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
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
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
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
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
A quavering wave
of light in the summer clouds
as the sun goes down.
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
Sod the camouflage
Be resplendent in the sun
Flutter high and shine
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
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
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
For a sweet moment
This green forest was all mine
My own secret realm
Now, it is fenced off, private
Playground of the privileged
In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 107, “HAUNT & SPELL,” #SYNONYMSONLY
Check the link for the guidelines and rules
A tanka this week.
#tanka
Seventy billion fingers
And more
Have all in their time
Reached out for
The pure
Purely human concept
Perfection
The perfect car
The perfect job
The perfect house
The perfect friend
The perfect woman
The perfect man
The perfect hold of
A perfect hand
Yet what we still don’t comprehend
Perfection brings us stress in the end
Outside our minds it does not exist
So in pursuit we forever twist
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
The tower in the wood
Lonely and silent
Seat of many dreams
Where it was a palace of power
A refuge for outlaws
A romantic spire or a foreboding spear
A collapsed heart
Once vigilant
Now silent
Crumbling
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
The country’s getting richer
on the shoulders of the poor
The economy is booming
but blood stains mar the floor
A thrifty generation
careful with what they earned
Now watch it all dissipate
belying what they learned
For they are forced by empathy
to shore up their progeny
Or watch them being bled
by powerful gluttony
By vampires way up high
in lofty towers sleek
Deaf to pleas of mercy
They cannot hear us speak
And with contempt the vampires
farm their herds with glee
Until we have no more to give
And they’ll see the fallacy
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Water
Drops from the sky
Yearning to reach the sea
Its path always heading downwards
Tumbling
Humans
Are not water
Humans yearn for the sky
They strive and climb up and up
Struggling
Sliding
Down from the heights
Steps faltering and weak
Bringing us down into the deep
Failing
Thinking
Measure the path
Assaying obstacles
Planning with forethought and wisdom
Reason
Rising
Against the rain
Climbing the steep ascent
Aiming for the sky, for the stars!
Soaring
In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 103, “FALL & TRY,” #SYNONYMSONLY
Check the link for the guidelines and rules
Had a go at a crown cinquain this week
#crown-cinquain
Wide, water wash
Grey beneath the early morning mist
Chance sunbeams bounce and sparkle
River banks lost and blurred
Returning to their ancient ways
Unbound from man’s constraint
A gentle reminder of the eventual winner
Water wandering where it will
Free and unordered
Rolling, seeping or swelling to the sea
Grasses, shrubs and trees, swimming
Mirrored in their sudden still lakes
Expanding
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Screaming at the storm
The words lost in the thunder
Storm undeflected
In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 99, “CHANGE & DEFY,” #SYNONYMSONLY
Check the link for the guidelines and rules
Another senryu – I have taken the opposite of one of the words this time, so a bit of a cheat.
#senryu
We need fury and wonder
to fire our song
But the fire is dim
the spark long gone
So sift through the ashes
for an ember that glows
To tend and to blow
through the wind and the snows
And build from the ashes
a new song, a new light
That burns with new fury
to banish the night
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Eyes
Red and raw
Seen too much
Filled
With work
and bills
and tears
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
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.
The white wolf’s triumph
Hunt over, hunger sated
No howling tonight
In response to Colleen’s Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge No. 81, DIGNITY & SUCCESS, #SynonymsOnly
A haiku again this week. My brain is too fried for anything more.
#haiku
Dawn spills on the land
Sharing its free, warm bounty
Nurturing the seeds
Feeding the grazers in turn
Then stolen by the hunters
In response to COLLEEN’S WEEKLY #TANKA TUESDAY #POETRY CHALLENGE NO. 90, “Give & Receive,” #SYNONYMSONLY
An attempt at a Tanka
#Tanka
Wandering the shore
Through new lands every day
Ancient fishermen
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
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
Listen to all the anger
Hark at all the fury
Just remember that
You no longer own the jury
Humiliate the whistleblower
Make him out a fool
Wielding propaganda
Like an old blunt tool
Don’t you know we’re cynics now
We can see through all the lies
You will have to do much better
Or suffer the surprise.
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Stars
Magic
Fathers dance
Under dark trees
Dream
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Bright flakes of light in dappled leaves
that float on down
where saplings grow
and settle low
And earthy scents rise in the air
As underfoot
leaves crunch and fold
red-brown and gold
The rusty fence that holds it in
it holds us too
back from that time
when we roamed free
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
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
Sometimes the things we are due
do not arrive
Sometimes that precious parcel
is lost
Sometimes the blows
are more than we think
we can survive
But we do
It is the ancient sadness
of humanity
Happiness has such
frailty
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Arise
To the thunder
The raging of the skies
Rain, that splits the drought asunder
Rejoice
Tremble
Beneath the aweful majesty
Of nature’s might roar
Making your heart
Thunder
In response to Colleen’s 2018 Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge No. 76: JOY & FURY, #SnyonymnsOnly
Had a go at a reverse cinquain this time.
#Cinquain #reverse-cinquain #CinquainPoetry
Shouting into the hole that is the whole
Nothing back.
Raging against the system that is all
Nothing changed.
Staring at the box with the box.
Nothing gained.
Justifying every move you make
Not explained.
Time to change.
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
There are empty spaces
left as people move on,
of the spaces of places long gone,
of times gone by
There is a link between present and past
an energy, a potential,
strung between the memories gone
and the living yet to roll on
The link hums with the tension
and the empty spaces echo back the thrum
deep rich reverberation
layered on the past, the present, the future
Such is the music of life.
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
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
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
Wherever words roam
Over fantastical lands
The heart rests at home.
Available as
or hardback
from Amazon
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.
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
A fantasy tale of a Knight’s struggles and adventures that is a veiled allegory for modern life. But what does it tell us? What do you take from it?
In these times of quick gratification and short attention spans, I decided to try and buck the trend and present something not only with greater length but also depth.
The poems in this collection were written over a long period and for different purposes. They are varied but they are all long. And they all represent challenges. Each was a challenge to myself, to sustain a quality of writing for a long period and within tight constraints of form while still telling a story. They also represent and challenge to the reader. The challenge to throw off the pressure of everyday life, the pressure to hurry, hurry, hurry to take the time to read something, absorb it over time.
Such effort needs reward, these poems should not be a one-time quick fix. If the reader is going to put that effort in then there should be a payoff, they should be able to continue to get something from it afterwards. Whether that be from contemplation of what they have digested or from revisiting, rereading and seeing things they missed the first time around. So the final challenge to me was to provide this depth of content – not just quantity.
Scott Andrew Bailey - Author 