Thirteen Tales of Ghosts – The Valley

The Valley follows a woman on a late-night journey home through rural darkness, where silence and isolation amplify every sound and shadow. She steps into a tense, immersive world where the ordinary twists into something uncanny. Her familiar surroundings shift: scuttles in the dark, the unsettling movement of a childhood doll, and the sudden, mysterious appearance of a girl by an ancient monolith.

The story explores paranoia, perception, and reality, leaving her—and the readers—to wonder if the terrors are psychological or supernatural. The rural landscape itself becomes a character: silent fields, dense darkness, and the valley’s oppressive stillness.

The Valley is more than fear; it’s about how the past manifests now and how vulnerability draws in forces beyond understanding. As she navigates the night, the tension grows until she confronts phenomena that are eerie and deeply affecting.

The Valley

Thirteen Tales of Ghosts – Mother

In Mother, I delve deep into the psyche of Connor, a man tormented by the lingering presence—or memory—of his late mother. Her influence suffocates him; her voice is sharp, relentless, and invasive. Even after her death, she continues to haunt his mind, poisoning how he sees the world and the people he loves. I leave it ambiguous: is he truly haunted, or is this the unravelling of his own sanity?

His descent is gripping, beginning in the cramped, filthy confines of his apartment and spiralling outward as he struggles to maintain control over his life. This story is about trauma, unresolved grief, and the destructive power of anger left unchecked. As he confronts his wife and wrestles with memories of his mother, he questions the ownership of his own actions: how much of what he does is truly his?

My prose is vivid, unflinching, and haunting, making Mother a story that lingers long after the final page. It’s a reminder of how family influences us inescapably and how the past shapes who we are now.

mother

Duty

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Birds do it. Bees do it
Even the goddamn fleas do it
It’s in the genes to survive
It’s not enough. Not for us
We have more, in our double helix
Than the ability to thrive
Make it our duty
Transcend circumstance!

Image from Pixabay

Summer Clouds

By Scott Bailey ©  1999

A quavering wave
of light in the summer clouds
as the sun goes down.

Image from Pixabay

It Is Rain

By Scott Bailey © 2015

It is rain
All the pain
And grief

All the pain
Of everyday
It is rain

Of everyday
Stresses
We are plagued

But it is rain
Just rain
Falling down

Rain makes us
Wet and cold
Dampens us

If we choose
Misery
Rain is heavy

The sun will come
Summer reborn
From spring

Rain is life
Nourishment
Fresh

No misery
Be wet not damp
Be soaked

Revel in the rain
Dance and sing
In life

All the pain
The grief
The stress

It is rain
Just rain

Image from Pixabay

Sway

By Scott Bailey © 2019

All
That I
Survey is
Under my sway
That is what they say
The evidence is slim
So I start to understand
How perfidious is the world
And the darkness begins to seep in
The entropy of hope, and dream slayer
So I must strive to remember the truth
My eyes are my window to the world
What dwells behind them in my world
My kingdom and my domain
So here I shall remain
That is what I say
Under my sway
In my eye
That is
All

In response to COLLEEN’S 2019 WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 132 #SYNONYMSONLY

Influence & Perception

Check the link for the guidelines and rules

A double Etheree

#Etheree

Jealousy

By Scott Bailey © 2016

Jealousy
A deadly sin
So we are taught
Over and over
Again
And when
We dare to question
The questionable ways
Of wealth and power
They smirk and hint
Jealousy
And the lessons rise
Prodding our conscience
Silencing our voices
With guilty pillows
Thus
Why we are taught
What we are taught
Is plain to see

Image from Pixabay

Fleet

By Scott Bailey © 2018

The prancing gazelle
Being fleet of foot evades
The red rending jaws

Image from Pixabay

In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #232 Foot&Mouth

#amwriting, #postaday

 

Panacea

By Scott Bailey © 2017

The panacea
To all of the world’s ills
Is in our hands
Specifically
In their joining

Image from Pixabay

In response to my daily prompt Explicit

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Albatross

By Scott Bailey © 2016

Albatross hovers
High over surf scattered sand
All will pass in time

Image from Pixabay

In response to my daily prompt Hover

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Soaring

By Scott Bailey © 2018

Soaring
High in the sky
In synchronicity
Gathering, readying to leave
Flocking

Image from Pixabay

In response to my daily prompt Consolidate

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Butterfly

By Scott Bailey © 2014

Sod the camouflage
Be resplendent in the sun
Flutter high and shine

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

Cup

By Scott Bailey © 2018

The goal should not be
To fill the cup to the brim
But savour it

Image from Pixabay

In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #231 Goal&Cup

#amwriting, #postaday

 

Pool of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Long shadows
Cast their thoughts behind us
Dim our once bright footsteps
An unclean window screen

But flashes from sudden mirrors
Slash through the shadow’s forms
Glimpses of dreams that passed us
Keeping them alive

Though shadows keep on growing
We head towards the sun
In shade, our dreams may swim
But they will follow until we’re done

Image from Pixabay

In response to my daily prompt Keep

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Premonition

By Scott Bailey © 2018

I have a bad feeling about this
He said
She said
It said
Many voices

They did it anyway
Always

 

Image from Pixabay

In response to my daily prompt Feeling

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Exclusion

By Scott Bailey © 2018

Today’s trend
Seems to be
Exclusion
Isolation
Leaving
When all we really want
Is to come together
And hold hands

Image from Pixabay

In response to my daily prompt Exclude

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The Solace of the Night

By Scott Bailey © 2018

When the fire goes out
The heat is dissipated
Darkness falls again
Only then do the creatures
Of the night, find their solace

Image from Pixabay

In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 112, “COLD & SAFE,” #SYNONYMSONLY

Check the link for the guidelines and rules

A tanka this week.

