By Scott Bailey © 2014
Decisions taken
Gateways opened, paths chosen
Following hope’s trail
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Committed
Poetry
Lush
By Scott Bailey 2017
“That’s proper lush, that is”
And you are in a time and place
While the grammar nazis squirm
Layer upon layer of meaning is conveyed
Language
Being used
For its intended purpose
In response to my daily prompt Language
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Tourist
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Some of us are tourists
Some of us are peddlers
Some just love the night
Some just have the feeling
That all of this is just inside our head
How can we control it?
How do we define it?
Is it in our head?
What if we just follow where we’re led?
On the tourist trail
In response to my daily prompt Tourist
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
The Following
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Time to take
The initiative
Maybe
Or perhaps
Tomorrow
Already too late
It’s gone
When I wasn’t looking
While I thought
And fought
With doubts and fears
Follow on
Follow on
In response to my daily prompt Initiative
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Hunger
By Scott Bailey © 2018
The rumbling of the belly
Is the trap
The bait
Led us down a one-way path
No turning back
And keeps us here
In response to my daily prompt Belly
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Winter
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Winter brooks no fool
Or those lacking hunters fire
The cold teeth are sharp
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #214 Lack&Fool
#amwriting, #postaday
Gaping
By Scott Bailey © 2015
Always open, ever weeping
The wound of inequality
But still they slash, cut down their crop
And with contempt they fill their boots
Screaming sights and flashing sounds
Headlines tinged with hate
Keep us poor and keep us scared
Or else eliminate
In response to my daily prompt Boot
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
No Safety
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Child lacking safety
Will grow to fear the wide world
And narrow their mind
In response to my daily prompt Narrow
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Platform
By Scott Bailey © 2018
This is my platform
And the train is leaving
Without me
Never got to say
What I had to say
Ticket in hand
In response to my daily prompt Platform
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Mobius
By Scott Bailey © 2018
My life is thin
Shallow
Two dimensional
No point
No end
Twisted
Mobius
In response to my daily prompt Thin
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Econobox
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Econobox
What a strange, strained word
A small, efficient, no thrills car
Feels like a word
Trying to hard
Like the marketing department
That came up with it
In response to my daily prompt Econobox
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Squat
By Scott Bailey 2017
Diddly Squat
Zilch
Nadda
The amount your beloved
Leaders
Think about your needs
They will bleed us dry
And squeeze us flat
As the weight of their greed
Bears down on us
In response to my daily prompt Flat
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Market
By Scott Bailey © 2014
The free market
It pervades every part of our lives
Every fabric of our society
Why
Why did we choose
To put all the power
Into the hands of the few
Greedy individuals
Powerful because of their greed
Who’s great idea was that?
In response to my daily prompt Market
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
No Return
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Upturned trolleys
And wasted lives
Stilted rivers
Fish choked
Earth poked
To the point
Of submission
We cannot leave
Without causing worse
Now our only hope
Is to turn the tools
To better use
In response to my daily prompt Trolley
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Stressed
By Scott Bailey © 2013
Supposed to relax
From the endless stress of work
The phone doesn’t stop
In response to my daily prompt Work
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Dividend
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Your flesh is the price
Your blood sweat and tears
The dividend you pay
To no one you know
For reasons unknown
But still, you pay it
On and on and on
Until you have nothing left
No legacy
No remembrance
And still
It will not be enough
In response to my daily prompt Dividend
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Coming Home
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Unite behind them
And maybe they have a chance
So, come on England!
Sorry – couldn’t resist – so well timed!
