By Scott Bailey © 2016
Red
Silk sliding
Tantalising thighs
Undulating
Velvet
Whispering wiles
X
Yearning
Zipped zones

Red
Silk sliding
Tantalising thighs
Undulating
Velvet
Whispering wiles
X
Yearning
Zipped zones


Kerching! Kerchang! Pow!
Our economy picks up!
Soul still desolate.
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.

Old light from the past
Is still illumination
Wisdom echoes far
The things that we hoard
Entrance us and enslave us
A lifetime of toil
To sit on an empty throne
Why not take the easy road

A word is a ripple
Spreading through the world
With slow, subtle effects.
Imagine then what a few more, well placed, can do.
Find out.
By Scott Andrew Bailey


Fleeing from killers
The child runs desperately
To fill out a form
Forest
Verdant, alive
Roots reaching out and down
Branches stretching up to the sky
Spellbound

#Cinquain
Celebratory
The warming rays of the sun
Making the waves dance

#haiku
A little more give
And a lot less just taking
More uplifting hands
If we just stop competing
Ivory towers will fall

Hobbit
Brave Brandybuck
Bringing sense to his friends
Finding honour in Rohan’s ranks
Small knight

#cinquain
Passion
Wanes while years pass
Becomes something finer
Matured, refined, rich with wisdom
Mellowed
Do not be fooled by its calmness
Maturity and depth
Do not weaken
Passion

#Cinquain #Butterfly-Cinquain
The traffic slowed
We were all following a hearse
Today
In respectful frustration
I took the time
To look around
At the rivers and fields
That normally
Speed by
We are all following a hearse

The dark wide iris
Sparkling bright now, mists over
As it watches time

Wood cracks with a flash
Sparks dance in the air, falling
Down to cooling ash

A warm summer breeze
Teases scent across the plains
Tight the wolf pack runs

Renowned Harvey Milk
His life anything but smooth
His legacy shines
The day follows night
Repeating the witching hour
Except, the mayfly

#haiku
Modern life is frantic – filled with demands and crammed with stress.
We forget to tend to the mind – the part of us that has to deal with it all – balance all the spinning plates.
What if we could take a holiday each day – just a short one – a few minutes, half an hour – whatever it takes. Everyday.
Well, there’s a way.
Read a poem, absorb it – explore it, let it take you somewhere else. Think about other thoughts for a while.
And I have some – 365 in fact – one for each day for a whole year.

Check it out – give it a go and give your mind some R&R

In an unremarkable flat
Next to a noisy tapas bar
Is where, perhaps, Hawkins might die
Folded in his chair
It will not be remembered
Unlike his remarkable mind
Such are the vagaries of life and death
Both ridiculous and sublime
Read more in A Spring of Dreams
In golden age where steel was king
Rich voices of great bards there ring
The rising pride of knights there swells
Around the ring where justice dwells
Behind the throne where power lies
The dark intent deep in his eyes
The ancient druid gathers spells
Around the ring where justice dwells
The jealous son holds his dark ire
Until it rises to a fire
Bells of doom ring their deathly knells
Around the ring where justice dwells
And so the cracks came from within
Mens’ convictions so very thin
Shattered by those doom laden bells
Around the ring where justice dwells

Another spirit lost
Awash in the swell and foam
Anguished over lost love
Anger dealt him the blow
Arising from the sea
Alighting on the air
A bright bird arises
Another one lost
Too short, too precious, and gone
Little heart flown high
Brushed by death today
Twice.
Metal boxes speeding
Too fast, too near me
Driven on by the wrong thoughts
Or expensive wanderings


A sad shadow falls
Casting gloom over our dreams:
Sparks dispel the dark!
Originally published in A Spring of Dream
Life is engaging
Creatures decipher the truth
They peruse it all

In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 110, “PLEASANT & READ,” #SYNONYMSONLY
Check the link for the guidelines and rules
A haiku this week. Keeping it simple.

#haiku
This is serious
The future makes me tremble
These frightening days

In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 108, “AFRAID & GRAVE,” #SYNONYMSONLY
Check the link for the guidelines and rules
A senryu (sort of) this week. Very late and a little hurried

#senryu
Orange
King of the hues
When autumn starts to fall
Slowly, fear steals over the land
Chilling

In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 104, HAPPY OCTOBER – “POETS CHOICE OF WORDS”
Check the link for the guidelines and rules
And if you are feeling in the mood to get creepy – check out this

#CINQUAIN
The passion of youth
Fires the body to action
After a lay in

In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 102, “VIGOR & ENERGY,” #SYNONYMSONLY
Check the link for the guidelines and rules
A quick senryu this week
#senryu
Starting
Taking small steps
Closely follow the guide
Take every instruction to heart
Ending

In response to COLLEEN’S #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE RECAP NO. 100, “POET’S CHOICE OF WORDS”
Check the link for the guidelines and rules
A cinquain this week
#cinquain
My pen to paper
The dream I just cannot grasp
Er, except for now
In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 98, “SAD & WRITE,” #SYNONYMSONLY
Check the link for the guidelines and rules
I think this qualifies as a senryu?


#senryu
Basking in the sun
The snake saw lunch in his mind
Movement brought him back

In response to Colleen’s 2018 Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge No. 82 – BELONG & DREAM #SynonymsOnly
A haiku this week. I have inferred the given words rather than use synonyms so breaking the rules a bit. This post was also prompted by the fact that on a country walk yesterday my eldest nearly stood on one of these – an adder – the only venomous snake on these isles. I think it was a juvenile as it was small but definitely a viper rather than a grass snake.

#haiku
Swansong
All clap along
As the end approaches
And the triumph lifts us all high
Cheering

In response to Colleen’s 2018 Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge No. 82 – The May Day Edition: SING & CELEBRATE #SynonymsOnly
A cinquain this week

#cinquain
In exultation
Shoots arise, reaching skyward
Until sharp blades sweep

In response to COLLEEN’S 2018 #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 78, GROW & HONOR, #SNYNONYMSONLY
Tenuous synonyms for my haiku – again

#haiku
If only I knew
What I know now years ago
My time would have been
Spent in a much better way
Less effort on silly things

In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE, NO. 73: ENERGY & KNOWLEDGE, #SNYONYMSONLY

#Tanka
Forward
Maybe
From the chaos
From all the death and anger
We can find a better answer
We Need
I used the American form rather than the didactic.

In response to Colleen’s Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge, No. 72: Breakthrough & Movement, #SnyonymsOnly

#Haiku
The earth will arise
Topple all fences and walls
A spark in the night
In response to Colleen’s Weekly 2018 #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge, No. 70 “DESTINY & CHALLENGE”

#Haiku
Over in the US
The new boss has his eye on you
You are all apprentices now
All in the firing line

In response to the daily prompt Apprentice
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting
Calm my beating heart
Racing for the beauty of
My beloved wife

In response to the daily prompt Calm
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting
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!

It is dark but true
Uncomfortable evidence
When we dig deeper


Wherever words roam
Over fantastical lands
The heart rests at home.
Watching dressing up
A mini ninja dancing
Whirling all in black
Glistening silver
A delicate spider web
Fallen tree around
Well a bit anyway – but how’s this for a jump in sales rank!

A jump of 923,067 ranks! Come on! Buy a few more people – just a couple – I might get to number one!
Thank you whoever brought the latest copies – my ego needed it.

Kerching! Kerchang! Pow!
Our economy picks up!
Soul still desolate.

Dancing with my wife,
last week the telegraph came:
Coughs ring round the trench.

A sad shadow falls
Casting gloom over our dreams:
Sparks dispel the dark!