By Scott Bailey © 2013
Eyes
Red and raw
Seen too much
Filled
With work
and bills
and tears

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
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
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
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
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Earth’s ire arises
Fire from the pulsating core
Fertilizing land

In response to the daily prompt Core
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
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
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
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
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

Fingers fly on frets
Sliding, screeching, sighing
And magic emanates
Transporting us
Away

In response to the daily prompt Fret
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
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
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
The heart of the oak
Old and strong, steadfast: yields to
The will of the wind
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #177 Strong&Heart

#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge

Rockets fly
In the face of reason
And humanity
Again
Depleted hope
Is as dangerous
And toxic
As depleted uranium

In response to the daily prompt Deplete
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
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.

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
A glimmer of hope
Magically holds our eye
While life passes by

In response to the daily prompt Glimmer
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
In the shallows
Small fish dart
Disturbing the sand
Splashing
In the deep
Sharks swim silent
Passing
Unseen

In response to the daily prompt Disrupt
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Life is a haul
Not a journey
Or a mystery
No heaven to aim for
No rules but survival
Just a haul
Knowing
Is enlightenment
Pull where you need to
Concentrate your energy
Focus
Be keen

In response to the daily prompt Haul
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
We brave explorers together
Wearing imitation leather
And as silent as a feather
We toiled through the darkest weather onto our prize
Through mountains and valleys, we walked
By tigers and lions were stalked
And as brave as we always talked
There came a time when we just baulked against the size
Of the hunger in our bellies
Off with our explorer wellies
Broke out the ice cream and jellies
And retreated to the telly’s noisy comfort

In response to the daily prompt Explore
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Radiance
Shining across the galaxy
Shimmering
Around the darkest of places
From darkness
Light is born
To darkness
Returns

In response to the daily prompt Radiant
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Stars
Magic
Fathers dance
Under dark trees
Dream

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Bright flakes of light in dappled leaves
that float on down
where saplings grow
and settle low
And earthy scents rise in the air
As underfoot
leaves crunch and fold
red-brown and gold
The rusty fence that holds it in
it holds us too
back from that time
when we roamed free

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
I am conversant
In…
Um
Well, I am quite good at….
Hey
What the hell
Why does it matter?
Who am I trying to
Impress

In response to the daily prompt Conversant
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Permit me to speak
Permit me to say
The truth of our lives
Maybe if we shared
The healing could begin
We could escape
The electronic cage
If we listened
If we did

In response to the daily prompt Permit
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The fox prowls the woods
Hot on the scent of dinner
The body is close

In response to the daily prompt Creature
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
The dominant theme
Of the modern movement
Is just that
To dominate
To be the best
No second place
No room for losers
Crush them
Squeeze them dry
That is the song
Of our age
We seem to sing it
With joy

In response to the daily prompt Dominant
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Sunny
She was
And the shadows she cast were long
We long for her
Now the winter is here
And the long long night descends
Bright was her smile
White and bright her smile
Deep and black her skin
And we wanted in
From afar
Memories of sun
In the dusk
In response to the daily prompt Sunny
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting

The pie chart tells all
How our future is planned out
While dreams turn to dust
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #107 Pie&Dust

#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge

Sometimes the things we are due
do not arrive
Sometimes that precious parcel
is lost
Sometimes the blows
are more than we think
we can survive
But we do
It is the ancient sadness
of humanity
Happiness has such
frailty

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Arise
To the thunder
The raging of the skies
Rain, that splits the drought asunder
Rejoice
Tremble
Beneath the aweful majesty
Of nature’s might roar
Making your heart
Thunder

In response to Colleen’s 2018 Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge No. 76: JOY & FURY, #SnyonymnsOnly
Had a go at a reverse cinquain this time.

#Cinquain #reverse-cinquain #CinquainPoetry
Shouting into the hole that is the whole
Nothing back.
Raging against the system that is all
Nothing changed.
Staring at the box with the box.
Nothing gained.
Justifying every move you make
Not explained.
Time to change.

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
See the sky blush with
Golden fire heaven sent
And then the darkness

In response to the daily prompt Blush
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
There are empty spaces
left as people move on,
of the spaces of places long gone,
of times gone by
There is a link between present and past
an energy, a potential,
strung between the memories gone
and the living yet to roll on
The link hums with the tension
and the empty spaces echo back the thrum
deep rich reverberation
layered on the past, the present, the future
Such is the music of life.

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Nature
Claws back its realm
Over many ages
Verdant fingers prying apart
Even
The strongest of our creations
With persistence of growth
Old and fertile
Mother

In response to the daily prompt Patience
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
See the argent moon
Chasing the brightest sunbeams
Moments slip away

Ideas buried deep in the mind
Forgotten, beneath the rubbish
The everyday detritus
Fermenting
Until one day
The green shoot
Of inspiration

In response to the daily prompt Incubate
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Continue readingA wrinkle by the eye
With a twinkle in
And that’s all you need to know

In response to the daily prompt Wrinkle
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Dreaming
Alone
Is not enough
Dreaming together
Greatly to be desired
But
Giving dreams substance
That is what’s required

Silence is Golden
Because it’s so very rare
Grab it while you can

In response to the daily prompt Noise
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Nature
Claws back its realm
Over many ages
Verdant fingers prying apart
Even
The strongest of our creations
With persistence of growth
Old and fertile
Mother

In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 75: “PATIENCE & GREEN” #SNYNONYMSONLY
Had a go at a butterfly cinquain this time – and I had the perfect picture to go with it – one I took myself for a change.

#Cinquain #butterfly-cinquain
COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 75: “PATIENCE & GREEN” #SNYNONYMSONLY
Be yourself
Be true
Be uncompromising
We are told
Be open-minded
Listen to others
Find the common ground
We are told
Find the path
Through those
And you will be sorted
Or go mad
Trying
Simple

In response to the daily prompt Uncompromising
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
I watch the snow melt
The green shoots of grass rise up
To greet the new dawn
Taking a bracing shower
In glistening morning dew

In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE, NO. 74: “RENEW & FRESH,” #SNYONYMSONLY

#Tanka
Bird on a branch
Are you resting
Are you watching
The world below
The people rushing here
And there
Along their crowded roads
With all their forks and cul de sacs
Fly on little bird
Fly on

In response to the daily prompt Branch
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Oh
For a restart button
A ctrl-alt-del
For some days
Some situations
Sometimes
For life
Must be the geek in me
I want to switch it all off
And back on again

In response to the daily prompt Restart
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Astral light guides
Cold and passionless
Cargos through the ages
Wood and steel
Fruit and bread
Flesh
To be sold
Along with the souls
Of the seller

In response to the daily prompt Astral
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Plainsong
Rolling, chanting
Granting the air a form
Bestow shadow and light purpose
Singing
The crafting of ancient wisdom
To bear us something new
Brightly shining
Lyric

In response to my daily prompt Craft
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