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
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
The teacher
The trainer
They are the shepherds
The protectors
Of the boundaries
Fencing you
In
In response to my daily prompt Trainer
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The boat rolled
Pitched and yawed
In the roar of the storm
Rage without form
Pain without end
No captain to tend
The tiller
The sailor clung
To his sanity
Like life
In response to my daily prompt Pitch
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
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
In response to my daily prompt Constraint (Originally written for Sue Vincent’s Thursday Photo prompt)
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
The winter wind breathes
The reeds on the lake rustle
Night and day unite
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #222 Breath&Unite
#amwriting, #postaday
The country’s getting richer
on the shoulders of the poor
The economy is booming
but blood stains mar the floor
A thrifty generation
careful with what they earned
Now watch it all dissipate
belying what they learned
For they are forced by empathy
to shore up their progeny
Or watch them being bled
by powerful gluttony
By vampires way up high
in lofty towers sleek
Deaf to pleas of mercy
They cannot hear us speak
And with contempt the vampires
farm their herds with glee
Until we have no more to give
And they’ll see the fallacy
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Hands caressing wood
Tracing the grain
Or moulding clay
To release secret shapes
Or shearing marble
Into silken shapes
Or stroking the page
To paint magic words
Or brushing the canvas
Revealing worlds of dancing light
Nothing
No automation
No factory
No robot
No tool
Will replace the love
In the craft
In response to my daily prompt Craft
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Sun embraces earth
Peace descends on the calm lake
The swan makes a splash
In response to RonovanWrites Weekly #Haiku #Poetry #Challenge #221 Peace&Love.
#amwriting, #postaday
There’s a prevalence
Of lies
In places
Where truths should be held
Power is held
In such ways
These are our
Troubled days
And the eyes
Are turned away
In response to my daily prompt Prevalence
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The whole kit and kaboodle
Everything you need to get started
You will soon be the expert
In your new chosen hobby/pastime/pursuit
Until the next new thing
The next thing to be seen doing
Then you will need to get
Another whole kit and kaboodle
This is the lifecycle
Of the perfect consumer
Duped into thinking
They are pursuing a perfect life
In response to my daily prompt Innovation
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Be true
To yourself
There is no other
Truth
Follow your dreams
And other such
Platitudes
But
They don’t
Pay the bills
Or
Bear the weight
Of life’s
Burdens
They were
Written
By those
Who
Enjoy the fruit
Of others’ labours
In response to my daily prompt True
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Water
Drops from the sky
Yearning to reach the sea
Its path always heading downwards
Tumbling
Humans
Are not water
Humans yearn for the sky
They strive and climb up and up
Struggling
Sliding
Down from the heights
Steps faltering and weak
Bringing us down into the deep
Failing
Thinking
Measure the path
Assaying obstacles
Planning with forethought and wisdom
Reason
Rising
Against the rain
Climbing the steep ascent
Aiming for the sky, for the stars!
Soaring
In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 103, “FALL & TRY,” #SYNONYMSONLY
Check the link for the guidelines and rules
Had a go at a crown cinquain this week
#crown-cinquain
The whole human race
Must transform
Move on
Leave behind the past
The constraints and restraints
Of superstition
Fix the damage
And become new
Become something more
Than the consumers of the earth
In response to my daily prompt Transform
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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 trees, swimming
Mirrored in their sudden still lakes
Expanding
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Deep in the Crevice
No chink of light creeps
Water carved solace
Permanent night
There dwells the one
Who will bring us to the day
When our own cavernous darkness
Will finally hold sway
In response to my daily prompt Crevice
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The most
Harmful
Things
Are the most
Unassuming
Tiny words
From
Tiny minds
Kill
In response to my daily prompt Harmful
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Infected
With weariness
Watching the corruption
Until it becomes
Normality
And we shrug
And move on
Just as they planned
In response to the daily prompt Infect
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Formulate
Don’t wait for permission
Go
Make the new world
Leave the old
With the dinosaurs
Don’t change the establishment
Ignore it
Make a new one
Reclaim
Everything
In response to my daily prompt Permission
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Formulate
Ruminate
Contemplate
Consult
Insult
Exult
Scan
Plan
Ban
Anything but do
In response to my daily prompt Formulate
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Egg and bacon sandwich
Dripping yolk and ketchup
Steaming tea from an old tin boiler
Condensation frosting the windows
Empty streets, lit by sulphur orange
Solace
In response to my daily prompt Bacon
A tenuous link today but hey!
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The alarm keeps going off
But there’s nothing wrong
The alarm keeps going off
We ignore it
The alarm keeps going off
Keeps going off
In response to my daily prompt Alarm
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Sun traces an arc
Marking the hours and setting
Events in motion
In response to my daily prompt Hour
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Screaming at the storm
The words lost in the thunder
Storm undeflected
In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 99, “CHANGE & DEFY,” #SYNONYMSONLY
Check the link for the guidelines and rules
Another senryu – I have taken the opposite of one of the words this time, so a bit of a cheat.
#senryu
The river rebels
Against the rock, unaware
Its course is shifting
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #215 Rebel&Change
#amwriting, #postaday
Beneath all the drama
All the bluster and the mustering of arms
The blows and the hot hot wind
The shouts and screams
The glory and the tragedy
The dreams and the hopes
Through every act and movement
Every entrance and exit grand and small
After every curtain call and echo of applause
Do not overlook the fact that
Children died
Brothers and sisters remember
In response to my daily prompt Curtain
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It looks like the arc of the defeated
The hunch of an old and tired man
Worn down by time and routine
Only
The arc is a buttress
Against the burden of life
It is bent, not broken
It serves its purpose well
If not gracefully
In response to my daily prompt Defeated
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Some words
Are neglected
Not forgotten
Still in the lists
Used when absolutely
Necessary
For example
Chimney
When did you last utter it?
Like the object itself
It’s redundant
Only used
When it’s a problem
Sometimes
I feel like a chimney
In response to my daily prompt Chimney
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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
The cur
Concurred
That his fur was fine
The Dragon
Entwined, sublime
Around the dog
Agreed
As he preened
Sat on the mat.
The rat
Sneered as he neared
A disagreed
With the lead of the cur
While the rooster sided with the worm
His belief in showmanship firm
White he strutted
The tiger tutted
And purred,
Anticipating
Waiting
His chance
The rabbit
Twitched and hopped
Unsure who
To believe
Whether to leave
Or watch
While the snake
Curled around
The ground
Sniffing out
The way ahead
The monkey
Puzzled
And guzzled his beer
Coming near
Without seeing
While the swine
Less divine
Fed
Its stomach, not its head
And the bull
Forged on
Sure and strong
One way forward
The stallion danced
And when they glanced
Gave a show
While the goat’s
Step
Slow and sure
Kept time
And amidst them all
Nothing
That had a clue
In response to my daily prompt Rabbit
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Eyes
Red and raw
Seen too much
Filled
With work
and bills
and tears
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Swallows fly freely
Soaring high in summer skies
Earthbound fox watches
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #203 Home&Free
#amwriting, #postaday
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
In response to this week’s Photo Challenge Twisted
This was a sculpture spotted during a day trip to Hastings many years ago.
The assumption
Is consumption
Is needed
The beast needs feeding
So we can all be fed
Let’s
Eat the beast
Instead
In response to the daily prompt Assumption
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
The white wolf’s triumph
Hunt over, hunger sated
No howling tonight
In response to Colleen’s Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge No. 81, DIGNITY & SUCCESS, #SynonymsOnly
A haiku again this week. My brain is too fried for anything more.
#haiku
The list is out
The top dogs preen
While those who put on the show
Count their gains
And the mongrels
Sniff out the scraps
On the ground
In response to the daily prompt Pedigree
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The ballet dancer
Perfecting her soul with grace
Hiding her sore heart
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #201 Body&Art
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
The slight light
Of the dawn
Brings dread
Worry
When it should bring hope
What happened?
When did the light
Seep
In response to the daily prompt Slight
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Earth’s ire arises
Fire from the pulsating core
Fertilizing land
In response to the daily prompt Core
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When the oppressors
Flaunt
Their power
When they laugh
Not in their sleeves
But in your face
As they take
And cut
And take some more
Chuckling
On their beds of gold
And thrones of power
When their hands are tightest
On the flow
Of information
Disinformation
And lies
They feel the safest
The strongest
That
Is
The time
To strike
In response to the daily prompt Flaunt
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Sleeves
Hide mystery
Sleek and smooth inside
Be that
Skin
Or vinyl
In response to the daily prompt Sleeve
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Come the hiding of the sun
And the rising of the dust
Dark Kings will reign over the land
Seas will bleed
Come the hiding of the moon
Rivers will falter
Weeds will claim the land
Towers will fall
Come the hiding of the stars
The ice bears will rend
Thunder will rule the air
Mountains will weep
Come the dying of the fire
The turning will end
The scattered will fail
Nothing more
In response to my daily prompt Hide
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Dawn spills on the land
Sharing its free, warm bounty
Nurturing the seeds
Feeding the grazers in turn
Then stolen by the hunters
In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 90, “Give & Receive,” #SYNONYMSONLY
An attempt at a Tanka
#Tanka
Wandering the shore
Through new lands every day
Ancient fishermen
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
On the beating wing
Birds are party to the truth
From way up on high
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #198 Beat&Party
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
The mallet
Ancient tool
Held by many hands
Down through the ages
Hands of skill and experience
Worn and hardened
By labour and care
Now
Resigned to
Tent pegs and vampires
In response to the daily prompt Mallet
I have to say – what a rubbish word today!
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
What is
Authentic
What is
Truth
In the sea
Of information
Might we drown
Before we find the
Pearl
In response to the daily prompt Authentic
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
The arguments go on and on
Side by side
On and on
Both sides sticking
Faithfully
To their course
The problem is
Parallel lines
Never meet
In response to the daily prompt Parallel
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Firewater genie
It lures you with promises
The bottle snaps shut
In response to the daily prompt Genie
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Fingers fly on frets
Sliding, screeching, sighing
And magic emanates
Transporting us
Away
In response to the daily prompt Fret
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Come on you loons
You warrior poets
You insane ranters
Crank it up!
Give us your ideas!
Give us your brains!
Break the mould
Break the world
So it can be remade
Better
In response to the daily prompt Crank
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Scott Andrew Bailey - Author 
