What booze-warm #audacity Could dare to break The brittle clarity of her thousand yard stare

She looked too good to be left alone for long. It was only a matter of time before the booze-warm #audacity of some mediocre lothario would rock up and break the brittle clarity of her thousand yard stare. Until then I’d watch and try to imagine what she was thinking and what had brought her here.

#Death was a constant, watchful companion out in the airless vacuum. Dylan was very much aware of that every time he set out. Everything in space seemed to want to kill you, especially the void itself, but he never backed down from it. Taking to the black in Magpie was the true challenge. #vss365

When I slice The #bloodline from A pelagic I think Of it Bursting Through the #slipstream Of flashing prey, A scattered Silver Twisting mirror. And an apex Of vertigo, Of loneliness, Gives a tremor To my hands As I reach for The salt and lime. #vss365

A #modest house. That was all he wanted. A place where he could raise bookshelves, and write. Where the garden was tangled perfection. A place that was his, and him. But he knew he would never have it. There was no hope left to be hurt by. Looking forward, all he could see was the void. #vss365

I was once fierce With the kind of Sandy wounds You pick up in deserts Of unwanted solitude. But you, With one atomic smile, Blasted all that sore grit Smooth, And now I stumble Bewildered To be so #Disarmed #vss365

Gulled I didn’t think Hot chips Could summon Such a #cyclone Of sharp beaks and wings; White stukas Tightly turning In screeching Snapping attack. I drop the bag and flee Shamed To be so far From the garden Where once I had control #vss365

I looked at him. What he proposed was neither thorough, nor fair, but we had no time for either. ‘Stop anyone in a small car and search for books. Anything that isn’t a bible - arrest them. We have to stop this Librarian at all costs’ #vss365 #thoroughfare

#Oak. This fallen King! Centuries of oxygen, Deep carpets of acorns, A nursery for chattering flocks And broad canopies Of summer shade For all. All won in the teeth of A thousand winter storms, A gnarled fist Until the last. And now, Food for the beetles. Would we were so strong #vss365

My father Was my #umbrella I never knew the rain His lessons taught Furled by my side Should I need him again #vss365

When I visited Melbourne in the 1990s you had to sort through the #rocket to find your meal. Never understood why. Maybe the harvest went ballistic. #vss365

What light through #sonder window breaks? It is the east, and hordes do run Within my head, beneath the sun, Resplendent in each petty pace. Arise, fair sun, and mute this flood, For I am pale, And quake with disbelief, That such worlds should hinge On the twitch Of an orange cretin #vss365

#Sonder. You didn’t even know That I didn’t know What it even was To you #vss365

Elizabethan gentlemen Weren’t. Down at The Globe Armed to the teeth In puffball skirts and tights Hogging the limelight To lob lewd epithets at the players. They were Just thugs In the ruff #collar #vss365

The way you left I need One of those Plastic Satellite dish Collars That dogs wear To stop themselves Licking their wounds. Ruff. #collar #vss365

Failed parachute Conjured dead In the field #vss365 #conjure

In South London, ‘taking the piss’ is all about checking out whether someone has a sense of humour, while ‘giving it some #needle’ is about using calculated insults to test how far someone could be pushed. Both experiences can seem similar but you’d be wise to know the difference #vss365

He was staring at me, cloth in hand, with a crazed look on his eye. The sunlight was shining off the counter, dazzling. He began to speak slowly, carefully: ‘The way you keep your kitchen. It is OBSCENE’ #hbp92

He couldn’t help it. The evidence was stark: the people had spoken - and his doubts about the future began to #congeal within him. #vss365

i will not write a poem using the word #unctuous #galumph was bad enough. #vss365 #prompt #poem

"The most technologically efficient machine that man has ever invented is the book." ✒ Canadian literary critic, theorist, and scholar #NorthropFrye passed away #OTD 23 January 1991. #Literature

Frog with lisp goes #cloak #vss365

Hi there! Blakean.com proudly presents, published today, a short piece on the wonderfully lascivious Australian Artist Norman Lindsay and his relationship with William Blake www.blakean.com/post/the-bla... #williamblake #normanlindsay #arthistory #beulah #threefold www.blakean.com/my-blog

Tedium’s just Another word For nothing left To do #vsspoem #vss365 #tedious [Apologies to Kris and Janice: We’re just not as interesting as you]

