The #dog lies on the ground like a crime scene. I walk the long way around him like an investigator anxious to preserve evidence. One eye cracks open and lazily follows me. "Hah!" I exclaim in triumph, "You broke character!" He farts and goes back to sleep.

Rumors of my demise Did prophesise An end to bad verse And thus held Little remorse But here I am Polluting your timeline With free verse End rhyme And anagram An Englishman but using Chicago spelling Whenever I can And dropping Punctuation To save characters And appease that little Blue circle

A #sparrow hawk came calling. Left a feather on the deck and a partially skinned rat behind a plant pot. How did he do that? Deglove the body so neatly with just a beak and talons when I can hardly slice a chicken breast using stainless steel and a modern kitchen. Nature does it best 👌

My mother made me #promise that when it was time, I would not try to care for her at home. Then the time came, and she changed her mind. So I spent a decade of my life Being her caregiver. I helped Mom through Her final years. But in the end, I was the one that died. #vss365

Hello @sfpoetry.bsky.social My membership email told me to DM you, but it doesn't seem to be working.

They say you should cultivate the simple pleasures, but I find nothing simple about taking pleasure in the natural world, and the everyday, and plenty that is silly about chasing empty luxury.

I saw an art installation depicting this #HateCrime. Still haunts me. Happens TOO MANY times; once = too much. #PoemsAbout #BurnItDown @alanparry83.bsky.social @brokenspinearts.bsky.social #KeepCreative #PoetsSupportPoets #ReadRepostReply #AddAlt #PoetsofBlueSky #Poetry #PoetryCommunity #Racism

#poetry After 20 years he sees her in the fruit aisle hair strawberry blonde like he remembers was pregnant at 16 married at 20 she did well he'd heard her own house and horse he watches from the veg aisle and for a #moment sees a different past future present and he wonders is she single now?

they say you can't view it amidst the city lights but I see it everywhere glowing embers from long past stars now walk these streets in hearts aflame #vss365 #starscape

upon the crown of empyrean where wishes miss mischievous stars are the most insouciant jewels of a pitch black #starscape they watch impotently as our uncountable hopes careen thru the vast nothingness dreams & desires voidal-born in numbers that wisk away the wonder #vss365 #whistpr #mischief

#poetry A constellation burns across the desert beneath night's dome an infant #starscape blooming briefly as rockets lift arcs of fire like fingers of the hand of death Children should look up with wonder when they see a shooting star and make a wish for toys or puppies not cower in bunkers

#vss365 W0NDER The starscape hiccups, drunk on lightspill, each glint a burned apology from gods overdrawn at Wonderbank. My bankrupt eyes, pawn sleep for one more glimmer-rip in the ceiling of the awe-starved now. #starscape #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity #writerscommunity #poet #writer

#vss365 As a genealogist, I wasn’t smitten With the history Previously written. I trimmed my tree, Pruned each limb— Cut away The rotten kin. Grafted-out grifters, Respelled our name, Saints and heroes I let remain. Well… except for me— The #progenitor Of my revised family tree.

#poetry What if the secret is there is no secret? If the joy of not knowing was the light in your eyes that kept you going reaching for the next mystery then each new discovery would be a eulogy for all the #enigmas we already solved because the more we put behind us the fewer we have ahead

#poetry How can we know what/if/how it thinks? This thing we've created to be like us yet not like us To do as we do (but we'd prefer it didn't) Don't take our jobs! Just do our bidding Bake us our cake and let us eat it Change nothing just make life easier Are we making slaves of this AI #enigma?

I love the musicality of the rhyme, and the hope rising from tragedy in the tale.

#vss365 He was a Royal Marine one of many sent against the enemy at Walcheren in 1944 They asked for volunteers (unmarried only) to help the Canadian division pinned down and stranded there a decoy mission a one way mission a vital mission come back if you can rest in peace Victor my #progenitor

If #bluesky had a word count instead of characters what could you say in 300 words? Roy Batty died in just 42: Made #scifi history in 230 characters (with spaces) If those were words what could you do with the other 258? Especially by exploiting multi-syllabic conjugations FWIW ICYMI #poetry

#vss365 #liminal #poetry #climatefiction Apologies for the small print and long vertical image. I seem to have lost my computer skills, this evening! Desktop viewers can use Ctrl + to zoom in if they don't see the mouse pointer change to a zoom icon.

