By Scott Bailey © 2015
The Romans had it right
With their roads
Our roads wander
And wind
Avoiding stuff
Drawing closer to other stuff
But it’s all just stuff
We get lost
Never arrive
Or if we do
Too late
Too late
Straight Path
poetry challenge
Dip Into Something New
Slip away for a few hours, into other worlds – away from all the troubles of this one.
Perhaps into the future – a near-future – dark and disturbing and yet – so close. There, follow the fates of four people worn down and broken, angry with the system. Who break out of it, try to break it. Who question why they did and falter in their resolve only to be thrown back into the fray. Who discover the truth within themselves. A tale that questions rebellion and its motivations while railing at the oppression around us.
Mankind Limited
Or if not the future – then other worlds – supernatural ones – that impinge onto ours from – where? Some other dimension? The afterlife? Our own minds?
Where ever they come from – try these Thirteen Tales of the ghostly variety.
Thirteen Tales of Ghosts
Or forget them all and take a moment each day – to read a little poetry and think. 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 and much more
A Spring of Dreams
Or take in something longer, deeper and more considered. Buck the trend for quick gratification and enjoy something epic.
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 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.
Andervayne’s Dream and Other Poems
Push and Pull
By Scott Bailey © 2017
Memorise
All the sighs
Every loving glance
And long slow dance
Hold them tight
As we approach the night
Sanitise
Then fill with lies
Squeeze out the dreams
With mindless streams
Of celebs and fear
Until no one is here
Realise
And cherish the wise
Thoughts that flow
Before they go
Into the night
So hold them tight
Characterise
Categorise
Into a box
And cattle stocks
To milk and drain
To strike the brain
Live your dreams
For our revenue streams
Complete the bucket list
No source to be missed
Hold on to the light
For our gold so bright
Luck
By Scott Bailey © 2016
No rhyme or reason
Bad luck keeps on reigning down
Good luck’s hard to find
Northern Wonder
By Scott Bailey © 2017
The sun reaches out
And excites the northern sky
A watcher’s pleasure
Holiday
By Scott Bailey © 2017
Resting on the coast
The soothing sounds of the sea
Fill this empty shell
Hope
By Scott Bailey © 2017
Hope holds back the tide
Stays the shifting golden sand
Thin mist arises
Worms
By Scott Bailey © 2017
Spring showers cascade
The blackbird enjoys the hour
Worms join the party
Keys
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Keys can lock and jangle
Hold us safe and secure
Take away liberty or open up the doors
And the doors they can open….
Silver is the primary key
The opens up our home
We do have gold but is worn
From use and years and time
Some keys are rows of black and white
And open up our hearts
With wondrous weaving melodies
Soaring sounds from worlds apart
But the keys that give me magic
And warm my ailing heart
Dance beneath my fingertips
As dreams flow from my art
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Ghosts
By Scott Bailey © 2014
A fitful candle
The scratching
Of a quill
On parchment old
A chill
A shiver
A creeping smile
A glint
Ghosts
Are born
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Deep Green
By Scott Bailey © 2017
I stand on the shore
Unsure. Intimidated
By the great green deep
Also inspired by an old and longer poem -> here
Green Shoots
By Scott Bailey © 2017
In the red embers
The wake of the forest fire
Fresh green shoots arise
Shining Deep
By Scott Bailey © 2017
Darkness rules the deep
Bio-luminescence shines
Nature wins the day
Rising Tide
By Scott Bailey © 2013
From the shallows to the icy deep
Where dolphins dance and starfish sleep
Through swaying kale and shifting sand
Feel the touch of an oily hand
Where lights speed by in total dark
Where rest many a sunken ark
Where through the kale fish do slip
Feel a cold and choking grip
Where bubbles rise and currents surge
Where waters from the heavens merge
Where weight does crush both bones and rock
Feel the iron fingers lock
And here my heart it swells and roars
From roiling dark to shattered shores
And I will rise with fury’s might
And crush the hand that picks this fight
So fear the shark with jaws that rend
And the mighty swell that shall bend
Every fence and dam and wall
And drown the rumble of cliffs that fall
And when the hand has done its deed
You will curse your dirty seed
And then, at last, you will see
How small you are beside the sea
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Supernovae
By Scott Bailey © 2017
A distant star blooms
Shining in the ancient night
Showers of starlight
Daisies
By Scott Bailey © 2017
The warm sun colours
The world like dancing daisies
Spread between the graves
So It Goes
By Scott Bailey © 2013
Stereotypical headlines
Reactions just the same
Ample opportunity
To apportion blame
Night time is for thinking
Sorting truth from lies
But in the sunshine morn
Dreams just fly
So it goes
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Owl
By Scott Bailey © 2021
The screech of an owl
Clouds like scratches on the moon
Mouse darts warily
For “Ronovan Writes #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge 369 SCRATCH and Screech.”
