By Scott Bailey © 2018
Beware the lure
The luminescent wonder
Bobbing in the deep
Hypnotic
Drawing you nearer
Snap!
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Slow
Also – rush reminded me of the opposite. A song which sums me up in many ways.
In response to the daily prompt Rush
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Thwart
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Dreams
Thwarted
Turn the poet
Sour
Bitter and ale
Are no
Substitute
As they
Slip away
Dreams
In response to the daily prompt Thwart
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Inchoate
By Scott Bailey © 2018
After forty-eight years
My mind is still
Inchoate
Like my rage
When they stop fighting
Maybe I will be complete
In response to the daily prompt Inchoate
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The Dark – #writephoto
For Sue Vincent’s Thursday Photo prompt
Again, I missed last weeks and this week has been so busy I almost missed this too! However this week has been a good kind of busy as I have been on Holiday with the wife and kids. Lots of days out adventuring and my eldest’s birthday party right at the end!
So this is this weeks photo from Sue.
Unusually for me – this immediately suggested some prose to me, rather than poetry. In fact, the following scene arrived almost fully formed in my mind. It’s not part of anything I am working on or thinking about – it’s completely new to me – as fresh as is it to anyone else who reads it. I am not sure what it’s about or where it’s going? I am quite excited to find out myself!
That might take a while though. I think it will need some time to ferment – or maybe not – maybe I should just get on with it – not knowing where it’s going. Not my usual approach but hey – maybe it will work.
Anyway – here it is.
The Dark
By Scott Bailey © 2018
He stood in the mouth of the cave and breathed in the sweet morning air. He was right on the junction of the entrance – he could feel the cold air behind him, the warm before.
It was a natural balance he appreciated.
The cave had been a good find. It was warm at night and inaccessible to larger animals. Not too difficult to get to for him – but a challenge.
The warmth was important, he could no longer risk fires. Not for a while anyway. Maybe he could work something out eventually – how would probably need to before winter arrived.
If he survived that long.
He shook himself, discarding that line of thought. He had survived this long. This latest setback was just another challenge.
It was a rather large one though.
He felt the wood of his spear shaft starting to warm in the morning sun. It’s smoothness satisfied him as he ran his fingers along it. Hours of care had been worth it. He reached the tip and checked the sharpness of the flint head carefully. It was still good. He had a stash of spares in the cave ready.
He squatted down and run his fingers over the fine gravel that was scattered on the small ledge before the mouth of the cave. He brought it to his nose. It felt and smelt freshly wet – more than dew – there must have been a light rain overnight, that would account for the freshness of the air. That would make the path down from the cave more dangerous, but it should also bring out more game.
He stood, cocked his head and listened intently in the darkness. He could hear many birds circling and far below, many beasts on the plain. Yes, hunting would be good today. Challenging – but the opportunity was there.
Another sound caught his attention and a scent, faint but unmistakable.
Somebody was approaching!
He shifted his stance, dropped into defensive readiness and waited.
This would be the first real challenge he had faced since he had lost his sight two days ago.
He was determined it would not be his last.
Shoots
In exultation
Shoots arise, reaching skyward
Until sharp blades sweep
In response to COLLEEN’S 2018 #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 78, GROW & HONOR, #SNYNONYMSONLY
Tenuous synonyms for my haiku – again
#haiku
Man’s Folly
By Scott Bailey © 2016
She stared at the artefact. It reminded her of a flower. Well, reminded was the wrong word. She had never seen a flower – there were no more left. They had died out long before she had arrived.
Everything had.
But in the last few months, her colleagues had managed to decipher and read the ancient data they had found here and there. They had pieced together a rough history of this dead place. Not much but enough – enough to know what happened.
Enough to know it could happen to them.
Enough to know what a flower looked like.
Before they had died – somebody had carved a final message on this artefact.
‘Man’s final folly!”
She wondered at that. She could not fathom its reasoning.
It was beyond doubt now that this giant metal flower had been the instrument that had called out to them so long ago. Sent its message to the stars.
And they had heard. 20,000 long years ago she and her colleagues had boarded their ship and started on their way.
In all probability, the flower was still broadcasting then. The carver of that message was still breathing good air.
No more.
There was no more good air. There was nothing left to breathe it.
Was puzzled her more was the fact that the remaining histories made it plain that it was foreseeable. Preventable even.
Yet she could also see that their own masters back home could easily make the same mistake. As advanced as they were the path was familiar.