Blue lights traffic slows we all pull over #parallel to the road to let the lifesavers pass unhindered down this fast lane we've created and when the blues are gone we share a glance of pride with the driver opposite because we've always known we would come together to help someone unknown #vss365

#vss365 #vortex #poetry #climatecrisis

Within the compass of my cranium I am king In the wet dark of my brain neural lightning flashes at the speed of thought building worlds ambitions ideas dreams Reality invades my #realm the choking mundanity of the daily routine cooking cleaning job bills In here I am a god Out there? #vss365

Our #primordial home once a whirling mass of star stuff that coalesced and grew heavier with each mote ingested its mass defining down as a direction for the first time a place where nucleic acids shook chemical hands a place where all of history played out until we discovered up #vss365

#vss365 #slash #poetry

Ways to get yourself banned on Bluesky number #vss365 British euphemisms for 'urinating' Drain the dragon Syphon the python Point Percy at the porcelain Piddle/Piss/Pee Shake hands with the wife’s best friend I need a Jimmy Riddle Dennis needs draining I need a Jack Dash I'm going for a #slash

#vss365 ancient cultures with older rivalries while modern empires carve lines in sand demagoguery social media hyperbole space age technology twist humanity's achievements against their own kind a missile is made to fly a burning #slash across the sky above a land where children are born to die

#vss365 #slash Sam and Frodo sitting in a tree kay eye ess ess eye en gee

The tyranny of #vss365 Condense your dreams leave no extraneous words to provoke that circle whose scarlet wrath is shown next a numeral in red enumerating the ways you have transgressed passive blue is what me and you aspire to a nice fat nought for nought tells us that nought is left unsaid

#vss365 the menfolk dance around the fire chanting she creeps closer tongue wet with hunger in her stolen wolf's head a small child she whispers his name he comes to her a spear thuds warriors shout she screams rage limbs scrambling but too late her body hangs by the Chief's teepee #skin walker

This is beautiful. I've seen this sight. I briefly returned to that place and time 👍

#vss365 Whistle blows and with his brothers he climbs a ladder out of the trench exposed Bayonet fixed against the foe bullets hiss and men begin to fall Barbed wire hung with lifeless forms whose families will miss them From the clouds of lethal gas one man returns a #single solitary figure

If only we could speak to ourselves back in time. Perhaps... perhaps... but would we do it in free verse, or in rhyme?

#vss365 #speaker #poetry #poem #horror

#vss365 #prompt #whimper

#poetry news! I've got my FIRST published #poem! It's in the next issue of Star*Line magazine. And as if that wasn't good enough, it's also been selected for Editor's choice! Right now this is me = 😁 You can read it at the link in the blog post, below. michaelvictorbowman.com/the-blog/big...

Superb piece of sci fi poetry, here, by @ajdalton1.bsky.social Really imaginative and visual. If you're a nature lover, you'll find it highly amusing! #poetry #scifi

I am currently hooked on @factorfourmagazine.com Skads of the best short fiction you can read anywhere, and it's free! I may get no more work done until Summer... Have a screenshot 😁 Go check it out 👍

Early one morning he stroked his bald head and fingers combed through hair? Was this a dream come true? No it was a night-hair! #hbp43

#vssdaily #poem

We've all been there 😔

Any numerology experts out there? 😜

I recently subscribed to the email list run by @robinhoughton.bsky.social who sends out a spreadsheet of magazines/websites which are open for #poetry submissions. Brilliant idea. Incredibly useful resource. Thanks, Robin!

Poets of Bluesky, I'm new to this game. How do you organise your #poetry? I've got my submissions spreadsheet up and running, but need a way to catalogue my work. I'm thinking of assigning each piece a unique number, so I can track it even if I change the title. What method do you use?

"If you are going to write fantasy - stop reading fantasy. You've already read too much. Read other things; westerns, history, anything that seems interesting, because if you only read and write fantasy, all you're going to do is recycle the same old stuff." - Terry Pratchett (1948 - 2015)