Droplet
By Scott Bailey © 2017
Droplet spins midair
Shimmering graceful free fall
Dashed against grey stone
A Spring of Dreams – Nation
By Scott Bailey © 2013
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.
A Spring of Dreams – Sparks
Tower of Stone
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Tower of stone
Where hearts are joined
Names are blessed
Flesh is laid to rest
Still
The tower is stone
And cannot
Learn to love
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Span
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Span of stone
Taking some to work
Others home
As it has
For centuries
Others watch
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Distant Clattering
By Scott Bailey © 2014
A white wedge
Spotted in the corner
Of a run-down shop
Off the track
Joyful memories swell
And from the past
I hear the clattering
Of a metal bowl
Filling with a quarter pound
Of sherbet lemons
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Peppers
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Hot red and burnt orange
The peppers in the pot
Ready to be plucked
And in the dinner popped
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Gauges
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Whatever happened to gauges
Haven’t seen one for ages
It gives a feeling of age
Does a good gauge
Engineering solid and good
Surrounded by brass or set in wood
The odd jet of steam venting
What were they all preventing
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
On Wing
By Scott Bailey © 2014
On wing
Defying the earth
Submitting to the wind
And trust
Soaring joy
Freedom high
Oh for wings
For real
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Bluebell Path
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Bluebell path
Goes to the heart
A potent sign
Of where I am
Where I have been
My roots are theirs
We share soil
And shall again
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Splosh
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Splosh
And a little erosion
Helped on
By little hands
Joy is free
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Sleeping Tigers
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Living to please
Rather than to be
More on show
Than on the prowl
But in the beating
Heart and genes
Waits the hunter
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
The Final Bang
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Staring down the barrel
Of everyday life
Wondering how long the fuse will last
Tensing to dodge
The final bang
Never can
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Watcher
By Scott Bailey © 2014
With my lens
Capture the beach
Only to find
A watcher
Staring back
What does it see
The watcher from the sea
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Steel Grin
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Shining steel
A grill like a grin
Of the shark that killed you
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Vanity
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Defying the cold
In blue and gold
Vanity knows no bounds
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Deep Mystery
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Mysteries of the deep
Simple and unique
Floating by in waves
Who knows what it saves
Deep in its memories
Deeper mysteries
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
A Spring of Dreams – Butterfly
Lines
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Back and forth
Criss-crossing
Thick and thin
Loose and taut
A complexity of lines
Just
To go forward
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Needs
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Food and heat and warmth
Constant needs that connect us
To ancestors old
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Broken Teeth
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Like broken teeth
Unmaintained
No longer useful
Yet
Somehow
Pleasing to the eye
Leading us
To who knows where
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Rock Water
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Rock in the flow
Water jumps high
Rock is steadfast
Water jumps for joy
Time passes
Rock is worn to sand
Water flows serene
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Climbing
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Climbing
Slowly to the sky
Many years
Many lives
Reaching for the canopy
We rise
Will we be spared
The axe
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Fangs
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Into the hole
Drawn in by the urge
To know
Waiting
Are fangs
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Steam
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Brass
Steam
Steel
Coal
Old
Times
Warm
Smells
Thudding
Down the rails
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Dissecting Darkness
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Dissecting darkness
Silver shining score
Weaving across the night
Hanging, trembling, shimmering
Waiting for
A hapless fly
To wrap up and serve
As an artist’s
Main course
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Blue (Haiku)
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Heart beneath blue skies
Bluer than the deep blue sea
Rage into the stars
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Logs
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Stacked high and waiting
All ready to be consumed
And give out their warmth
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
In the Earth
By Scott Bailey © 2014
A pewter dragon in the dust
Some curling chains turned to rust
Some old bones stacked in line
A bone comb with a broken tine
Ritual gifts or just waste
Theorise with too much haste
Maybe let the question go
Maybe let the mystery grow
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Lighting the Way
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Beacons of hope in darkness
Shining from afar
Reaching out to guide us
But one is fitful and passing
The other faithfully burns
And as always
Nature surpasses invention
The beacon of life shines on
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Tomorrow
By Scott Bailey © 2014
Hurrying, cramming in, rush rush rush
Preparing for tomorrow is all
By the time it’s done
Tomorrow is already gone
And so the cycle goes
On and on
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Golden Foundation
By Scott Bailey © 2014
The world we live in
The very structures of our lives
Built upon gold
But gold is so soft
So who the hell
Made that decision
Originally published in A Spring of Dreams
Scott Andrew Bailey - Author 