So it was that she and her fellow robotic explorers had taken the decision to delay their trip home. It would take them 20,000 more years to get back with the warning.
This – folly – could send the message quicker. So here they were trying to repair it get it working again.
A desperate battle to avoid the fate of these long dead people who called themselves human beings.
In response to the daily prompt Warning
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Farewell to Health
By Scott Bailey © 2018
The jewel in our crown
The pride of our nation
Will be sold
To line the pockets
Of liars
In response to the daily prompt Betrayed
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Focus
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Keep them focused
On the trivial
The micro problem
While we steal
Their lives
Away
In response to the daily prompt Micro
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Inefficient
By Scott Bailey © 2018
When politicians
Say
The NHS
Has become
Too inefficient
What they really
Mean is
Caring
But the word
Is to alien
For them
In response to the daily prompt Inefficient
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Worship
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Snake worships the sun
Praying to the gold goddess
Waiting for the rain
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #194 Worship&Goddess
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Swallow
By Scott Bailey © 2016
The wind gives a lift
To swooping swallow on its arc
Hawk has other plans
In response to the daily prompt Swallow
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Enroll
By Scott Bailey © 2018
When
Did I enroll
For
This
To be
An oxen
For the
Faceless farmer
Yoke fitted
Ploughing on
And on
In response to the daily prompt Faceless
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Tsuma (A Katauta)
By Scott Bailey © 2013
Silky dress caress
Swishing – lighting my desire
For your loving touch
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Stone and Bronze – #writephoto
For Sue Vincent’s Thursday Photo prompt
Somehow – I missed last weeks prompt completely. I think by Thursday night I had, had enough of the week. This week has not been much better – so I am recycling again. Using one the picture suggested to me.
This is the picture this week.
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
Identical
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Rejecting the crowd
Is the same
Identical
Choice
As following the crowd
In response to the daily prompt Identical
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Peace
By Scott Bailey © 2018
When the sea and sky
Are equal to the viewer
By chance, peace will fall
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #193 Chance&Equal
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Is it Me?
By Scott Bailey © 2103
Flesh and bones and genes.
Is that me?
Shirt and tie and jeans
Is that me?
The places I have been.
Is that me?
The words of praise, the blame that cuts
Is that me?
The songs I loved, the books I have read,
The colours I paint, what I like in my bread.
Are these me?
The friends I love and miss,
That is me
The taste of beer and chat,
That is me
The love for my wife and sons,
That is me.
The song bursting in my lungs,
That is me
The stories in my head
That is me
The place where I grew up,
where I was wed,
where one son was named, the other laid to rest
That is me
My dreams that are out of reach
That is me.
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Light Falls – #writephoto
For Sue Vincent’s Thursday Photo prompt
At last, I managed something new for this challenge rather than recycling.
This is the picture
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Light falls
Through the ancient arch
How much light
Has fallen
Through the years
Upon
Lovers joined
The dearly departed
Those welcomed with blessings
Of water
The cold
The hungry
The repentant
The angry
The sinners
The light has fallen
Age has won
All those lighted memories
Nothing
Now the vessel
Is emptied
And ruined
Only the ghost
Of the shape
Of constraint
Messy
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Arise
Life is messy
We all know that
And while we crave
Cleanliness and order
We also know
It can be no other way
In response to the daily prompt Messy
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Wide Water Wash – #writephoto
For Sue Vincent’s Thursday Photo prompt Another old one- it’s been a very long day but when I saw the picture I gain knew I had a perfect poem to go with it.
This is the picture
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Wide, water wash
Grey beneath the early morning mist
Chance sunbeams bounce and sparkle
River banks lost and blurred
Returning to their ancient ways
Unbound from man’s constraint
A gentle reminder of the eventual winner
Water wandering where it will
Free and unordered
Rolling seeping or swelling to the sea
Grasses, shrubs and tree swimming
Mirrored in their sudden still lakes
Expanding
Originally Published in “A Spring of Dreams“.
Dim
By Scott Bailey © 2017
The light that burns bright
Will burn twice as fast. My light
Must last forever
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #180 Slow&Burn
In response to the daily prompt Dim
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
If Only
By Scott Bailey © 2018
If only I knew
What I know now years ago
My time would have been
Spent in a much better way
Less effort on silly things
In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE, NO. 73: ENERGY & KNOWLEDGE, #SNYONYMSONLY
#Tanka
Royal Academy of Arts -“In Tune with Feminist Futures”
If you’re in London on the 9th of March and like some class and culture.. check this concert out.