#tanka

Monster

By Scott Bailey © 2014

Monster
Caught in lead and steel
Frozen
In time

Human
Caught in the machine
Enslaved
Forever

Somewhere
An artist smirks
And settles
To eternal sleep

IMG_9741
Photo by Scott Bailey

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

Powder

By Scott Bailey © 2018

The powder that burns
Clouded judgment
Gave power
To cowards
That never learned
Burnt bridges
With wisdom
Killed
And can never go back

Lord Mountbatten [CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

In response to my daily prompt Powder

#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday

Bound

By Scott Bailey © 2018

Whenever wolves win
A warm beating heart is lost
The law of the wild

Image from Pixabay

In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #229 Win&Lose

#amwriting, #postaday

 

Lights

By Scott Bailey © 2014

Swirling up into the night
Like some lonely northern light
Not north but here it did appear
Why am I not filled with fear
A spiral of blue and green
Wispy tendrils barely seen
Twisting up and further still
I watch it rise with mounting thrill
Into the stars I watch it go
And then alone the heavens know

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

Silicon Hell

By Scott Bailey © 2014

In silicon hell
The servant does not obey
But who is the slave

Image from Pixabay

In response to my daily prompt Hell

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What We’re Fed

By Scott Bailey © 2018

We have reached the point
Where the genuine
Is ridiculed out of fear
So accustomed to lies
They have become
Our staple

Image from Pixabay

In response to my daily prompt Genuine

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The Grain

By Scott Bailey © 2018

From the grain grows the stem
That delivers the wheat
From the deep furrow of the ground
Harvested
By the old
Leather-clad hands
Carried beneath the canvas
Of the rocking wagon
To the mill

Until the day
We went against the grain

Image from Pixabay

In response to my daily prompt Harvest

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The Discarded

By Scott Bailey © 2018

The bag
Useful but discarded
Like so many
People
The world
That does this
Is doomed

Image from Pixabay

In response to my daily prompt Bag

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Soak Away

By Scott Bailey © 2018

The tears, the grief, the bitterness
The anger, the revenge and recriminations
They will soak away
Soak away
Into the earth
And feed it

History will take them all
Absorb them, dull them into the distance
Until we are free to look
And try to learn
But the passion is
Soaked away
So the lesson is empty

The truths, the pains, the memories
The holes, the aches and the yearnings
They all soak away
Into the earth
Enrich it

Perhaps
We should hold the pain
Remember
And learn

Drained Land
Image from Pixabay

In response to my daily prompt Soak

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Welfare

By Scott Bailey © 2018

The welfare state
The helping hand for the unfortunate
The most humanity
A government has shown
How the rich and powerful hate it
How they vilify those who need it
How they love to try to destroy it
A little less desperation
Means
A little less exploitation
So
Beware the day
They succeed

Image from Pixabay

In response to my daily prompt Welfare

#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday

Hunger

By Scott Bailey © 2018

Hunger’s fingers steal
Deep into an empty gut
So the wolves must strike

Image from Pixabay

In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #225 Strike&Hunger

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Fantasy

By Scott Bailey © 2018

Roll a die
Like a gem
Sparkling
And like magic
We are in a different
World
We are different
People

Image from Pixabay

In response to my daily prompt Die

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Charged

By Scott Bailey © 2018

The dark clouds are charged
And reason fills us with fear
Released in thunder

Image from Pixabay

In response to my daily prompt Charge

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Out of Reach

By Scott Bailey © 2018

Watching dreams
Float away
Beyond reach
While earthbound
Feel the separation
With every poster
Telling you
To chase them

Image from Pixabay

In response to my daily prompt Separation

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Lost Realm

By Scott Bailey © 2018

For a sweet moment
This green forest was all mine
My own secret realm
Now, it is fenced off, private
Playground of the privileged

Image from Pixabay

In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 107, “HAUNT & SPELL,” #SYNONYMSONLY

Check the link for the guidelines and rules

A tanka this week.

#tanka

Storm Birth

By Scott Bailey © 2018

Where the great desert
Meets the rolling of the waves
And sand and sea seethe
The wind is stirred to battle
Between heavens and earth

Image from Pixabay

In response to my daily prompt Stir

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Talisman of our Times

By Scott Bailey © 2018

Power in the palm
Talentless tablets
Talisman of our times
Shatters
When dropped

Image from Pixabay

In response to my daily prompt Tablet

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Swells

By Scott Bailey © 2018

Waves rise and waves fall
And thunder wrestles the sea
The whales stay serene

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=594115

In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #223 Rise&Fall

#amwriting, #postaday

 

Seventy Billion Fingers

By Scott Bailey © 2014

Seventy billion fingers
And more
Have all in their time
Reached out for
The pure
Purely human concept
Perfection
The perfect car
The perfect job
The perfect house
The perfect friend
The perfect woman
The perfect man
The perfect hold of
A perfect hand
Yet what we still don’t comprehend
Perfection brings us stress in the end
Outside our minds it does not exist
So in pursuit we forever twist

Image from Pixabay

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

The Tower

By Scott Bailey © 2014

The tower in the wood
Lonely and silent
Seat of many dreams
Where it was a palace of power
A refuge for outlaws
A romantic spire or a foreboding spear
A collapsed heart
Once vigilant
Now silent
Crumbling

Image from PIxabay

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

Shepherds

By Scott Bailey © 2018

The teacher
The trainer
They are the shepherds
The protectors
Of the boundaries
Fencing you
In

Image from Pixabay

In response to my daily prompt Trainer

#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday