counter/field
@counterfield.bsky.social
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Poetry & field notes New poems Wednesdays
New poem: "Side Effects" 'The screen shows a box of medication above lines of small script. The voice says âAzartane. Side effects may include dizziness, nausea, confusion, and semantics.â'
stygian-muse.com/side-effects/
about 5 hours ago
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5
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New poem: "Ritual" 'The bowl is filled with ash. The ash holds the incense. The incense turns to ash. Your ashen hair.'
stygian-muse.com/ritual/
15 days ago
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New poem: "Terminal Reflection" 'I move along the quiet concourse toward the darkened food court, the terrazzo floor catching a faint sheen under the after-hours lighting.'
stygian-muse.com/terminal-ref...
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Terminal Reflection - counter/field
In the quiet of a late terminal, small movements and reflections no longer align as they should.
https://stygian-muse.com/terminal-reflection/
25 days ago
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6
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The clinical register holds as long as it can, until the unfiltered voice breaks through.
29 days ago
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New poem: "Sine Qua Non" 'It is the reason the lungs heave, why the heart squeezes a turbulence into the arteries, what the brain bends itself toward, and craves above all else, the sine qua non of life and thought.'
stygian-muse.com/sine-qua-non/
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Sine Qua Non - counter/field
In the quiet machinery of a hospital room, breath becomes the only measure that matters. Monitors, pressure, oxygen, and a single circle of light hold the body in place while language begins to break ...
https://stygian-muse.com/sine-qua-non/
about 1 month ago
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Updated the Start Here page on the blog today. Just making the field a bit clearer for new readers.
stygian-muse.com/start-here-o...
about 1 month ago
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Posted a reflection on the last two pieces and the structural pivot ahead.
stygian-muse.com/3467-2/
about 1 month ago
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The aim for this piece was to let observation taper into unease without announcing the transition.
stygian-muse.com/basement-lev...
about 1 month ago
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New Poem: "Basement Level Two" 'My footsteps echo before the drone absorbs them, and they are gone.'
stygian-muse.com/basement-lev...
Links in bio
about 1 month ago
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I wrote this one by stacking menace onto stillness until it moved.
stygian-muse.com/the-last-bus/
about 1 month ago
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New Poem: "The Last Bus" 'Something in me contracts and the dark along the edges of light seems wider.'
stygian-muse.com/the-last-bus/
#poetry
#stillness
#night
counter/field: poems, prose, and observations.
about 2 months ago
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A longer update on counter/field this morning â notes, maps, and some broader shifts.
stygian-muse.com/november-not...
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November Notes: A descent - counter/field
Itâs been a while since the last big update and quite a lot has changed. First off, you may have noticed that the site is looking visually cleaner; Iâve made sure that each poem has an image and the p...
https://stygian-muse.com/november-notes-a-descent/
about 2 months ago
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One unexpected thing about running a poetry blog is seeing where readers appear from. Yesterday it was Ukraine. Today it was Costa Rica. Poems travel in odd ways.
about 2 months ago
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New reflection: On Attention â Vale Ellen Bryant Voigt. A short essay on precision, discipline, and what syntax can teach about seeing.
stygian-muse.com/on-attention...
#poetry
#craft
#EllenBryantVoigt
#writing
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On Attention: Vale Ellen Bryant Voigt - counter/field
âRuthless attention,â Voigt called it â the discipline to see what is there and what is not. Whether describing a difficult scene or a troubling interior state, she believed accuracy itself could be a...
https://stygian-muse.com/on-attention-vale-ellen-bryant-voigt/
about 2 months ago
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Vale Ellen Bryant Voigt - without peer in attention to detail.
add a skeleton here at some point
2 months ago
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New post: "Field Notes Between Storms" It contains a new poem: 'Goanna' (no, it's not about goannas, but there's one in it). Also, there are a couple of links, and a subscriber update.
#poetry
#update
#collage
stygian-muse.com/field-notes-...
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Field Notes between Storms - counter/field
If you enjoyed âAfter the Stormâ, you might like Day-Possum, Morning River Notes, or A Tiny Deity. They all involve observation and a positive emotional turn. Hereâs something I wrote as a craft exerc...
https://stygian-muse.com/field-notes-between-storms/
2 months ago
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I just updated my poetry homepage and it's looking a little bit fancy now. I'm not a fan of generic photos or AI images, so I do it by hand. It takes longer but it's more punk.
#poetry
#collage
stygian-muse.com
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counter/field - Poems, prose, and observations
Counter/Field is a poetry blog tracing recursion, collapse, and stillnessâwhere system-voices fracture and memory holds its quiet ground.
https://stygian-muse.com/
2 months ago
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11
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A new poem: "After the Storm" 'The sky is released and changed. An orange haze rises from the horizon to blend with the delicate violet-blue of now-quiescent clouds and a single crow flies south to north.'