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #208 Chance&Unite
#amwriting, #postaday
Criticize
By Scott Bailey © 2017
I can’t criticize
I am too little
Too belittled
I probably can’t
Even spell it
In response to my daily prompt Criticism
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Parachute
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Life
Where every step
Is a leap
Without a parachute
Forget that
At your peril
In response to my daily prompt Parachute
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Deport
By Scott Bailey © 2018
A simple solution
Deport the deporters
Problem solved
In response to my daily prompt Deport
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Common Perception
By Scott Bailey © 2018
We all see it
All perceive the truth
Children in cages
We know what it means
Here come the memes
The outraged status
Rules the day
Governments
ISSUE STATEMENTS
Then
We turn away
Muttering
Up next?
Ovens
Prepare your placards!
Or is all as it appears?
Where is the truth in what we see?
If we cannot believe what we see – we will give up belief.
And there’s the point.
In response to my daily prompt Perceive
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
I Love a Title
By Scott Bailey © 2015
I love a title
My name underneath
The first few paragraphs
The format
The shape
I love beginnings
I love endings
It’s the struggle in between
In response to my daily prompt Love
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Employ
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Employ your words well
To communicate
Not condemn
Listen to all the depths of meaning
Conveyed
Instead of correcting
To shore up
Your sense of superiority
In response to my daily prompt Employ
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Wheel of War
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Brawn of the bear spent
The eagle sharpens it claws
This will bring no bliss
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #206 Bliss&Brawn
#amwriting, #postaday
A Quartet of Poems
Where the White Wolves Dance
By Scott Bailey © 2014
A ring of solid light
Hovers just above the ground
Spinning with infinity
Casts glamour all around
This is
Where the white wolves dance
It is said the be the child
Of the seed of forbidden fruit
Born from secret knowledge
Found on a hidden a hidden route
Around it
The white wolves still dance
The colour pulses wild
Blue, silver and pure white
Dragging hearts round and round
Beneath the starlit night
And so
On the white wolves dance
In a time-worn trench, they dance
Circling below the light
So deep the light they cannot see
The circle is out of sight
Yet still
On the white wolves dance
The circle has been burnt
Into their very eyes
So while the dark wolf dreams
And while the dear time flies
Onwards
The white wolves dance.
So high upon their mountain
On an island on a lake
Isolated and secure from
The world they do forsake
This is
Where the white wolves dance
Where the Dark Wolf Dreams
By Scott Bailey © 2014
A deep and dark filled cave
Upon a mountain high
Where no light dares enter
And no echo finds reply
Shallow
The dark wolf dreams
A rumble from within
Deep in the dark wolves throat
The echo of the growl
The terrifying note
Fitfully
The dark wolf dreams
Strong appear the chains
That bind him in his sleep
But stronger still the anger
That grows within him deep
Brooding
The dark wolf dreams
Bitter is the dark wolf’s heart
Long his memory too
Some will be spared his wrath
But they are counted few
Grim
The dark wolf dreams
Terrible his waking hours
Thus the grey wolves grieve
Any heart with secrets dark
Had better rise and leave
Briefly
The dark wolf dreams
So do not be deceived
By the mumbling and the snoring
Born of rage and constriction
Of rending and of roaring
And of waking
The dark wolf dreams
Where the Grey Wolves Grieve
By Scott Bailey © 2014
On a barren plain
Where food and joy are sparse
The desolate packs wander
Watching slow time pass
Here
The grey wolves grieve
With rose stained eyes
Patrolling their border wide
Preserving what is left
Of what they hold inside
It’s why
The grey wolves grieve
They gaze across the delta
To far off distant times
Where game and ease were plenty
Than in these austere climes
And so
The grey wolves grieve
Disgusted by the carnage
Where the red fox roams
On guard for rebel spirits
Keeping safe their homes
Where
The grey wolves grieve
Yet what they seek in earnest
Deep within their hearts
They know is far beyond them
Beyond their stilted arts
Endless
The grey wolves grieve
The packs struggle onwards
Huddled in their gloom
Their hearts so full of anguish
For hope, there is no room
In this land
Where the grey wolves grieve
Where the Red Fox Roams
By Scott Bailey © 2014
The timid beasties scatter
With tiny racing hearts
The scent of blood approaches
The herd all ways it parts
For here
The red fox roams
The scent of fear it rises
And fans the fox’s fire
Into enslaving passion
To raise the killer higher
Thus
The red fox roams
Filled with hate and ire of
Where the white wolves dance
The dance the fox desires
Denied its golden chance
Everywhere
The red fox roams
The world has grown accustomed
To fear of tooth and claw
The world has grown so weary
Of lives lived short and raw
Still
The red fox roams
The timid beasties scatter
Will never make a stand
They’ll not accept the secret
To gain the upper hand
So proud
The red fox roams
No one knows the course
Where the fox’s road is heading
All they see is darkness
The cast of all the spreading
Death
Where the red fox roams
In response to my daily prompt Wolf
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Goodbye Daily Prompt!
