By Scott Bailey © 2026
An elephant.
Rendered by time and water
And wanting minds
Myths and legends might arise
Tales of the transformation from flesh to stone
Of the final, enduring, beast
Long after the last real elephant
Has been forgotten
In response to: https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DTAx0UQDCgS?xmt=AQF0FyV3mRIiPxTaOZonNRwewCckhS8cfH468GY1w2E8hfAIJyv4084_D40x8iX14N_zmRQ&slof=1
There once was a grouchy poet
If happy, he sure didn’t show it.
A dragon was curled
Around his whole world
Fire above and fire below it.
Here lies humanity
May they rest in peace
They refused to see the evidence
The greed that would not cease
It is rain
All the pain
And grief
All the pain
Of everyday
It is rain
Of everyday
Stresses
We are plagued
But it is rain
Just rain
Falling down
Rain makes us
Wet and cold
Dampens us
If we choose
Misery
Rain is heavy
The sun will come
Summer reborn
From spring
Rain is life
Nourishment
Fresh
No misery
Be wet not damp
Be soaked
Revel in the rain
Dance and sing
In life
All the pain
The grief
The stress
It is rain
Just rain
Zen-like calm descends
Belies the chaos beneath
Butterfly settles
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #261 Zen&Chaos
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
The pride fights as one
The king of the beasts leads them
But the queen provides
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #260 Pride&Fight
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
Strange, tiny, movements
Invisible to the eye
Birth, supernova
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #259 Super&Strange
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
Shine for me, moon, shine
I need your silver beams
To heal
To calm
My love is not for you
But shine for me still
The stars, they pluck my heart
But not you
Shine your slow shine
Dip into the sea
Rise again one day
To shine away with me
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.
Earth’s ire arises
Fire from the pulsating core
Fertilizing land
In response to the daily prompt Core
#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
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
See the sky blush with
Golden fire heaven sent
And then the darkness
In response to the daily prompt Blush
#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 the daily prompt Patience
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See the argent moon
Chasing the brightest sunbeams
Moments slip away
Dreaming
Alone
Is not enough
Dreaming together
Greatly to be desired
But
Giving dreams substance
That is what’s required
Tempting like a tart
Sweet nectar awaits inside
So the dance begins
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #190 Tart&Sweet
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
What lies beneath the surface of our waking lives? What secrets does the unconscious hold? These are the questions I explore in my poetry collection, The Well of Sunken Dreams. Writing this collection has been a journey through verses and a descent into the layers of human emotion, memory, and imagination.
Each poem in this collection represents a fragment of a greater whole, a shard of a mirror reflecting dreams both vivid and forgotten. Through these words, I’ve delved into universal themes of love, loss, and the passage of time, while striving to offer unique perspectives that challenge and inspire readers.
In a world dominated by fast-paced content and fleeting moments, I wanted to create something that invites readers to pause and reflect. The Well of Sunken Dreams isn’t meant to be hurried through; it’s designed to linger, to be reread, and to offer new discoveries with each visit.
My goal was to craft poetry that feels both accessible and profound, connecting deeply personal themes with universal resonance. For anyone seeking an emotional or intellectual escape, I hope this collection becomes a source of inspiration.
While every poem holds its own meaning, here are some of the aspects I’m particularly proud of:
Writing The Well of Sunken Dreams has been one of the most rewarding creative experiences of my life. Through my website, scottandrewbailey.com, I’ve shared this collection and other works that reflect my passion for exploring the depths of the human experience.
For me, poetry isn’t just about words on a page; it’s about the emotions and thoughts they evoke in the reader. With The Well of Sunken Dreams, I invite you to join me in exploring a world shaped by imagination and insight.
Are you ready to take the plunge? Visit scottandrewbailey.com to order your copy today and let yourself sink into the depths of my dreams.
