scott bailey

Poem a day challenge #62 (The Conduit)

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So this is the one I am thinking of entering into a competition the theme being “The Book”

The Conduit 

By Scott Bailey © 2013

English: Stack of books in Gould's Book Arcade...
English: Stack of books in Gould’s Book Arcade, Newtown, New South Wales (NSW), Australia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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.

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Poem a day challenge #61 (The New)

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The New 

By Scott Bailey © 2013

The new can’t replace the should have been
The should have been haunts us forever
Though the new will be a healer
And receive all our love just the same.
It’s pointless being angry at fate
But that doesn’t stop the burn
The frisson on top of everyday stress
For the should have been we always yearn.
The new will have it’s own should have been.
So maybe we will understand.
And make a happier will be.
At least that is the plan.

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Poem a day challenge #60 (Winter)

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Winter

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Nothing, nothing, blank.
Beneath winter’s hard black ice.
Water flows freely.

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Poem a day challenge #59 (Trees)

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Trees

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Two trees
Old as memory
Some leaves fallen
A root cut off.
Two trees
Explored
Examined
Noted down.
Two tree drawn together
Forever entwined.

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Poem a day challenge #58 (Class of Blood)

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Class of Blood

By Scott Bailey © 2013

You people don’t understand.
It’s tradition.
It’s sport.
It’s in our genes.
Blood.
Jobs are created
By the sport we choose.
By the blood we shed.
Surely that’s enough.
Of course
The same can’t be said
For you
And your cock fights.

 

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Poem a day challenge #57 (The Man in the Tree)

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The Man in the Tree

By Scott Bailey © 2013

English: Green Man. This superb Green Man is c...
English: Green Man. This superb Green Man is carved into an old tree stump near to the Teversal Trails Visitors Centre. The Teversal Trails are concessionary footpaths that cover a range of old railway tracks and Colliery land. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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.

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Poem a day challenge #56 (The World in a Book)

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The World in a Book 

By Scott Bailey © 2013

world
world (Photo credit: laynasaur)

The world in a book
For my son
To show him the places
Across the seas
That he dreams of.
The colours,
The creatures,
The cultures and the clashes.
The world in a book in his hands
As one day
The world will be in his hands.

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Poem a day challenge #55 (Green Fingers)

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Green Fingers

By Scott Bailey © 2013

IMG_0861
Photo Credit: Scott Bailey © 2008

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.

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Poem a day challenge #54 (Purple Star)

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Purple Star

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Deep bright purple star.
Piercing from the depths of roiling blue gas clouds
And a million billion stars
Outshining Venus and Mars
Swathes like silver​ paths
Some gathered in spiral wheels
And between them in the sparse dark spaces
Ships blink and travel on by.
A memory from the deepest well of childhood.
A memory that could not have been.

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Poem a day challenge #53 (Silver)

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Silver 

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Shining argent in sunlight or silver sheen in the rain
Letter, rings, lions.
Phoenix or tiny names
Even flying angels and leaping fluid cats.
Bright, alluring but for many
The last thing they will see.

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Poem a day challenge #51 (Dreams in the Universe )

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Dreams in the Universe 

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Motes of dust
So we have been described
Floating in the vastness of time and space
Small, inconsequential.
Dust motes made of dust from ancient dead stars.
Yet.
So far.
Amongst all we see,
the starfields of diamond dust,
the ancient piercing light,
the glowing, magical, wispy nebulae,
the rainbow rings of Saturn,
the storms of Jupiter,
the blinding light of supernova,
the singular dark of black hole,
world after world
galaxy after galaxy.
Nowhere have we found
yet
Anything that compares
to the complexity, the wonder, the intricacy,
the magic
of
the thoughts of you and I

 

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Poem a day challenge #50 (Run Through Trees)

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Run Through Trees

By Scott Bailey © 2013 

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!

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Poem a day challenge #49 (Duty)

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Duty

By Scott Bailey © 2013

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!

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Poem a Day Challenge #48 (Slice of Life)

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OK. So this is a quick attempt at concrete poetry – i.e.  the shape is important. Seeing as WordPress does all kinds of things with formatting and there is an effect in the original – I am posting it as a picture.

The words are below for search reasons

Slice of Life

By Scott Bailey © 2013

 Sliceoflife

Wake up. Can’t see. Sleepy eyes. Breakfast with my wife and son.
Driving. Dropping off family. Driving to factory. Roadworks, roadworks, roadworks
fixing a computer, picking up stock, driving, roadworks, driving and more driving.
Work. Unloading. Testing stock, adding stock. Mortgage questions paperwork.
Adoption paperwork missing! New firmware! Flawed. New firmware again.
Testing testing testing. Decoding and more testing. Problems headache, stress.
Driving home, roadworks, idiots, danger. Dinner and playtime, fighting with son over bedtime, housework, paperwork.
Poetry. Facebook. Paperwork, Bed time. Togetherness and rest.

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Poem A Day Challenge

Poem a Day Challenge #46 (Lost Words)

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Lost Words

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Screams, shouts, whispers, words
Uttered, none heeded at all.
Lost like leaves that fall.

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Poem a Day Challenge #45 (Caged)

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Caged

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Gorilla
Photo Credit Scott Bailey © 2013

Noble, graceful, caged
So like us yet so far apart
Our bars are our own.

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Poem a Day Challenge #44 (Onshore)

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As it’s Rachel’s Birthday today – and I am spending what little time we manage to get after battling with an unruly four-year old this evening with her, this is another oldie.