To help celebrate International Women’s Day the Royal Academy of Arts approached the Royal College of music to suggest a collaborative performance entitled “In Tune with Feminist Futures” inspired by revered female artists, including Royal Academicians Gillian Wearing, Sonia Boyce, and Phyllida Barlow.
This was an ideal opportunity for me and my friends on the Women In Music module to perform some of the pieces that we have researched and prepared for our recital lectures on the 8th March.
It has been a wonderful opportunity for me to work with accompanist Leanne Singh-Levett who has helped me to shape my songs, one of which is quite a difficult and quirky contemporary piece by Kaija Saariaho called “Il Pleut”. Leanne will also be accompanying my friends Katy Thomson and Esme Hurlburt with their contributions to the evening.
There will also be performances by the Maconchy Quartet, Maren…
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Congregate
By Scott Bailey © 2018
We have reached
A time
When
Congregation
Is not enough
Movement is needed
Action
Revolution
In response to the daily prompt Congregate
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
One Liner Wednesday – Short and Sweet
Forward
Forward
Maybe
From the chaos
From all the death and anger
We can find a better answer
We Need
I used the American form rather than the didactic.
In response to Colleen’s Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge, No. 72: Breakthrough & Movement, #SnyonymsOnly
#Haiku
A Bridge (That Carries Us Over)- Clannad
I have written one for this prompt already but it also reminded me of this – enjoy
In response to the daily prompt Compromise
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Compromise
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Compromise
Hope
That feels like
Betrayal
Can it be that
Our future
Is simply the
Best deal we can
Broker
When we can step
Aside
From the demands
Of one side
And the
Other
Then
We can have
Peace
In response to the daily prompt Compromise
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Mankind Ltd – What Right?
What right had she to make decisions for other people?
What had made her think that those posters were true?
How dare she have the courage to break those chains?
By Scott Bailey
Read an excerpt here.
Available as
or hardback
from Amazon
or CreateSpace
His and Hers Towels
For SocS
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “his/her(s).” Use one, use both, bonus points if you start your post with one and end with the other. Have fun!
A real stream of consciousness today. Typed the first line and went from there. A bit teen angst like – but hey.
By Scott Bailey © 2018
His and her towels
Is where it all falls down
Just towels
Please
No pink or blue
No exclusive clubs
No glass ceiling
Consign the establishment
To the shelves
Build anew
But build it together
No more him and her
No more black and white
No more straight and gay
Just people
Friends and lovers
Colleagues and partners
Helping hands
Ruby
By Scott Bailey 2018
Ruby the rube
You think she’s below you
But really
She’s just behind you
With weapons of justice
So
Shiver
And prepare
In response to the daily prompt Rube
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Deep Recall
Memory is an odd thing. Things you thought you had forgotten can still be in there buried deep.
I can remember the first book I read – I mean the first proper storybook rather than just a kids picture book or short fairy tales.
It was an Enid Blyton one – probably not so well-known as her others but the title and the cover stuck with me ever since.
It was Hurrah for the Circus!
Of course over my childhood it eventually got lost – maybe passed onto my younger brothers. Whatever happened to it I always remembered the feeling I had when I finished it. Like a loss. It sold me on reading for the rest of my life.
Even up until now I could remember the first line of that story.
Oddly though – nothing else – not the story, the characters – nothing!
About 10 years ago – maybe more, I spotted it in a second-hand bookshop. An identical copy of the one I had! I snapped it up!
It sat on my shelf for years. I never reread it – well it was a kids book and I had way too long a list of other books to read.
I would, I thought, read it to my kids one day. If they wanted me to.
Well, last night was that night. My son wanted me to read to him I had exhausted his many books – most of which involve Minecraft and lack any real story content. Tonight I decided to read him a proper story.
I still had no idea at all what it was even about – completely forgotten.
But as I read it – nearly every single sentence was instantly familiar. Though I could not tell you what came next – I remembered what I was reading with a vivid recollection! Remembering where I was when I first read it and how I felt and the images that were being conjured then came flooding back! It was incredible.
I only hope that my son gets the same from it, that it gives him the same passion for reading, though I suspect he is already there on that score.