UPDATE – I have now started my own! It can be found here
I only found out about this today!
After all this time the Daily Post is sounding the Last Post and bidding us farewell.
Damn!
I need it! I will miss it! I need a push every day – I may not use it – may not do it every day – but it helps. A lot!
Retrospective? Well, all I will say is that there was a tie, a few years ago I came to the realisation that I had neglected my passion. I stopped writing. Once I realised I tried to start again. It was difficult. Very hard to gain momentum. That is where the Daily Post came to my rescue. It gave me the inspiration I needed.
Now it won’t be there.
I suspect I am not the only one sorry to see it go.
So I may start my own. I might just put up a prompt each day. Can’t provide the fancy screen that shows all the entries – if anyone else does use it but I will give it a go.
In the meantime – here’s a suitable poem.
Lantern
By Scott Bailey © 2013
Old light from the past
Is still illumination
Wisdom echoes far
In response to the daily prompt Retrospective
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Consumed
By Scott Bailey © 2013
More fucking shopping
I’m consumed by consuming
Working just keeps up
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Cold Cold News
By Scott Bailey © 2016
The news chills today
The child killers found guilty
Will justice suffice?
In response to the daily prompt Guilty
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Fragility
By Scott Bailey © 2018
I watched his heartbeat
Fragile and fading too fast
Stops everyday
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #202 Fragile&Heartbeat
And in Memory of Lucas Henry Bailey
#amwriting, #postaday
Not Enough
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Here are my words
Not enough
To unburden
My crushed soul
Or move a mountain
Of stress
#amwriting, #postaday
The House of Bailey
By Scott Bailey © 2013
Heart lifts
When I lift him high
Heart skips
With her every kiss
Through darkness and troubled times
Our place has held us
I return with joy
To the walls
My son
My wife
My home
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Snake
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Basking in the sun
The snake saw lunch in his mind
Movement brought him back
In response to Colleen’s 2018 Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge No. 82 – BELONG & DREAM #SynonymsOnly
A haiku this week. I have inferred the given words rather than use synonyms so breaking the rules a bit. This post was also prompted by the fact that on a country walk yesterday my eldest nearly stood on one of these – an adder – the only venomous snake on these isles. I think it was a juvenile as it was small but definitely a viper rather than a grass snake.
#haiku
Drop
By Scott Bailey © 2018
In the froth and the spray
In the spume and the churn
In the majesty of the mightiest wave
And the receding tide
Shines
A drop of water
A single drop
That one day
Will hold the heart
Of a child
In response to the daily prompt Tide
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Proud Dad
By Scott Bailey © 2013
Hushed concentration
Then with a sudden surprise
His name is written!
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Two Years
By Scott Bailey © 2013
Pardon me for interrupting
But that was just a step too far
Not really a sporting move
Two years
Two years you have been playing straight
That is to say
Murdering
But with the proper tools
The ones from our markets
Hardware, hard and solid and paid for
That gas – tut tut – just too far
So hand it over
There’s a good chap
And we will let you
Get back to your war
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Swansong
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Swansong
All clap along
As the end approaches
And the triumph lifts us all high
Cheering
In response to Colleen’s 2018 Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge No. 82 – The May Day Edition: SING & CELEBRATE #SynonymsOnly
A cinquain this week
#cinquain
Sailing
By Scott Bailey © 2018
You sail down river
Obsessed with reaching the sea
Fertile hills roll by
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #199 Obsessed&You
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
A Ripple of Reviews
I don’t know if that is the correct collective noun but it should be 🙂
Here are a few reviews I have accrued over time.