Onshore

By Scott Bailey © 2006

What lies within that deep dark world?
That immensity of green threat
Where lies the leviathan of doom
In that swelling encompassing brine
Where plankton swirl through tentacles
That writhe and sway and curl and wave
And small fish dart discreet?
The leviathan’s milky domain!
Filled with cries of beasts the creature eats
Where crescendos rise and pull the heart with sighs.
The leviathan shifts with a thrashing fit
A rumble excites the waves.
And gulls drop and chop their prey and hop
from surf to spray to cloud to rock.
The whole sea moves with a great heart’s beat
Where will its great thoughts lead?
Will it be content to nibble and gnaw
Or rise with a tumultuous roar?
A great green wall with weight of stone
While here, nearby, and all alone
I
Stand
On the sand
Unsure

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Poem a Day Challenge #43 (Walk of Knives)

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Walk of Knives

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Our heart leads onwards to our dreams
Our mind towards our goals
While we wend the road between
That cuts our very soles.

Today we thanked the man
Who tightened up the chains
That ties us to our solid home
For someone else’s gains

If only our hearts and minds agreed
The road could be wide and straight
Let’s hope we find the map we need
Before it is too late

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Poem a Day Challenge #42 (Always Descending)

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A very old one as we have a ton of work to do tonight. I have done some work on it though. I’ll try and do a longer one soon to make up for these odd “cheats”

Always Descending

By Scott Bailey © 2002

Always descending, never ascending.
Moving downwards, moving down.
I can’t get used to this feeling
Moving downwards, moving down.
Is it really like this? What are we doing?
Do we really want this?
Is this the thing to be?
The chains that pull the valves and the levers,
That drive the steam through pipes of dreams.

Dream worlds falling, morning calling,
Pull the chains on, shoulder the yoke.
Down to business. Down to labour.
Moving downwards, moving down.
I don’t like this, what am I doing?
I don’t really want this, what is to be?
Enter the shaft that takes us downwards.
The light is dimming as our dreams descend.

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Poem a Day Challenge #41 (Pool of Dreams)

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Pool of Dreams

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Long shadows
Cast their thoughts behind us
Dim our once bright footsteps
An unclean window screen

But flashes from sudden mirrors
Slash though the shadows forms
Glimpses of dreams that past 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

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Poem a Day Challenge #40 (Silence)

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Silence

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Silence is Golden
Because it’s so very rare
Grab it while you can

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Poem a Day Challenge #39 (Balloons)

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Balloons

By Scott Bailey © 2013

 

Balloons rising high
Bear kisses into the sky
Up to the lost ones

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Poem a Day Challenge #38 (Beach)

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Another new form – called a Joseph’s Star See details here 

Throwing stones
Throwing stones

Beach

By Scott Bailey © 2013

 

Beach
Crashing waves
A boy in heaven
A joyous light in his eyes
So his parent’s hearts are warmed
to see his delight
Smiles on the
Beach

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Poem a Day Challenge #37 (A Lost Forest)

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Just got in today! With another new form A Minute Poem – or in this case a last-minute poem.

A Lost Forest

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

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Poem a Day Challenge #36 (Star Fathers – a Laturne)

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Lanturne

Star Fathers

by Scott Bailey © 2013

Stars
Magic
Fathers dance
Under dark trees
Dream

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Poem a Day Challenge #35 (Tsuma – a Katauta)

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Now inspired by the site I discovered yesterday going to try some different forms. This is a Katauta.

Tsuma

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Silky dress caress
Swishing – lighting my desire
For your loving touch

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Poem a Day Challenge #34 (Cross – Senryu version)

Scott Andrew Bailey5 Comments

Today I was made aware of the poetic form of the Senryu and what distinguishes it from a Haiku. I was not aware of this and so my past attempts were probably hybrids in many cases.

If you are interested in the difference there is a good page here explaining it.

I was made aware of it by these posts.

Joy and Sorrow

and

Tourist

Over at the blog of Bastet and Sekhmet

So here is my first attempt – which is yesterday’s poem distilled into this form.

Senryu: Cross

By Scott Bailey © 2013

Fleeing from killers
The child runs desperately
To fill out a form.

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Poem a Day Challenge #33 (Cross)

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Cross

By Scott Bailey © 2000

Rapists come and go
like bills
grit your teeth
bear it
pay

Carry a dagger
close
no guarantee
a talisman
a cross

Hide in the woods
crunching leaves
above
beneath them
a thousand bones

Click, click
Bang, bang
You make it a film!
a song.
a hero’s theme

Click, click
Bang, bang
My mother didn’t pay
didn’t bear her cross
didn’t carry her cross
now lays beneath hers

My best suit
stained by the passing
the violent end
of my daughter
in my arms

Now you tell me
in your yellow coat
shining stripe
proud nation
Go back whence you came!

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Poem a Day Challenge #32 (Spectrum)

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Spectrum

by Scott Bailey © 2013

If life were light
shone through a prism
We would see the parts of our lives
illuminated on the wall
From the red of our passions
to the blue of our melancholy
And all the shades in between
The wonderful rainbow of life

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Poem a Day Challenge #31 (Bricks)

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Bricks

by Scott Bailey © 2013

Coloured bricks
Red, blue, yellow, white
and many more.

Many shapes
Many sizes
No limits
Many surprises.

Build a fire engine,
A house, a school,
A lake, a park, a city, a town.
A space station and spaceships and an alien host.
A castle,a bridge a knight and a ghost!

All this and more build it all
And never ever build up your wall.

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