Only hear the stream
Babbling toward the ocean
The breath of the air
In response to https://ronovanwrites.com/2018/02/19/ronovanwrites-weekly-haiku-poetry-prompt-challenge-189-zennoise/
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
Break it down
Into smaller chunks
The homework
Your daily work task
Your project
Your life
Until it is bits
Digital
And you never see
The whole again
Peace is the echo
Of the voice of the songbird
Across the still lake
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #185 Sing&Peace
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
River slips quickly
Rolling by under the bridge
Until the freeze falls
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #188 Quick&Slip
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
Fly on clouds with fantastical characters in an escape from the everyday! This poem offers no secrets, no hidden, agenda and presents simply joy and fantasy for the sake of it. This is the child at play spraying words like water splashed from a puddle in ecstasy.
Take time out, enjoy and ease your troubled adult mind – find the child again.
The world has changed and that change has been for the better. People who were hidden are now seen. Inclusion is the way forward and we embrace all.
But some have been forgotten. Worse they have been labelled the instigators of the old ways, the bad ways. So they have been left behind – tarred with the brush of a small, powerful group of oppressors.
This collection partly examines this issue. It is not a complaint, not a wish for the old ways to return, but a way to start the conversation about what it means in the modern world to be white, male and middle-aged and how we need to come together with the rest of society again.
On another level, “The Well of Sunken Dreams” is a look at the betrayal of dreams that everyone of all creeds, sexes and colours feels these days. It asks what happened to the dreams we were promised?
Pick up a copy – join the conversation no one is having.
This collection of poems is a reflection of my thoughts about this and other darker aspects of modern life. In my other collections I like to balance this side of my ruminations with more optimistic explorations. This did not seem appropriate here. This is my equivalent of a grunge phase.
It also contains largely previously unpublished works that have not appeared anywhere else.
So, stick on those goth tunes and wallow in the well of sunken dreams.
The world is colours! There are sparks in raindrops that outshine any gems. Stars sparkle with greens and blues and reds! Light hums through stained glass. Flowers and butterflies dance in an ebullience of shades. The spectrum sings through our souls.
“The Colour of Dreams” is a collection of poetry that celebrates the colourfulness of life in all its glory. Pick up a copy in your favourite form and join in the revelry.
Immerse yourself in a poetic tapestry that weaves together a myriad of emotions and experiences, all connected by the vibrant thread of colour. This collection invites readers to explore the kaleidoscope of thoughts and moments that mirror the endless hues and diversity of our cosmic existence.
Our minds need respite. They need distraction but not mindless, not trash. They need feeding. We all know this. We all forget it.
There have been many times I have been stuck in the deep, cloying pool of stress or simply stuck on a problem I cannot solve. The resolution has most often been to do something else. Something that engages the mind differently. This frees your subconscious to solve the issues for you. So often after such a period, the solution presents itself.
Many great thinkers and creatives have employed this method. Both Darwin and Einstein for example took walks in the country and let their minds be engorged with its beauty. For others, it has been music.
I present here another option. Poetry. A whole collection in fact – one for each day of the year.
So when you’re stuck, or just in a fuzz that you need to shake – pick up “A Spring of Dreams”, read one poem – contemplate it. Give your mind the break it deserves.
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.
The end of the conversation
Is the end of the line
The rising of the fires
Of hostility and ire
So keep talking
Keep talking
In response to the daily prompt Conversation
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Hear the music
Of the spheres
Calling
Feel
The irresistible
Attraction
Of the singularities
Pulling
See the twinkle
The burst of life
Shrouded in the
Nebulous mists
Here the roar
Of the silent yaw
Of space
Here the call
The dare
Will we share
In the song
Or crack
Our own end
In response to the daily prompt Calling
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
The scarlet mountain
Hangs in the sky
The scarlet mountain
Lies
Through the blood
Of the mountain
All of us
Relate
This is the place
Dreams instantiate
Where the scarlet mountain
Dwells in the clouds
That is where
Hope flies
In response to the daily prompt Relate
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
The compass has no compassion
The waves care not
The road goes on forever
Whatever your feet yearn
Rest is not an option
For the currents will always win
Only those that fly
Will win
In response to the daily prompt Compass
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
The giant sun burns slow
Swells red and bloated, gassing
It’s life into space
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #180 Slow&Burn
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
Brass gleams, drips with steam
Flaring in a beam of light
Driving on the wheel
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #179 Flare&Steam
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
Daring the currents
Of the rare higher airways
Bold the eagle flies
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #178 Bold&Daring
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
White swan flies over
Broken, crumbling, old stone bridge
River rolls on by
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #176 Broken&Over
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
A touch of madness
In the powerful is wrong
But in the writer…
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #172 Wrong&Touch
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
The lake’s smooth surface
Is as calm and still as glass
Perfect winter’s ice
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #171 Lake&Calm
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
The gate swings
Welcoming those who have come
Waving to those who have gone
The wear on the paint
Remembrance
Painting it over
Will not erase the memory
In response to the daily prompt Gate
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting
I wandered lonely as a brick
That sinks and dives in stream and lake,
When all at once I was so sick,
And an awful mess I did make.