Thirteen Tales (of Ghosts)
Excellently Eerie! AAA+++!! 30 January 2018
Witty, scary, creepy, delicious, and not without a deft touch of wit! Well-crafted visions of the dark side! So refreshing to discover such beautifully told, original material! If you love ghost stories, this is for you! JanO
Tales that take you to some very different places, some are very dark places. 26 January 2017
All the stories in this collection are very different, savour them one at a time. I was very taken with Cycles, an astute tale of teenage boys, with a twist of course. Fire and Ice takes us somewhere deep… Terminal is a very modern tale, Shipwreck not for the faint hearted. I loved A Ghost Scene, one to amuse. Don’t read The Church at bedtime, be sure your past will catch up with you in ‘Suspense’ and you will not want to live in the country by yourself if you read ‘The Valley. Mother completes the collection with a very dark ending. Whether you like to be entertained or wonder what really lies beyond, this is the book for you. Janet Grogerty
A Spring of Dreams
Great concept to write a poem a day for a year and provides an insight into coping with difficult family circumstances – a recommended read for anyone who has struggled in such situations. Some poems were obviously more personal than others (my favourites were those when the writer cherishes the ‘small moments’ in life such as going to a fireworks display with his wife and son) but he also branches out into more political territory. Look out for the funny poems scattered throughout the book too, one, in particular, made me laugh out loud! A good read and Scott Bailey shows talent as a poet. Recommended. M.H.Beton
Mankind Limited
This book should be a movie. Somewhere in Hollywood right now there are actors waiting for their agents to deliver this story in script format to them. The makings of all action-packed adventure films are here. I can see the film in my mind’s eye.
But this one is different.
It’s not fast-paced for the thrill of it alone. It needs to be to get the message across. Mankind could be on the threshold of just such a future.
This one could be us.
Maybe a few years down the line yet, maybe already almost there in some similar format. Change a few details. Replace one group for another. Look behind the motives in politics and corporations. Stretch the reality just a little. Ask ourselves questions looking through the light of a different lens.
It feels like us, it acts like us, it may very well come to be.
It could be The Secret we all hold and may one day need.
The future may be closer than we think.
It only takes a small leap of imagination to take us from where we are now to Mankind Unlimited.
Scott Bailey is a writer I follow through his WordPress blog.
I downloaded his book a few weeks ago after reading an excerpt from it on his blog. It wasn’t until this week that I finally had the chance to read the book. I like a good action-packed adventure as much as the next one but I liked, even more, what Scott communicated in the story.
I believe there is more to follow and I’ll be waiting. If we have time and I’m still aware… anniehy
I really enjoyed reading this book and could barely put it down. It is pretty rare for me to get so engrossed in a book, so if you like books about a dystopian future then this is worth a read. Now I want to know what happens next! RuthJ
Really good book, well worth the money could not put it down at times, sad when it got to the end.
I will be reading it again, dont do that with many books. Amazon Customer
Walls
By Scott Bailey © 2013
Yet another wall
How many before we’re home?
Prevaricating
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Backwards
By Scott Bailey © 2018
One day, just for fun
The sun arose in the west
And the world went mad
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #197 Fun&Sun
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
The Deep Deep Dark
By Scott Bailey © 2018
Beware the lure
The luminescent wonder
Bobbing in the deep
Hypnotic
Drawing you nearer
Snap!
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
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
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
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
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
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
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
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
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
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
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
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
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
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
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
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
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
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