By Scott Bailey © 2014

Heaven’s holy light
Roving bright light a searchlight
Burning upturned eyes

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

Bobbing in the dark
Tossed on hell’s furious waves
Seeking safer shores

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

Slash of black on white
Ink scar scored in pain
Indicting words inflame
Passions in the hurt

The pen defeats the sword
Words echo strong down time
But numbers drown the words
Blur and blot the ink

The echo fades
Singers sing
TV lulls the wise

There is
No more
Surprise

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

Jiggly was a little worm
A cheery sort of fellow
But whenever somebody brushed his skin
He would yowl and howl and bellow

For you see poor old jiggly
Was a ticklish kind of chap
The slightest touch had him laughing so much
That his head was all of a flap

So he asked all his friends to help him
Get over his terrible curse
Before he drove them all mad with laughter
Could they his affliction reverse

The sheep all got together
And knitted a long woollen coat
The wool was too itchy for his tender skin
And the fur got stuck in his throat

The spiders spun him a shirt
Of the finest silken web
But he ended up sliding all over the place
And his spirits lower did ebb

The mice they wrapped him up tightly
In leathery leaves from the ground
But they bound him so tight that he took a fright
And rolled all around and around

The parrots extracted some rubber
From the heart of the rubber tree
Then coated him with a thin smooth layer
Which fitted as well as could be

Now the young worm was happy
He could play with his friends at last
But as he wriggled among them quite happy
Their faces all looked so downcast

For they missed the wonderful laughter
Of the wriggly giggly worm
That filled their glum days in magical ways
Like a good but infectious germ

So he cast of his new rubber skin
Baring his own to the air
And everyone tickled the giggly worm
And jiggled and laughed without care

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

The insane and the dim
The slow and steady
The clever and obnoxious
The bigot and the playwright
The whiner and the wino
The liar and the gambler
The killer, the explorer
The saint and the giver
The healer and the cook
The listener and the teller
The buyer and the seller
The ruler and the subject
The freeman and the slave
The lover and the loner
We need them all
Each a danger, a potential bomb
But given the right time
The right place
The right circumstance
Each can be the one to save us all
To shine
To save
So do not be so hasty
To wipe them out

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

Gone
From me
Innocence
But always close
Always in my heart that innocence lost

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

Nothing you can do
To ease his pain, then you feel
Like you let him down

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

He is cool
And brave
Respectful
and respected
Men follow
Women swoon
Bright words from
His tongue bloom
Visionary thoughts
Mould the world
Strong and graceful
Effortless with grace
Steadfast, trustworthy
True, through and through

Yet
Where is he?
Not on our screens
Not in our books
Not anywhere that
The lost boy looks

There is a void
for our boys
So they fill it

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

Shameful behaviour
Disgusting is the message
Relentless at men

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

Education grows
Crime statistics are falling
Just saying, that’s all

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

Changing times and names
War and scandal and divorce
Mother reigns again

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

Debauchery swells
Lazy Princes and mad Kings
Produced and Empress

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

A renaissance across the land
Throwing off the far-flung shackles
For new ones closer to home
A new white dawn

Grabbing the holy riches
Gold crosses forged to swords
War in all directions
An empire to rebuild

Tall ships grew and multiplied
New lands found and won
The power of word proliferates
Especially the words of one

All the globe within the globe
Sounds echo down to now
Expose the hearts of Kings and Queens
Commoner, thief and maid

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

The invaders became the natives
And the empire grew and grew
Still one tongue ruled, another served
Ambitious chances were few

Once King extended the lands
Far across the sea
A golden time of riches
For those who were still free

In wars the riches squandered
By the lion and the snake
Rebellion loomed open the crown
As liberty crawled awake

So some power leaked away
Through the reluctant pen
That signed the future of the land
Hope was found again

For many years this house ruled
Until the roses clashed
From golden empire this dynasty
To war and bloodshed crashed

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

Rising up and crashing down
On the cold, dark northern sea
Through hail and thunder, rain and show
The dark behind we flee

Filled with fear and hunger
From their lands bereft
They gorged their souls on anger
Till nothing else was left

They crashed upon the naked shores
Like children of the thunder
And every wall they came across
The smashed and tore asunder

The burnt the words of holy men
Carved scars into the nation
But also left their words and ways
While singing their elation

Some stayed in the conquered lands
Creating yet more divides
Their echoes ring across the years
In our veins their blood resides

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

The end of dynasties across the land
The removal of a class
The subjugation of a race
Custom smashed like glass

Upon the barest thread of claim
They came to take the crown
Rewrote the laws that bind us still
And all was written down

Here began the deep divide
Between rulers and the ruled
They claimed the justice of the lord
But very few were ruled

So across the short sea gap they came
With sword and shield and horse
Built castles high and mighty
Changing this fair island’s course

Adding new language to our tongues
Enriching and splitting too
Some words reserved for nobility
And some would never do

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

Lines upon lines
Red and gold
Standing against
The wild blue bold

A stamps of order
And authority
Here is born
Conformity

Silk and steel
Rules the land
Gifts and death
In this hand

Shapes indelible
Left on the land
Words both spoken
And written in sand

Strength and order
The order of the day
The eagles left
Their order will stay

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

Hard, cold and grey
Dull and unreflective
Sharpened for weapons of war
Blunted for tools of toil

Yet there is more
Glowing in the forge
Twisted into marble patterns
Delicate chains and swirls

Mounts for jewels
Brooches for queens
Pins and forks and hooks
A myriad of ideas were born

Flowing from use to form
New forms growing fast
The sword fights, the lock defends
The cauldron holds the feast

Times of war and growth of lore
Times of great halls a roaring
Look past the iron-grey mist of time
To see the colours flower

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

They left a legacy written in stone
Plain for all to see
Yet there are less lucid signs
Discovered carefully

Lines that lay across the land
Tales of times gone by
Showing us in hidden ways
To be read by those who try

The tracks we walked long ago
The boundaries of old
A story laid on every hill
And every vale and fold.

