still buoyed by the energies flowing from the portal @k_ren_sandhu opened into and out of @tate ’s archives last Friday. The launch she fashioned for her @the87press publication, gestalt, a book that draws on her research within the Tate’s Panchayat collection, was generous in the way it opened the space to a plural voicing of archives. Original members of the Panchayat were present to witness as, along with four of her fellow archive travellers - @azad_ashim @kapil_bhanu Redell Olsen, and myself - Karenjit pierced threads through the event’s fleeting interface of past and future, and between all of us gathered in the stirring space. Pictured are the readers from the event, alongside a glimpse inside gestalt’s hybrid pages, and inside the pamphlet from my Notice Period series that I made for the occasion, modelled by poet friend @jo.z.mariner !

A walk up Crow Hill today to see the current state of things after the August fire. The gorse bushes, burnt, had left a sort of charcoal. And yes, there are still crows in residence.

NEXT WEEK: Friday 21st November, 2-5pm, ‘gestalt’ will be performed in the home of the Panchayat Collection, Reading Rooms at Tate Britain. FREE with ticket (book via Tate or Linktree above). The performance will consist of a specially commissioned soundscape. Alongside a chance to see first-hand materials from the collection. Plus readings from special guests: Azad Ashim Sharma, Bhanu Kapil, Iain Morrison and Redell Olsen.

Happy typing outside days this year. Have made the most of my favourite local spots before the dark and cold make it harder (though I’m pretty stoic tbh!) 🍂🧣🧦🧤🥌

Revisiting past notebooks in preparation for a reading at Tate next month to support the launch of Karenjit Sandhu’s new book: gestalt from the87press. Info link in bio at time of posting. Working al fresco as much as poss. while it’s not too cold and dark.

Glad to be reading with these friends and inspirations @caconrad88 & @jo.z.mariner next week at University of Sussex. If you’re in town, please come along and see us. @caconrad88 is also doing a workshop earlier in the afternoon, so stay tuned for details if that’s of interest. And happy 50 years of writing poems to the redoubtable CA! Can’t wait to celebrate being brides of poetry together 💃🏼🌸😍