Beside the lake, beneath the trees.
Splattering my stomach in the breeze.
It must have been the bread I had
Or maybe that old Milky Way.
This puddle of sick smelt so bad
Along the margin of the bay.
Ten pints I had drunk, at a guess.
Tossing my head, I felt a mess.
The waves in my head danced, and they
Dashed my weak legs from under me.
A poet could not be so gay
As the one who stood over me.
He gazed and gazed and then in glee
Threw up and fell down next to me.
Next morn when on my couch I lay
In vacant and in pensive mood.
I swore I’d give up drink that day.
And swore some more, it was quite rude.
But soon, once more, the cider spills.
I’ll sleep again with daffodils.
In response to the daily prompt Dash
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting
Words slurred
Danger
Thoughts blurred
Danger
Moral smudged
Danger
Figures fudged
Danger
Modern life
In response to the daily prompt slur
#DailyPrompt
Let the rhythm of the future
Not be
The rhythm of the past
Let us change it
Though the task be hard
And let it be
Beautiful
Let it be vast
Lest it be elegant
And true
In response to the daily prompt Rhythmic
#DailyPrompt
The glitterati glitter
While the paparazzi pack
Lines full of lies and libel
To shore up the moral we lack
The world wide web weaves wonders
Hyperlinks hypnotise
The people they rage and thunder
Swallowing all of the lies
So watch the things that glisten
Watch the lustre and shine
And remember that nobody listens
Any of the time
In response to the daily prompt Glitter
#DailyPrompt
A lukewarm life
Mine could be considered
Is that a bad thing?
Or maybe
The heat
Is deep and concealed
Who can tell?
In response to the daily prompt Lukewarm
#DailyPrompt
Futility, the child of awareness
Perhaps ignorance is bliss
Not a choice I would make
Action begins in awareness
Except in rivers and clouds
In response to the daily prompt Aware
#DailyPrompt
It’s hard to be heard in the herd
The shared shards of pain shred
The glass glistens but no one listens
To the words of bards and the birds
Yes, it’s hard to be heard
In response to the daily prompt Heard
#DailyPrompt
Clean sweep
Clean start
Clean up
On a clean page
Clean sheet
Clean bill of health
Don’t they know?
Things grow in dirt.
In response to the daily prompt Clean
#DailyPrompt
Behind every poem in “The Well of Sunken Dreams” lies a story, an image, or an idea that has haunted me. Inspiration comes in unexpected forms: fragments of dreams, the fleeting beauty of nature, the aching feeling of memories, and the shadowed corners of the imagination. This collection is as much a reflection of my own inner world as it is an offering to you, the reader, to see where it leads you. If you’re intrigued by the source of inspiration, step into “The Well of Sunken Dreams” and see what stirs.
“The Well of Sunken Dreams” is a collection inspired by what lies beyond the ordinary. Each poem invites the reader to ponder the unseen—the untold stories of our hearts, minds, and dreams. These poems traverse themes of longing, nostalgia, and the eerie beauty of the unknown. Are you curious to explore the boundaries between reality and reverie? This collection might be exactly what you’re searching for.
Scott Andrew Bailey - Author 