#poetry
#stillness
#ritual
Read the full poem here:
stygian-muse.com/after-the-st...
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After the Storm - counter/field
A poem set in the afternoon heat, where humidity climbs and the sky darkens. A bank of pewter cloud muscles across the horizon from the south. Wind rises through the square as a man begins strange ges...
https://stygian-muse.com/after-the-storm/
2 months ago
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Here's a quiet poem from the archive: "The Oars, Forgotten". 'The grass is rough underfoot as I sit in an old lawn chair by the river. Birdsong swells: mynahs, harsh crows, and the peep, peep of a river-bird I cannot see.'
#poetry
#stillness
#observation
stygian-muse.com/the-oars-for...
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The Oars, Forgotten - counter/field
An observational poem: rowers adrift mid-river, oars forgotten, a magpie watching in the afternoon stillness.
https://stygian-muse.com/the-oars-forgotten2/
2 months ago
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I revisited a local spot of great sadness recently and took notes. Twice. I now have one good line and a resonant metaphor that I don't know what to do with. I'm unsure whether that place haunts me or if it's actually the other way around.
#poetry
#writing
2 months ago
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After stillness comes strangeness. 'I heard her in the next room but when I walked in, she wasnât there there were only echoes.' Poem: "The Beforetimes"
#poetry
#poetrycommunity
#stillness
#surreal
stygian-muse.com/the-beforeti...
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The Beforetimes - counter/field
In the cooking room, the kettle begins to sing, and her voice answers â calling a name I no longer trust belongs to me.
https://stygian-muse.com/the-beforetimes/
2 months ago
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Thanks, Shevek!! It's always nice to see my poems and images resonating with people, so I am chuffed to no end.
#poetry
#poetrycommunity
#collage
add a skeleton here at some point
3 months ago
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The river is the colour of tea, made with the slightest dash of milk: silt-clouded. Poem: 'A Tiny Deity'
#poetry
#stillness
#poetrycommunity
#river
stygian-muse.com/a-tiny-deity/
3 months ago
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In the mind, splintersâ remembered glances, words; small, piercing betrayals; have lodged, are lodgersâ little hooks; they refuse to leave. Poem: 'Little Hooks'. Link in bio.
#poetry
3 months ago
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I write
#poetry
3 months ago
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Poems have minds of their own. Last night, voices from a celebration by the river slipped into a poetry craft exercise, and the poem that emerged travelled farther than I expected â a bit like counter/field itself, I suppose.
3 months ago
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Collage: 'Bitch; A Reflection'. Link in bio.
3 months ago
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14
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After the art gallery and the museum, past the lightâs edge and into a hush, the rough concrete path carries me.
#poetry
stygian-muse.com/sodium-zone/
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Sodium Zone - counter/field
City bridge after hours: mattress, tent, algae-slick rocks. The light cuts, metal scrapes, light returnsâand the scene holds.
https://stygian-muse.com/sodium-zone/
3 months ago
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#poetry
3 months ago
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where water stifles the light, and presses an excess of nitrogen into the bloodâ and waits.
#poetry
stygian-muse.com/whalesong/
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Whalesong - counter/field
In the concrete tunnel between the library and the theatre, fibreglass whales hang from steel cables, their recorded song groaning through the space. At night it becomes a gauntlet. But today, another...
https://stygian-muse.com/whalesong/
3 months ago
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Bitch; a reflection.
www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
#poetry
3 months ago
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In the mind, a few splintersâ memories of glances, of words: small, piercing betrayalsâ have lodged, are lodgers. Little hooks: they refuse to leave.
#poetry
3 months ago
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Blogs are weird. Nobody reads your stuff, then all of a sudden, some dude in India is saying "Hey, I like your poem about a possum eating a mango." It's a nice feeling.
#poetry
4 months ago
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A poem about a possum (well, some of it): But now, in the pulp-sweet air, the cats are gone, the birds, the tree, even the sky and the hot sunâ all gone; now there is only a sweet greenness, a mangoâ only mango.
#poetry
4 months ago
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22
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People often complain about The System, but The System knows best... The system is Optimal. Inputs, limited as they are, do not register the documented necessity of upward reallocation and the requirement to off-board non-performing units.
#poetry
stygian-muse.com/compliance-i...