. . . - - - . . . I Rot With tedium At Work . . . - - - . . . #vsspoem #vss365 #tedious

City life’s too #easy Country life is too But go try stopping moving And trouble will come find you #vss365

You broke me. And I fled To this dark #labyrinth To cloak Mute Humiliation In its deepest corners. I so wanted to stop This acid Biting, Thickening, Hardening All I ever was. Yet you sent them here To laugh and strut their manhood. And now My horns are red #vss365

And if they don’t want anyone to know, quitters #quit quite quietly. 🥁 #vss365

Our thing Is weird You’ll never get it Our love is simply #Esoteric #vss365 #prompt

hahahaha... he's gonna soooooo wish he hadn't bent a knee to the stupidest man alive..

Jimi had been acting funny. At one point he politely asked to be excused from the conversation, looked up and blew a kiss to something hovering above him only he could see. We were puzzled, but just put it down to the acid. #vss365 #sky

I was #sweet when I was sixteen. Never again. #vss365

The #sky. Why the sky? He was on his back. He shouldn’t be there but … the sky was telling him to stay down and someone was counting. A distant crowd was roaring. Where was he? It was his biggest pay packet. He’d never boxed in a stadium before. He never would again. #vss365 #WIPsnips

#Maniacal: adjective describing an action taken as the spinning carnival inside your head goes airborne #vss365

‘OK, look. We can’t be here all day - your mother is waiting. Just have a #guess.’ Hungry Sphinx to Oedipus c. 1300BCE #vss365

That summer was hers. We’d rise at 10, dress and go out for breakfast. I’d sit pillion on her Vespa. She’d weave crazily through the traffic, all tall elegance and concentration, while I, - shorter, broader - held on for dear life. And I held her tight, knowing it excited her. #vespers #vss365

Crying. Not because I’m emotional but final edits always feel like I’m standing in a sandpit and trying to hide my footprints when I can no longer even see the sand. Then, once everything is completely dark, I realise I still have the bibliography to do. #WritingCommunity #Writers #pretendpanel

He’d died a recluse. No children. The medals said he’d been in Berlin. But the painting! Degenerate. Pigs in tuxedos, limbless soldiers, prostitutes - lurid, carnal hatred. He looked at the inscription on the back. Same military catalog number. Plunder. He began to sweat. #hbp69

Very literal take on the concept here #hbp68

I had to accept That for me, Somehow, Within this turning world Spinning its wide orbit around the sun Time had simply stopped Since she left. #turn #accept #vss365 #WIPSnips

Pals brigade. Within 30 seconds of the sound of a whistle the streets around the factory were emptied of a generation of men. We were too old to be there, but our sons were not. They were our names etched there, but we wished it was us who died in that field, not them. #hbp67

A new day, but one beyond time for the survivors. This was the moment when the man-made suns were finally loosed, burning continents and civilisations from the slate of history, while far-distant observers puzzled over how our remote planet could suddenly change colour from blue to red. #hbp66

Your smile Freshens me Like a cool glass of iced water On a hot summer’s day #fresh #vss365

Bitter hatred, Stale regrets: Love is the answer That stays #fresh #vss365

When people lose everything, sometimes they win just by surviving. Only to age and realize they never lost.

I can’t #stay here Between that place Salvaged, With grit and torment, From the disasters of the past, And this, Amongst the whispering shadows Of how I wanted it to be. This #schism Needs a Bridge, An engineering miracle In praise of failure. To work. #vss365

A bit late, but got there in the end The land IS A #map Inside the mind Of all that lives, Molten red and ethereal blue Circling In divine Comprehension Of futures past, Every thought Rippling In the Breeze Of Now #vss365

PPP (Professional Poet Protest) Mno! Please That is mnenough! Mnight I remind you That mneter is tough! The less said the better I think you’ll agree Some need reminding PACP (Poems Aren’t Crossword Puzzles) Happy Xmas to all puzzled poets and poetic puzzlers everywhere! ❤️🎄❤️ #vss365 #mnenomic

She swiped first (Or was it me?) Regardless, It was meant to be We started out With clever puns Then moved on quick To favourite songs, She bitched re. work (That damn glass ceiling!) I sympathised; We made plans That evening! But when we met How dull to see We simply had No #harmony #vss365

Harmony. 2k out from a 4k run I realised that my knee had gone The harm was done Behind the cap So I prayed my knee Would get me back 🥁 #vss365 #harmony