In response to the daily prompt Conjure
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Victims of Spite
By Scott Bailey 2018
Oxfam and the Government
Feels like tit for tat
A fight of spite
All the while
The hungry still go hungry
The victims remain
Victims
The very existence of charity
Condemns those who rule
Mnemonic
By Scott Bailey 2018
I am in need of a mnemonic
For my life
Memories slip away
Photographs
Have no justice
Trying to cling
To long lost joys
The answer
Make new ones
Instead
In response to the daily prompt Mnemonic
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Empty Tales
For SocS
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “tail/tale.” Use one, used them both, you decide. Enjoy!
Kind of used my lack of inspiration today as the subject.
Empty Tales
By Scott Bailey © 2018
I have no tales to tell
Rather
I have
But the retelling of them
Empties them
Of their worth
Tales of today
Seem
The same
Insist
By Scott Bailey © 2018
A thought
Insists
Am I doing enough
Or is it
The machine
Wearing me down?
In response to the daily prompt Insist
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Puzzle
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Where has my time gone?
Where has my freedom gone?
Time is gone.
Freedom is gone.
Never had time.
Never had freedom
Sigh.
No more.
In response to the daily prompt Puzzled
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
To the Tax Dodging Coorporations
You do not provide us with jobs, we provide you with labour and a safe haven to make your profits.
In response to #One-Liner Wednesday, #1linerweds
Bewildered
By Scott Bailey © 2018
The bewildered
Wildebeest wondered
What it was
The lions were
Running from
In response to the daily prompt Bewildered
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Earth Arising
The earth will arise
Topple all fences and walls
A spark in the night
In response to Colleen’s Weekly 2018 #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge, No. 70 “DESTINY & CHALLENGE”
#Haiku
Child Arising
By Scott Bailey © 2018
It is inevitable
A child will arise
And topple
The obstacles
You put in their way
Grow strong in spite of them
Grow strong because of them
And set the world aflame
With angry hope
Think on that
And tremble
Note – this was inspired by Colleen’s Weekly Tanka Tuesday challenge – but doesn’t qualify in any way. Not sure how can credit her without creating a pingback. Check out her main site and you will find the challenge section. This is not in any of the forms required but came to me in a flash and I liked it so I am putting it out there anyway.
Deep Cold
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Disappearing into the gloom
Undulating side to side
Alien but of this earth
Slow, cold life
In the deep deep dark
So far from the hearth we know
The strange eel like creature
Eases in the deepest cold
Leaving divers dumb
In response to the daily prompt Creature
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Sympathise
By Scott Bailey © 2018
We sympathise
We the victims
Put up or flags
And tokens
Banners on our home pages
All sincere
But nothing changes
No actions
Behind the thought
A slightly modified version of an older poem I did that benefits from the addition I think.
In response to the daily prompt Sympathize
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
In Need of Prompts
Now JusJoJan has finished I need some more prompts!
I use the WordPress Daily Prompt and Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge on a Monday. I could do with another for each day.
Anyone know of any good ones?
Rhymes
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Words flow profusely
Anger pours freely
Action is stilted and slow
The world needs righting
In our minds, we are fighting
But to battles, we never go
Inaction just reaction
No satisfaction
This is a sign of the times
While all is disaster
We rush at it faster
Chiming protesting rhymes
In response to the daily prompt Profuse
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Five Star Review Received! Thirteen Tales
Thirteen Tales of Ghosts received a great review from janowrite, a fellow Ghost Story writer and fan.
Check out the review here and her own blog here.
And why not check out the book itself – see if you agree 🙂
The Cash Creating Conveyor
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Try everything
Go on!
You know you want to.
And why not?
Get to the end of your life
And say proudly
I did it all!
I did it my way!
I tried it all!
No matter the cost
Ignore the cost
Such a small cost
Dripping away
Over and over
But ignore that
Don’t be square
Be cool!
Be the future
Not the past
Think of the Pleasure!
Ignore the cost
Think of the Achievement!
The dripping cost
Be cool!
Dripping into our funnel
Be a Winner
Dripping into our Hoard
In response to the daily prompt Conveyor
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Change
For One-Liner Wednesday & #JusJoJan Daily Prompt – January 31st, 2018
“The only Constant is Change”
Enough said.
In response to #JusJoJan, JusJoJan, #1linerweds
Truly Scrumptious
For #JusJoJan Daily Prompt – January 30th, 2018
Just this – that’s all and a whole host of happy memories!
From the movie that taught to love the magic of film.
In response to #JusJoJan, JusJoJan
Scott Andrew Bailey - Author 