Remembrance

Sun November 9 2025Sun November 9 2025Scott Andrew Bailey11 Comments

By Scott Bailey © 2018

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

Summer Clouds

Sat October 4 2025Sat October 4 2025Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

By Scott Bailey © 1999

A quavering wave
of light in the summer clouds
as the sun goes down.

Lake Zen

Sun September 28 2025Scott Andrew Bailey2 Comments

By Scott Bailey © 2019

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

Pride

Sat September 27 2025Scott Andrew Bailey1 Comment

By Scott Bailey © 2019

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

Quarks

Fri September 26 2025Scott Andrew Bailey1 Comment

By Scott Bailey © 2019

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

Sway

Thu September 25 2025Scott Andrew Bailey5 Comments

By Scott Bailey © 2019

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

Pillows

Sat September 20 2025Scott Andrew Bailey2 Comments

Cloudy
Dusky pillows
Huddle in the valley
Like a giant’s bed covers
Misty

#cinquain

Butterfly

Sun September 14 2025Scott Andrew Bailey1 Comment

By Scott Bailey © 2014

Sod the camouflage
Be resplendent in the sun
Flutter high and shine

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

The Solace of the Night

Mon September 8 2025Scott Andrew Bailey4 Comments

By Scott Bailey © 2018

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

Sun September 7 2025Sun September 7 2025Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

By Scott Bailey © 2014

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

Lights

Mon September 1 2025Scott Andrew Bailey2 Comments

By Scott Bailey © 2014

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

Lost Realm

Sun August 17 2025Scott Andrew Bailey4 Comments

By Scott Bailey © 2018

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

Wed August 13 2025Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

By Scott Bailey © 2014

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

Tue August 12 2025Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

By Scott Bailey © 2014

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

Recovery

Tue August 5 2025Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

By Scott Bailey © 2014

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

Arise

Tue July 29 2025Tue July 29 2025Scott Andrew Bailey10 Comments

By Scott Bailey © 2018

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

Fri July 25 2025Fri July 25 2025Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

By Scott Bailey © 2014

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

No Change

Mon July 14 2025Scott Andrew Bailey2 Comments

By Scott Bailey © 2018

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

Fury and Wonder

Mon July 7 2025Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

By Scott Bailey © 2014

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

Sat July 5 2025Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Eyes
Red and raw
Seen too much

Filled
With work
and bills
and tears

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

Snake

Thu July 3 2025Scott Andrew Bailey2 Comments

By Scott Bailey © 2014

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.

Triumph

Tue July 1 2025Scott Andrew Bailey2 Comments

By Scott Bailey © 2018

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

Sun Cycles

Sun June 15 2025Scott Andrew Bailey2 Comments

By Scott Bailey © 2018

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

Explorers

Fri June 13 2025Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Wandering the shore
Through new lands every day
Ancient fishermen

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

The Oak

Tue June 3 2025Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

By Scott Bailey © 2017

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

Who’s the Fool

Sun June 1 2025Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

By Scott Bailey © 2013

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

Star Fathers

Sun May 11 2025Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

A Lanturne

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Stars
Magic
Fathers dance
Under dark trees
Dream

Originally published in A Spring of Dreams

A Lost Forest

Fri May 9 2025Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

By Scott Bailey © 2013

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 Presentation

Wed April 16 2025Scott Andrew Bailey8 Comments

By Scott Bailey © 2016

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

Sun April 13 2025Scott Andrew Bailey2 Comments

By Scott Bailey © 2013

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

Thunder

Sat April 12 2025Scott Andrew Bailey4 Comments

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

Change

Tue April 1 2025Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

By Scott Bailey © 2013

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

Soundbox

Thu March 27 2025Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

By Scott Bailey © 2013

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

Temptation

Wed February 12 2025Scott Andrew Bailey1 Comment

By Scott Bailey © 2018

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

Breathing

Mon January 20 2025Mon January 20 2025Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

By Scott Bailey © 2018

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

A Spring of Dreams (Words)

Wed January 15 2025Wed January 15 2025Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

Words

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Wherever words roam
Over fantastical lands
The heart rests at home.

Available as

Kindle

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

Mon January 13 2025Scott Andrew Bailey4 Comments

By Scott Bailey © 2018

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

Sat December 28 2024Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

By Scott Bailey © 2018

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 Kights Tale or A Life?

Tue December 24 2024Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

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.

Read Now

Mental Respite Through Poetry

Wed December 18 2024Mon December 16 2024Scott Andrew BaileyLeave a comment

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.