By Scott Bailey © 2026
I want back
The future I was promised
The rewards
For years of dedication, loyalty, determination
The share of the fruits of my labour
Instead
We have the emptiness
That was always
Behind the lies
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DTQNfWHgqCW?xmt=AQF0AVJbQkkLzqJyO8c77M7OauJEjiSFMDR4GsroOerTYKbTxvQ1J1_YihrMxTk9H91UUYKe&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
The width and depth of the hole
Is immeasurable
The place where you should be
Is so empty
The opposite of what you were in life
If only the living
Could tell their dead
The immeasurable width and depth
Of your impact in life
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
By Scott Bailey © 2026
Hands were proffered
Slapped away
Invites offered
I said, not today
If only
If only
If only
I would not be grieving
Eluded joy
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DTLC85djCRF?xmt=AQF0uoQKfXRNFAMGGG4K2zGIsJlHtlHGB1rSJCqw16opDUYRbif9LA-xASAcDq_A6tuz-48&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
Step by step
Trembling, shuffling
Step by step
On the narrow span of stone
Stretching off into darkness
Unknown length
Vertigo threatening
Trembling, shuffling
Step by step
Pressed forward
By the weight of the crowd behind
Who need you
To continue
Step by step
Trembling, shuffling
Not courage
Not duty
Just the weight of need
Of the others
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DTIfNARjrqN?xmt=AQF00EwUoDRZLgvJfRRUMgEpyIo4jjUpkaSiZN2_r39zpmEwXg4NXYUti925aq459pARpFm_&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
An empty affair
And it meant nothing I swear
The heart stays broken
In response to malformed_poetry’s pompt
By Scott Bailey © 2026
I’ve been trying all my life to understand,
What I am
What I should be.
Now I wonder, should I have?
Or should I just have been?
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt.
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
So, I am undertaking another poetry challenge by trying to respond to the daily prompt by malformed_poetry on threads (check them out!). I will reply their on the thread but will post here too.
I may or may not succeed, I am putting no pressure on myself. Just trying to get the juice flowing again.
By Scott Bailey © 2026
Those who see
Are frozen with fear
Drowning in syrup
As the future approaches
Wondering what can we do.
What can we do?
Slowly the shadows pass
As memories retreat and fade
Passing beyond the glass
Like springtime budding grass
New joys together are made
Slowly the shadows pass
This pain we will surpass
And sunbeams will cascade
Passing beyond the glass
Though sometimes the shattered glass
Will cut us like a blade
Slowly the shadows pass
New light will surely trespass
On the lawn that we have made
Passing beyond the glass
Those memories we can’t bypass
But their colour has finally greyed
Slowly the shadows pass
Passing beyond the glass
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
The man in the tree
The plank
The turned leg
The joint
The dust and the shavings.
The tree in the man
The setting down of deep roots
The reaching for the skies
The drinking deep of the earth
The steadfastness and the wielding.
Dusty grey spider
Runs amidst the brush
The twigs and broken leaves
Casting coverlet of silk
Over winters decay
Busy, light, unnoticed
Predator
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Where the crashing sea
Meets the shifting cracking ice
Hunters hunker down
Two trees
Old as memory
Some leaves fallen
A root cut off
Two trees
Explored
Examined
Noted down.
Two trees drawn together
Forever entwined.
A conduit, a bridge or a gateway.
It goes under many old names.
Open it with wonder and reverence,
For the spell will then be underway.
The weakest of hands can undo it
The portal of magical ways
Connecting one mind to another
With a delicate ethereal wave.
Some portals are heavy and dusty
Some dance with electrical sparks
But they all do the same, all show the way
For strange dreams from heart to heart.
There were even once living gateways
Who opened the way with a look
Always there’s one right beside us
The conduit, the gateway, the book.
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Green fingers
Rip open the rusty shell
Slow tendrils with irresistible grasp.
Dealt with by a blade or a chemical wash
They will be back.
In time, victory will be theirs.
I am the factory wall, despised and so defaced
Covered with graffiti, defiled and disgraced.
I am the concrete tower that holds up the concrete road
Bleak and faceless white, bearing my toxic load.
I am the bin on the street, bursting full with waste
Where rats and vermin crawl, around me in distaste.
I am the battered traffic cone abandoned in the hedge
A used forgotten prize of lives lived on the edge.
I am the street side gutter where dirty water flows
A place of infestation, where all the darkness goes.
I am the discarded knife with bloodstains on the blade
The close but unseen menace lurking in the shade.
I am the lofty tower spewing clouds into the air
That speed across the oceans, killing without a care.
I am the broken shelf with screws rent from the wall
That supported all the books and caused them all to fall.
I am the sodden cardboard box flapping in the street
Broken, limp, forgotten, always under feet.
Once I was a poet, bright-browed with golden-haired
Playing harp and singing, songs into the air.
