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@kingrichwa

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I remember what this flesh has gone through; I dream of what it may go through

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Bacardi & Bodrum

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💌 Growing up queer means unrequited love is something we all understand

"Queer people learn to yearn in a world that wrongly finds our love objectionable. So it is part of our resistance to this pressure that we challenge and discard all but the sensitivity and curiosity that had to grow there. That we take those lessons forward and opt instead for love that is abundant, reciprocal; gloriously available to us." - @

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#QueerAF #QueerGaze Don’t be seduced by melancholy; yearning is something we can leave behind Tinder declared 2026 the Year of Yearning, but is this trend cashing in on the systems that already make queer people’s love harder to find? Richard James writes

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not shy of a spark ! x

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Happy happy birthday to the one, the only @kingrichwa! I hope you’re somewhere beaming, you total machine!

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Everyone is raving about The Map of My Vanishing, a stunning new collection from @kingrichwa 🗺️ 🤍 Don’t miss out — grab your copy today on the Write Bloody Website 🩸📚

#writebloody #queerpoetry #gaypoetry #britishpoetry #newpoetry

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Camera roll clear out

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Poetry, for me, is like a fine wine; something to be savoured.

Richard James’s first collection of poetry, The Map of My Vanishing, deserves to be savoured slowly. These are poems to sit with. Words that linger long after you’ve finished reading them.

It is a beautiful debut, and I couldn’t be prouder to call its author my friend.

The Map of My Vanishing is available now. www.richardjamespoet.com

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Review in English today! (No os preocupéis que os la dejo en español debajo 👀)

This is a poetry collection that feels incredibly intimate, raw and, at times, almost painfully difficult to look away from.

There is something deeply vulnerable about these poems, as if we were being allowed into a part of someone’s life that was never really meant to be seen. James writes about growing up, the body, the mind, suffering and the gradual loss of the person we once thought we would become.

What I found most powerful is the contrast between the beauty of the writing and the darkness of what it explores. The poetry can be incredibly beautiful, but there is always something underneath it that hurts. It feels like watching someone trying to make sense of their own pain by turning it into words, sometimes as a wound, sometimes as a way of healing.

I also loved how literary the collection feels. You can sense the presence of writers like Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Virginia Woolf, Fernando Pessoa and Nabokov, but James never loses his own voice. His poems feel personal and confessional, yet somehow manage to reach something universal.

The Map of My Vanishing is not an easy collection, but it is a beautiful one. A book about what happens when the world becomes difficult to inhabit, about the body and the mind, and about trying to find some meaning in the middle of it all.

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summering hard

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In bittersweet news, Write Bloody UK is coming to a close after six years of bloody brilliant poetry. Write Bloody is thrilled to announce the arrival of five fabulous UK poets @anterdemi @kingrichwa @faulkner_becca @fernflourentzou @oliversedanojones to our US catalog.

#writebloodypublishing #writebloody #ukauthors #ukpoetry #newauthors

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summering 🫡

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Congratulations to Richard James. This new volume of poetry is superb. Richard writes so eloquently and candidly, with both great wit and pathos. Heartily recommended.

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