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Compliance is Efficiency - counter/field
A doctrine-voice poem where the system audits, cascades, and moves non-performing units below gradeâcold recursion to a chilling clinch.
https://stygian-muse.com/compliance-is-efficiency/
4 months ago
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9
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in the half-light the ferry's fog-horn soundsâ a dog howls cool morning breeze along the riverâ the scent of jasmine a rustling flashâ on the railing: a noisy mynah from the topmost branch of the tallest gum treeâ a magpie's call
#poetry
#haiku
4 months ago
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18
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A single-sentence drill: Because the shells are close, I stride toward the bus stop, shivering in the dim light, the houses boarded up or bombedâ although I donât look hard enough to tell: on the sidewalk, I see enoughâ a mangled bike, a shattered helmet.
#poetry
4 months ago
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13
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A new piece today: "Grass slopes down to a sand flat: its surface ribbed with frozen waves, crisp-edged in the sun." Full poem: 'A Tiny Deity'
stygian-muse.com/a-tiny-deity/
#poetry
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A Tiny Deity - counter/field
A poem set at the riverâs edge in spring, a child lifts fruit into sunlightâan ordinary act that becomes creation, renewal, and wonder.
https://stygian-muse.com/a-tiny-deity/
4 months ago
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10
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I recently started a poetry blog. Today I noticed that someone copied one of my pieces and pasted it into a post of their own, without attribution. Has this happened to anyone else? I made a comment asking for an attribution but did not report it. It's pretty weird.
#blog
#blogging
4 months ago
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10
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A flash fiction piece on small childhood betrayals and how they ripple. âTom kept an eye on the other kids, grouped in tribes, wary of trouble.â
#flashfiction
#fiction
#writingcommunity
#writing
#shortprose
stygian-muse.com/deep-blue-sky/
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Deep Blue Sky - counter/field
A reflective flash piece: childhood friendship, betrayal, and a blue sky that lingers long after the moment.
https://stygian-muse.com/deep-blue-sky/
4 months ago
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4
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You said: why do you treat me like this I said: treatment is not an option You said: a treaty is a meeting of minds The waiter said: who are you talking to
#poetry
stygian-muse.com/in-denpasar/
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In Denpasar - counter/field
A fractured poem: memory splinters in a hotel dining room, voices overlapping until they canât be separated.
https://stygian-muse.com/in-denpasar/
4 months ago
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10
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I push. The stone shifts. I push again. There is a reason for everything, I suppose, even Unreason. I push. The stone shifts. I push again.
#poetry
stygian-muse.com/the-hill/
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The Hill - counter/field
A mythic poem of endurance: stone, shoulder, and sun in relentless dialogue with gravity and persistence.
https://stygian-muse.com/the-hill/
4 months ago
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13
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A system-voice poem: Orwellian, a bit Sci-Fi and, imho, fun: The enemy is ever-present, its design is to kill, And its means is through the sowing of chaos, for It is through chaos that Order is annihilated, And only through Order is survival maintained.
#poetry
stygian-muse.com/nonexistence...
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Nonexistence is Mandatory - counter/field
A system-voice poem: the enemy contaminates order, excision demanded, survival rewritten as nonexistence.
https://stygian-muse.com/nonexistence-is-mandatory/
4 months ago
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3
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The loom stands empty. I wrap a sinewy thread around the loom and pull it tight. My vows are like this; there is no slack.
#poetry
stygian-muse.com/gordian-knot/
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Gordian Knot - counter/field
It's mythic, it's recursive, it's weird, it's dark ... I tug on the spooled threads and start to work. The loom stands empty. I wrap a sinewy thread around the loom and pull it tight. My vows are like...
https://stygian-muse.com/gordian-knot/
4 months ago
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9
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Once, when I walked, the earth would list, and storms make way for my coming.
#poetry
link to full poem in comments
4 months ago
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An excerpt from today's piece: A ringtail possum, cat-nervous, scurries along the powerline to the mango tree, in thrall to the scent that, in the full light of dayâ has drawn it out of hiding, to here, now.
#poetry
4 months ago
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There are no words for this feelingâ broken chair empty cardboard box lost in a strange city. I sit, and wait for the words to come they donât
#poetry
4 months ago
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A syntax experiment in the outsider tradition. Warning: vivid, unsettling imagery: visions confirm when i was sleeping last week ten dog walkers broke into my apartment and put microchip transmitters in my eyes they are trying to see what i see but they do not have the second sight
#poetry
4 months ago
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The words were lithe, slipping out of mind as soon as they entered and in their wake was a bafflement, a blue void that with absence spoke volumes, and its blueness was my mind
#poetry
4 months ago
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Her eyes lift to the window, mapped with raindropsâ one drop among many is sliding a jagged route down the glass.
#poetry
4 months ago
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