By Scott Bailey © 2017

The panacea
To all of the world’s ills
Is in our hands
Specifically
In their joining

In response to my daily prompt Explicit

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By Scott Bailey © 2016

Albatross hovers
High over surf scattered sand
All will pass in time

In response to my daily prompt Hover

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By Scott Bailey © 2013

Long shadows
Cast their thoughts behind us
Dim our once bright footsteps
An unclean window screen

But flashes from sudden mirrors
Slash through the shadow’s forms
Glimpses of dreams that passed us
Keeping them alive

Though shadows keep on growing
We head towards the sun
In shade, our dreams may swim
But they will follow until we’re done

In response to my daily prompt Keep

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

I have a bad feeling about this
He said
She said
It said
Many voices

They did it anyway
Always

 

In response to my daily prompt Feeling

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

Today’s trend
Seems to be
Exclusion
Isolation
Leaving
When all we really want
Is to come together
And hold hands

In response to my daily prompt Exclude

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

The powder that burns
Clouded judgment
Gave power
To cowards
That never learned
Burnt bridges
With wisdom
Killed
And can never go back

In response to my daily prompt Powder

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By Scott Bailey © 2014

In silicon hell
The servant does not obey
But who is the slave

In response to my daily prompt Hell

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

We have reached the point
Where the genuine
Is ridiculed out of fear
So accustomed to lies
They have become
Our staple

In response to my daily prompt Genuine

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

From the grain grows the stem
That delivers the wheat
From the deep furrow of the ground
Harvested
By the old
Leather-clad hands
Carried beneath the canvas
Of the rocking wagon
To the mill

Until the day
We went against the grain

In response to my daily prompt Harvest

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

The bag
Useful but discarded
Like so many
People
The world
That does this
Is doomed

In response to my daily prompt Bag

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

The tears, the grief, the bitterness
The anger, the revenge and recriminations
They will soak away
Soak away
Into the earth
And feed it

History will take them all
Absorb them, dull them into the distance
Until we are free to look
And try to learn
But the passion is
Soaked away
So the lesson is empty

The truths, the pains, the memories
The holes, the aches and the yearnings
They all soak away
Into the earth
Enrich it

Perhaps
We should hold the pain
Remember
And learn

In response to my daily prompt Soak

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

The welfare state
The helping hand for the unfortunate
The most humanity
A government has shown
How the rich and powerful hate it
How they vilify those who need it
How they love to try to destroy it
A little less desperation
Means
A little less exploitation
So
Beware the day
They succeed

In response to my daily prompt Welfare

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

Roll a die
Like a gem
Sparkling
And like magic
We are in a different
World
We are different
People

In response to my daily prompt Die

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

The dark clouds are charged
And reason fills us with fear
Released in thunder

In response to my daily prompt Charge

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

Watching dreams
Float away
Beyond reach
While earthbound
Feel the separation
With every poster
Telling you
To chase them

In response to my daily prompt Separation

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

Power in the palm
Talentless tablets
Talisman of our times
Shatters
When dropped

In response to my daily prompt Tablet

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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)

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By Scott Bailey 2017

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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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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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By Scott Bailey © 2018

Formulate
Ruminate
Contemplate
Consult
Insult
Exult
Scan
Plan
Ban
Anything but do

In response to my daily prompt Formulate

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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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By Scott Bailey © 2015

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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By Scott Bailey © 2018

Sun traces an arc
Marking the hours and setting
Events in motion

In response to my daily prompt Hour

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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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By Scott Bailey © 2015

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

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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

In response to the daily prompt Fret

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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

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By Scott Bailey © 2016

A glimmer of hope
Magically holds our eye
While life passes by

In response to the daily prompt Glimmer

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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

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By Scott Bailey © 2018

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

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