Once I was a druid learning from the trees
Drawing strength from bark and wisdom from the leaves.
Once I was a warrior with proud and shining sword
Singing with my war-band a deep heroic chord.
Once I was a chieftain with princes round my hearth
Against war and cold and famine, our mighty hearts did laugh.
Once I was a king whose soul was all the land
Who tended all his people with a strong and generous hand.
But I made other people suffer
Now suffer myself in turn.
But as you wreak your vengeance
What lesson do you learn?
What lessons do you all forget?
Slowly shifting canopy
Layer on layer soft light green
Waving like courtesan fans.
Sun winking through.
Seedlings drifting down sunbeams
Dappled brown leafy ground.
Scent of earth.
Rough feel of bark.
Through this, I run!
And the forest’s essence
enters my senses
vitalises my blood!
Feign ambition
Feign happiness
Feign expertise
Until the day
It all comes true
Until one day
The realisation
That day
Will never come
In response to my daily prompt Feign
A tenuous link today but hey!
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Deserts
Dust and heat
That will be the crop
Of the greed
Of our age
In response to my daily prompt Crop
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Acute pain
A cute name
For agony
Thus
Language
Is turned against us
In response to my daily prompt Acute
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
We can make you a better parent
Just come and bank with us
We can make you a better lover
Just use our scent
We can make you more successful
Just drive our cars
We can make you a better man
Just drink our beers
We can make you young and cool
Just use our phones
We can make you healthier
Just eat our food
Give us your money
So we can fill the gaps
Of your so obviously
Empty lives
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Gone
The sound
The thunder
No silence reigns
And the poppies bloom
Nodding respectfully
To the brave that lay beneath
The swathe of red that remembers
The blood that was shed here for freedom
And the folly of man to his brother
So we may never forget all that pain
To ensure it will not come again
We respect them with silent thoughts
Resist any violent trends
Talk, build bridges, not walls
While the poppies bloom
While silence reigns
Honour those
That are
Gone
In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 109, HAPPY NOVEMBER – “POETS CHOICE OF WORDS”
Check the link for the guidelines and rules
A double mirrored Etheree that is fitting for the time of year – particularly this year.
#Etheree
Black and white headlines
Betray grey morality
Fallen leaves turn brown
In response to my daily prompt Linear
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Making tiny pieces
Of truth
Making golden memories
Of the past
Manufacturing magical times
To garner accord
Pedalled
By the powerful
Shepherds
Of the sheep
In response to my daily prompt Manufacture
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Birds do it. Bees do it
Even the goddamn fleas do it
It’s in the genes to survive
It’s not enough. Not for us
We have more, in our double helix
Than the ability to thrive
Make it our duty
Transcend circumstance!
A quavering wave
of light in the summer clouds
as the sun goes down.
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
Choose a clan
Nerd or jock
Red or blue
Rose or tree
Choose
Then sit back
Your decisions are made
Shout to defend them
But no more need to think
Just sink
Into the arms
Of your clan
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
All
That I
Survey is
Under my sway
That is what they say
The evidence is slim
So I start to understand
How perfidious is the world
And the darkness begins to seep in
The entropy of hope, and dream slayer
So I must strive to remember the truth
My eyes are my window to the world
What dwells behind them in my world
My kingdom and my domain
So here I shall remain
That is what I say
Under my sway
In my eye
That is
All
In response to COLLEEN’S 2019 WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 132 #SYNONYMSONLY
Influence & Perception
Check the link for the guidelines and rules
A double Etheree
#Etheree
Cloudy
Dusky pillows
Huddle in the valley
Like a giant’s bed covers
Misty
#cinquain
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
The panacea
To all of the world’s ills
Is in our hands
Specifically
In their joining
In response to my daily prompt Explicit
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Albatross hovers
High over surf scattered sand
All will pass in time
In response to my daily prompt Hover
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Soaring
High in the sky
In synchronicity
Gathering, readying to leave
Flocking
In response to my daily prompt Consolidate
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Sod the camouflage
Be resplendent in the sun
Flutter high and shine
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
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
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
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
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
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
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
When the fire goes out
The heat is dissipated
Darkness falls again
Only then do the creatures
Of the night, find their solace
In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 112, “COLD & SAFE,” #SYNONYMSONLY
Check the link for the guidelines and rules
A tanka this week.
#tanka
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
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
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
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Swirling up into the night
Like some lonely northern light
Not north but here it did appear
Why am I not filled with fear
A spiral of blue and green
Wispy tendrils barely seen
Twisting up and further still
I watch it rise with mounting thrill
Into the stars I watch it go
And then alone the heavens know
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
In silicon hell
The servant does not obey
But who is the slave
In response to my daily prompt Hell
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
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
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
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
#DailyPrompt, #amwriting, #postaday
Scott Andrew Bailey - Author 
