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
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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
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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
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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
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Supposed to relax
From the endless stress of work
The phone doesn’t stop
In response to my daily prompt Work
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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
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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
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I can’t criticize
I am too little
Too belittled
I probably can’t
Even spell it
In response to my daily prompt Criticism
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Life
Where every step
Is a leap
Without a parachute
Forget that
At your peril
In response to my daily prompt Parachute
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A simple solution
Deport the deporters
Problem solved
In response to my daily prompt Deport
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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
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
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
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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.
Old light from the past
Is still illumination
Wisdom echoes far
In response to the daily prompt Retrospective
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The news chills today
The child killers found guilty
Will justice suffice?
In response to the daily prompt Guilty
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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
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Here are my words
Not enough
To unburden
My crushed soul
Or move a mountain
Of stress
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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
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Buy a jungle man.
Buy a jungle man.
C’mon bring the cash on.
Buy a jungle man.
Quick as you can.
They’re selling like they’re going outta fashion.
A little bit here, a little bit there.
They’re going fast,
Does anyone care!?
Crush a beetle for juice.
Let the cattle herds loose.
See those trees burn.
A bird of bright feather.
Has gone forever.
We ‘aint ever gonna learn.
Where the sun is beaming.
Once life was teeming.
Now all is dust.
While we strive for our goals.
We say to our souls.
Die if you must.
In response to the daily prompt Abrupt
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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
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Notable
For nothing
Our generation
Afraid of our legacy
Creating
Empty copies
Of the past
Where’s the new?
The optimistic
These days
It only grows
Where the ground
Is composted
With greed
In response to the daily prompt Notable
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There were some friends. And a hall. An infinite hall, with marble walls and pillars that stretched forever into the distance.
And there were tables. Row after row after row of tables. On each table was a never-ending supply of a single dish. In that hall, on those tables, there could be found every dish that had ever been imagined, concocted and served up in all of human history.
With a thought you could be sitting before any dish you could think of. Or you could ask your neighbour for a recommendation and try something new. The name of the dish was enough to take you there.
It was time for the friends to eat. They entered and they took their paths through the hall. They commenced their lunch.
As they knew – it was a once only meal.
An hour later they reconvened, look each other in the eyes and assessed their time beneath the infinite arches.
The first spoke.
“I tried as many different tastes as I could. I jumped from table to table and I can honestly say that I know of no one who could have filled their time here with as many different flavours as I. Yet. Now I am here – wonder why? I stand here before you proudly stating the number of meals I have partaken off – yet I wonder why does that matter? Not one was complete. Have I missed the joy of a meal.”
He hung his head, deep in thought and regret. But the second friend spoke.
“You make me wonder. What taste did I miss? I did not try many different meals, For quite soon I found one that I really enjoyed. I sat down and savoured the taste. People around me did the same and we discussed the meal and more besides. I do not regret that – no it was heartwarming – but I wonder at the tastes I missed. Was there a better meal still that I could have savoured with more relish?”
The third friend looked haunted.
“I did not eat. I wanted to try everything but I realised this was not possible, that it was a dream that could only fail. Yet I felt that to just sit down and eat was an insult to the great hospitality and variety that had been laid before us. I fell in with a group of other like-minded people and we were determined to resolve this dilemma with the gifts of reason we have been bestowed with. I have been a fool.”
“You are all fools!” said a fourth friend.
“I knew the way – I understood the correct combination of meals that would allow perfection! I tried to tell you but you would not listen! So many people did not listen! Fools! But there were some and we understand that we have eaten correctly and that we will be rewarded for that. I pity you – you have wasted your lunch hour.”
In response to the daily prompt Partake
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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
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Beware the lure
The luminescent wonder
Bobbing in the deep
Hypnotic
Drawing you nearer
Snap!
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Rejecting the crowd
Is the same
Identical
Choice
As following the crowd
In response to the daily prompt Identical
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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
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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
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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
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We have reached
A time
When
Congregation
Is not enough
Movement is needed
Action
Revolution
In response to the daily prompt Congregate
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I have written one for this prompt already but it also reminded me of this – enjoy
In response to the daily prompt Compromise
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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
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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?
Read an excerpt here.
Available as
or hardback
from Amazon
or CreateSpace
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
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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
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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
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A thought
Insists
Am I doing enough
Or is it
The machine
Wearing me down?
In response to the daily prompt Insist
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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
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The bewildered
Wildebeest wondered
What it was
The lions were
Running from
In response to the daily prompt Bewildered
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Scott Andrew Bailey - Author 