And on our tongues and in our tales
Echoes of the past
Holy places beyond the cross
Beyond a gulf so vast

Shapes and forms from ancient times
Still glimpsed within the heart
Of dance and song and tales that burn
And every blessed art

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

So they gathered through all the seasons
No plan, no goal, no reason
Anyone would have thought they had agoraphobia
Reality, they imagined, could be held back forever

Socially seeking some satisfying Saturdays
Never needing new nighttime neon
All agreeing an admirable agenda
Rich raw results really render

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

The story lingers
on. History casts its shadow
Misty Times ahead

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

I have been put in so many boxes
No wonder I have lost my head
My left hand has lost the right
My heart is by the brown bread
My eyes are somewhere dark and grim
Can’t tell where or when
My feet are tied to a tired path
They wander again and again
But it doesn’t matter
My imagination can fly

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

Brushed by crowded, swaying ferns
The scent of warm loam arises
Silence reigns, no birdsong rings
Signs missed by the men approaching
With their plunder they blunder along
Beneath the high arched canopy
And a new scent mingles with forest smells
fear and anticipation
Smooth and straight and true the shaft
Hard the piercing point
Today the plunder will be reclaimed
The price repaid in blood
Together, in silence, we draw our bows

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

A pillow, a rock,
A wage slave and a lover
Is this all I am

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

The lord of darkness cometh
draped in shades of grey
So many tastes of opium
are available today
Opium is not the only drug
to while away the hours
So much poison sugar
before which reason cowers
For every palette there’s a taste
for every twisted dream
On endless shelves in endless dens
the merchandise does gleam
So the sellers sell us
down the river deep
To dream our dreams of sweet success
though we do not sleep
And while we dream on endlessly
the future will never bring
The day we rise up and in hand
to solve
anything
 

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

We need fury and wonder
to fire our song
But the fire is dim
the spark long gone
So sift through the ashes
for an ember that glows
To tend and to blow
through the wind and the snows
And build from the ashes
a new song, a new light
That burns with new fury
to banish the night

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2014

My head is twirling
And whirling like winter winds
Against solid stone

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Ho. Ah.
So, lah
Row far
LowGo shah
in kar
sar rah
sea

Hic ar tee, sec ar tee, el ar tee, ho
Billowing, willowing echoing deep
Dark shadows from afar

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2013

The cold reaches deep
Frozen icicles of time
Teeth in red-hot jaws

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2013

So we draw to the close of another year
An arbitrary space of time
And to me only one thing is clear
That out of the minutes does climb
Despite all the doom and the pressure
Despite all my weakness and fails
No matter my railing at life
No matter my aches and my wails
I am loved by the people around me
My wife and my smiling son
If life is a human race
Then I concede I have won.

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2013

What good is a day
against infinity?
What good are muscles
against rock?
What good is a fence
against the flood?
What good is will
within a lock?

Somewhere there’s a key
the will open
The prison that holds fast
the will
The waters will part
The mountain will fall
Infinity will be
just a spark

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Angels falling forever
Angels lost from the sky
Angels hearing truth
From those devils that lie

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2013

What can we say then
That will make a difference
In a noisy world

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Deaf to me the world
My voice lost in the clamour
Will my life follow?

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2013

For one small heart
Put aside the pride
The bruised ego
For another day
And be better

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Choices, where are mine?
They seem to have slipped away
Somewhere down river

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Helping hands
Supporting
Cradling
Shoring up
Pat on the back
Giving
Strong
Holding
Controlling

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2013

One light out
A film of grime
Kicked up from the road
Travelled on
Switches broken
Things won’t turn on
Or off
Squeals and grinds
And groans
Deflation
Thirsty
Dim
My car
And me

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Dusty grey spider
Runs amidst the brush
The twigs and broken leaves
Casting coverlet of silk
Over winters decay
Busy, light, unnoticed
Predator

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Rock
Roll
Hard
Place

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Silver spar pierces the heart
Quivering
Threatening to break
Silver slit steals into the dark
Thrumming
The peace and the feel
Silver streak mars the black
Revealing
The years and the pain
Like rain
In a dark forest

Always silver, never gold.
Never warm, always cold
No longer young but old
Never saved always sold

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Green grass allures
On the other side
Reflects in green
In my eyes longing

But the green is not the grass

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Blood soaked steel
The sword of a knight
Held up proud
Aloft and bright
He hums to himself

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government
shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace”

With banshee scream
He storms on down
To hammer home peace.

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Black wings
Rushing, beating, clouding all
Death
The all-consuming
Undeniable
Descends, swoops
Threatens and laughs
Yet
Dismissed with a thought

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams