An old one that fits.
By Scott Bailey © 2013
Blue eyes turned purple
Deep purple and very still
Watching all my life
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #136 Eye&Fade
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
Writing
Still Available! Thirteen Tales.
Grab it now and enjoy – Thirteen Tales (of Ghosts). Spread the word!
A collection of short stories concerning ghosts. Some are traditional ghost stories in the tradition of M.R. James and Edgar Allan Poe. Others are not. Some scare, some are fun. Some play with the concept of a ghost. There are ghosts who are out for revenge and the living avenging the spirits that curse them.
Ideal for sitting around a campfire and late at night under the covers. Or maybe not if the stories themselves are any guide.
Check it out at Amazon and Smashwords and other online e-book retailers.
A paperback version os being worked on for those who prefer the feel of the paper while huddling by the fire – on your own – in the dark – with that noise behind you……
Tremble
So, either it has snowed in our bathroom, there has been the mother of all cocaine parties or somebody who will remain nameless (starts with an L end with an M few vowels in between) has found Mummy’s talcum powder.
I don’t know what my kids will be when they grow up – but one way or another they will make the world tremble.
In the meantime – here’s an old poem that fits in with today’s prompt.
Giants
By Scott Bailey 2014
I have seen giants
Striding over the land
Power on their shoulders
Stern and strong their hand
Never do they falter
Never seen one stumble or fall
Always do their duty
Always answer the call
Through storm and wind and rain
The carry their burden true
Though other links may burn out
The giants stride on through
So remember this and tremble
Even the giants will pass
Fall into dust and rusty ruin
Scattered in untamed grass
One day their burden will dissipate
Their purpose will disappear
And the duty they discharged so well
A memory dimmed with time
In response to the daily prompt Tremble
#DailyPrompt
Sinking
By Scott Bailey © 2017
Oh how I would love
For the world to be lighter
Not a sinking mess
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #135 Love&Light
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
The Pyre Beacon of Books
By Scott Bailey 2017
When will come the time
Fascism is recognised?
When books start burning?
In response to the daily prompt Recognize
#DailyPrompt
Scents
By Scott Bailey 2017
The wind shifts its path
Bring new scents in its wake
Fresh blood lures the wolf
In response to the daily prompt Scent
#DailyPrompt
A Spring of Dreams – Starfire
Starfire
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Made of crystal
So clear
It can hardly be seen
The breadth of seven men
The height of the clouds
The top unseen
Inside
Sparking and crackling
Impossible
Bright and pure
It is filled with
Starfire
For miles around
The land knows no dark
Ever
The question might be asked
Why it was built
Were there anyone around
To ask it
Available as
or hardback
from Amazon
or CreateSpace
A Spring of Dreams – Sparrow
(Sparrow)
By Scott Bailey © 2013
Sparrow, sparrow in my way.
Briefly tell your tale today.
Tell me if my love is dead.
Do I waste the tears I shed?
Briefly now I’ll tell my tale.
Pray your courage does not fail.
You do not waste the tears you shed.
Alas I say, your love is dead.
A sharp, cold sword did spill her blood.
She tried to stem an angry flood.
But peace that day she could not win.
So fearful war will begin.
Thank you bird for being true.
Nothing’s left for me to do.
To take up arms and pursue strife.
Slay the spoilers of my life.
I bid you sir, think awhile.
Turn from this dark path so vile.
Listen to my humble song.
Step not where your lover’s gone.
Just a simple bird am I
But far above this land I fly.
And see its beauty spread below.
See ahead, where you might go.
Lay down your sword with forgiving heart.
Do not tear your land apart.
Still your rage and vengeance cease.
Follow rather a path of peace.
Humble bird I hear your song.
But my love is dead and gone.
So I raise my sword today.
And will make those killers pay.
The enemies that broke my heart.
And now have torn the land apart.
Upon their heads is all this blood.
For I must release the flood.
Then sir, I shall shed a tear.
For the future I do not fear.
Yet for now I swiftly go.
To make way for the crow.
Three hundred and sixty-five poems in all shapes and sizes, sprung from dreams and emotion. Published day after day for a year. There are haiku, sonnets, katauta, lanturnes and many other forms – including free form. The moods are as varied as the forms and often reflect my mood on the day. There is sadness and grief, joy and love.
If nothing else – these can provide a small moment in everyone’s stressful lives to stop and contemplate the world in a different way.
Thirteen Tales – A sampler.
Why not try a collection of ghostly tales?
Get comfortable by the fire, or under the duvet, grab your Kindle and lock the doors.
To give you a taster read the first story of the collection here.
Interior
By Scott Bailey © 2017
What’s inside
Distorts and shapes
The exterior
All those dreams and hopes
Hates and fears
That make up the interior
The moiling
Boiling
Packed and stacked
Stretched and tense
Earnest pretense
That inside us all
Makes us all
What we are
Rather than what
We wish
In response to the daily prompt Interior
#DailyPrompt
New Year
It was rough last year. I am not just talking about celebrity deaths.
We as a family have had it rough. We have had family members in and out of hospital, having to deal with a diagnosis of Autism for our youngest and his so far very rocky transition into school. I have had work stress and uncertainty. We have seen our social lives and our house being slowly taken apart. I have seen my writing dreams slip away.
Midlife crisis? Maybe.
I have to cling to hope. It is the only thing left.
So not really new years resolutions as such but goals I am aiming for this year.
To find a new job. But not just another role. I need to get back to enjoying work again. That has been totally destroyed of late – I had thought beyond hope – but if I give up hope then all is lost. I have been thinking about a total career change and that’s the way I will try to go.
To improve our daily lives by trying new techniques for dealing with Autistic behaviours.
To reinvigorate my writing dreams. To help with this I will attempt to complete the daily prompt as well as Ronovan’s Weekly Haiku Challenge. This is purely to get my juices flowing. Behind the scenes, I will try to put together two more poetry collections for publishing as well as another short story collection and a new novel. Ambitious but I must attempt it.
I wish everyone a happy new year and hope you all attain your own dreams and goals.
In response to the daily prompt Year
#DailyPrompt
Calm
By Scott Bailey © 2016
Calm my beating heart
Racing for the beauty of
My beloved wife
In response to the daily prompt Calm
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting
Another Fantastic Review!
This one for my Poetry Collection!
“Great concept to write a poem a day for a year and provides an insight into copying 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 through-out the book too, one in particular made me laugh out loud! A good read and Scott Bailey shows talent as a poet. Recommended.”
Check out the original here!
Sales and Stats slowly climbing
I did it! Well, the first of my aims for the end of this year. I made it over 10,000 views this year. Paltry compared to some I know but miles better than any previous year for me.
Just another 90 followers to pick up now 🙂
On top of that a few more sales this week – including a soft back! Maybe the ball is finally picking up some momentum.
For many reasons – roll on 2017!
Dark Truths
By Scott Bailey © 2016
It is dark but true
Uncomfortable evidence
When we dig deeper
Better Sales Ranks – Thirteen Tales.
So here’s the stats right now on Amazon UK – 276th in Short Stories – not bad!
Check it out – for a taster click here. And the Softback version will be available soon.
A collection of short stories concerning ghosts. Some are traditional ghost stories in the tradition of M.R. James and Edgar Allan Poe. Other are not. Some scare, some are fun. Some play with the concept of a ghost. There are ghosts who are out for revenge and the living avenging the spirits that curse them.
Ideal for sitting around a campfire and late at night under the covers. Or maybe not if the stories themselves are any guide.
Check it out at Amazon and Smashwords and other online e-book retailers.
A paperback version os being worked on for those who prefer the feel of the paper while huddling by the fire – on your own – in the dark – with that noise behind you……
More Movement Thirteen Tales.
Another sale on Kindle of my Ghost Story collection! Check it out – for a taster click here. And the Softback version will be available soon.
A collection of short stories concerning ghosts. Some are traditional ghost stories in the tradition of M.R. James and Edgar Allan Poe. Others are not. Some scare, some are fun. Some play with the concept of a ghost. There are ghosts who are out for revenge and the living avenging the spirits that curse them.
Ideal for sitting around a campfire and late at night under the covers. Or maybe not if the stories themselves are any guide.
Check it out at Amazon and other online e-book retailers.
A paperback version is being worked on for those who prefer the feel of the paper while huddling by the fire – on your own – in the dark – with that noise behind you……
Mists
By Scott Bailey © 2016
Mist breathes on the moors
Then the new sun arises
Dissipates to green
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #123 Breathe&New
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
Avoid the real nightmare – escape into mine!
A collection of short stories concerning ghosts. Some are traditional ghost stories in the tradition of M.R. James and Edgar Allan Poe. Others are not. Some scare, some are fun. Some play with the concept of a ghost. There are ghosts who are out for revenge, and the living avenging the spirits that curse them.
Ideal for sitting around a campfire and late at night under the covers. Or maybe not if the stories themselves are any guide.
Check it out at Amazon.
A paperback version is being worked on for those who prefer the feel of the paper while huddling by the fire, on your own, in the dark, with that noise behind you.
The Name is…
The Name is..
By Scott Bailey © 2015
Death and lust
Entwined in one
Both without
A thought
Both with
Expert care
Sheer red satin
Ripped to shreds
Blood red
Pale skin
Gun metal grey
In cold blue eyes
And a name
That beats hearts
Passion and fear
And steel
And lead
Death and lust
And a name
The name is…..
In Remembrance
I am deeply honoured that poem of mine – topical for today – has been featured on the Thanet writers website.
It was originally written for Armistice day – then later a friend and I adapted it as a song and this is the version they have featured.
While we are remembering – we also said goodbye to some more legends today. Robert Vaughn – the Man From Uncle, and also one of my favourite all time singer/songwriters – Leonard Cohen.
This is my favourite – and with apt lyrics for today.
Get in the Spooky Mood!
A collection of short stories concerning ghosts. Some are traditional ghost stories in the tradition of M.R. James and Edgar Allan Poe. Others are not. Some scare, some are fun. Some play with the concept of a ghost. There are ghosts who are out for revenge and the living avenging the spirits that curse them.
Ideal for sitting around a campfire and late at night under the covers. Or maybe not if the stories themselves are any guide.
Check it out at Amazon and other online e-book retailers.
A paperback version is being worked on for those who prefer the feel of the paper while huddling by the fire – on your own – in the dark – with that noise behind you……
The Programme
By Scott Bailey © 2015
START
My god, my hands are dry
Must remember to buy some moisturiser
←——Insert fear
…
My god, my hands are dry
Must remember to buy some moisturiser
…
My god, my hands are dry
Must remember to buy some moisturiser
…
My god, my hands are dry
Must remember to buy some moisturiser
——–> extract money
…
RETURN TO START
A Spring of Dreams – Words
Words
By Scott Bailey © 2013
Wherever words roam
Over fantastical lands
The heart rests at home.
Get Your Ghost On!
A collection of short stories concerning ghosts. Some are traditional ghost stories in the tradition of M.R. James and Edgar Allan Poe. Other are not. Some scare, some are fun. Some play with the concept of a ghost. There are ghosts who are out for revenge and the living avenging the spirits that curse them.
Ideal for sitting around a campfire and late at night under the covers. Or maybe not if the stories themselves are any guide.
#PoweredByIndie
Thirteen Tales – Climbing but a long way to go still
Less than a week since the release on its 149th in its category.
Spread the word – let’s get it higher!
Poem a day challenge #265 (Blue)
Blue
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Another blue birthday
Like his eyes
Two years as if yesterday
The memories of watching
Blue fading to darkness
Unlike his eyes
My memories will never fade
Poem a day challenge #249 (Dressing Up)
Dressing Up
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Watching dressing up
A mini ninja dancing
Whirling all in black
Home
By Scott Bailey © 2016
A day in the woods
Jumping in piles of brown leaves
Autumn brings us home
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #116 Home&Leaves
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
Poem a day challenge #160 (Highlands)
Highlands
By Scott Bailey © 2013
Tarns tributaries tumble down
heather cloaked hills
red-brown tufts twitching in the wind
Cold water, cold air, eagle riding the high winds
Wolves range over moors
Sheep shiver, shepherds huddle
Fire crackles, broth steams
Tarns tributaries tumble down
heather cloaked hills
Poem a day challenge #148 (Man)
Man
By Scott Bailey © 2013
I am the hunter
The bringer down of prey
The destroyer
The shadow
The bringer of fear.
I am the master of war
The hoarder of riches
The steel lord
The holder of lightning
I am strength and glory
So why do I still struggle in vain
Plop
In response to the Daily prompt (from a few days ago!).
Plop
Plop, plop.
The sound echoes in the dark, reverberates around the cavern for many minutes after.
Yet, is it a sound? With no ears to hear? And are the ripples real if – in this absolute darkness no eye can see?
For this pool, this precious reservoir of pure water is deep beneath the troubled earth. The purest water known to humans – never to be known by humans.
Plop, plop.
It is far beyond their reach. In the roots of the world.
It is the last pure water in the world, the only unpolluted, uncontaminated pool.
As if drawn the last few clean drops seep down wind their way down the stalactites and…
Plop, plop.
No human ears to hear, no human eyes to see. Though every human tongue is craving, thirsting, it is beyond them.
Plop, plop.
No fish swims here. No life steals from this pool or invades its secrecy.
Plop, plop.
It is sealed away, safe.
Plop.
Spent
By Scott Bailey © 2016
My life is being spent
Waiting outside shops
Herding kids
Driving
Working for reasons unknown
On maintenance
Not on friends or laughter
Not on relaxation
Not on health
Not on passions
Tick-tock, tick-tock
Life’s precious coin
Being spent
For very little change
Poem a day challenge #124 (Rising Tide)
Rising Tide
By Scott Bailey © 2013
From the shallows to the icy deep
Where dolphins dance and starfish sleep
Through swaying kale and shifting sand
Feel the touch of an oily hand
Where lights speed by in total dark
Where rest many a sunken ark
Where through the kale fish do slip
Feel a cold and choking grip
Where bubbles rise and currents surge
Where waters from the heavens merge
Where weight does crush both bones and rock
Feel the iron fingers lock
And here my heart it swells and roars
From roiling dark to shattered shores
And I will rise with fury’s might
And crush the hand that picks this fight
So fear the shark with jaws that rend
And the mighty swell that shall bend
Every fence and dam and wall
And drown the rumble of cliffs that fall
And when the hand has done its deed
You will curse your dirty seed
And then, at last, you will see
How small you are beside the sea
Poem a day challenge #112 (News)
News
By Scott Bailey © 2013
What’s behind the story
What is the reason for that news
Who gets the benefit, the prize
The envelope with the bread
The law successfully passed
The company tracked greased
Somebody’s life made easier
At the cost of somebody else
Poem a day challenge #103 (Explorers)
Explorers
By Scott Bailey © 2013
Wandering the shore
Through new lands everyday
Ancient fishermen
Poem a day challenge #96 (Shadows)
Shadows
By Scott Bailey © 2013
Our voices are simply the shadows
Cast by our dreams and our thought
If the shadows become ineffectual
Then our voices will end up as naught
Yet shadows can give us the outline
Of what is looming above
If we take note of the darkness
We can give those dreams a shove
One thing we must yet remember
To give those shadows a shape
Sunlight is needed behind it
From brightness the dreams will escape.
Heroes
By Scott Bailey © 2016
All my heroes let me down.
All of them.
I tried to be my own hero.
That. Was the worst.
Poem a day challenge #95 (Debt)
Debt
By Scott Bailey © 1998
Do not lightly discard them
with tales of the foolish bold.
They sat for weeks, for months, for years
in trenches freezing cold.
Sometimes feet simply mouldered
in the sucking mud.
And now and then they’d rise and run
and spill their loyal blood.
Do not belittle the suffering
of soldiers now long dead.
With nothing but talk and songs and bombs
bursting in their head.
Bound together with chains of love
shattered by leaden death.
They ended as they had begun
with cries upon their breath.
Do not lightly remember them
with only paper flowers.
they faced the fear, the pain, the cold,
for hours and hours and hours.
They ran together and fell alone
upon those foreign fields.
Protecting those they loved
those frightened human shields.
Do not read these words and think
that these things are passed.
Do not think you will not hear
that deep and dreadful blast.
Do not sit in decadence
and take for granted peace.
You owe a debt to those who died
and that debt will never cease.
Poem a day challenge #94 (Web)
Web
By Scott Bailey © 2013
Glistening silver
A delicate spider web
Fallen tree around
Rivers
By Scott Bailey © 2016
Rivers carve the land
Rocks turn flows: who can resist
The river of stone
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #112 River&Stone
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
Poem a day challenge #85 (Who’s the Fool)
Who’s the Fool
By Scott Bailey © 2013
Listen to all the anger
Hark at all the fury
Just remember that
You no longer own the jury
Humiliate the whistleblower
Make him out a fool
Wielding propaganda
Like an old blunt tool
Don’t you know we’re cynics now
We can see through all the lies
You will have to do much better
Or suffer the surprise.
Poem a day challenge #61 (The New)
The New
By Scott Bailey © 2013
The new can’t replace the should have been
The should have been haunts us forever
Though the new will be a healer
And receive all our love just the same.
It’s pointless being angry at fate
But that doesn’t stop the burn
The frisson on top of everyday stress
For the should have been we always yearn.
The new will have it’s own should have been.
So maybe we will understand.
And make a happier will be.
At least that is the plan.
Change
By Scott Bailey © 2016
If I stay my path
The world will not mind a bit
So change is a must
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #110 Change&Mind
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
Life’s Journey
By Scott Bailey © 2016
Chancing to look up
Seeking hope on my journey
I trip and stumble
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #109-Hope&Up
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
Mankind Limited – Another Fantastic Review
A detailed, in-depth and insightful review of Mankind Limited from Silver Threading. Check it out here.. and many thanks to her for the review!
Mankind Limited – The Secret
Read an excerpt here.
Available as
or hardback
from Amazon
or CreateSpace
Now also available at Smashwords, IBooks, Barnes and Noble and many other reputable outlets.
Wordless
By Scott Bailey © 2016
Benakeri sorful do
Lillytigh shamton benigh
Alluver ecater feru
Selater erater canoo
And that is how I feel
No Beer
By Scott Bailey © 2016
Not a beer in the house
For this thirsty mouse
Just silent walls and noise
The chaos of standing still
So much energy
Put into going nowhere
Short Story Challenge
I came across this quote by Ray Bradbury which makes a brilliant point.
So I have taken up that challenge. My next post will be my first week’s attempt.
I am not going to post every one – I want to save them up and put the best (or maybe all of them) into a collection.
Wish me luck.
Scott Andrew Bailey - Author 