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Reposted by David Thorne

Jen Thorne

@jenthorne.bsky.social

#vss365 #regret
#BlueSkyRelay #precursor
#BlueSkyRelay

@blueskyrelay.bsky.social
@poetguygabe.bsky.social

On Becoming

I was a wildfire once,
feeding on bad love and bitter medicine,
torching every bridge I could find.
Mistaking rebellion for breath;
survival dressed as motion.

I used to fear those older selves.
The girl who was all teeth and temper,
the one who chose wrong doors
just to hear the hinges scream.
But they were precursors.
Each one a necessary bruise,
a dark stitch in the fabric.

I don’t regret them.
Regret is for stories that end,
for fires that leave only ash.
Mine didn’t.
I am the heat that remains.
Built from the missteps,
tempered by the flaws,
shaky ground, bound tight by roots
a base for something strong
to grow.

December 18, 2025 at 11:03 PM

David Thorne

@darthorne.bsky.social

@blueskyrelay.bsky.social @poetguygabe.bsky.social

A bit of a stretch 🙂

#BlueSkyRelay #precursor

Pre-Curser

This is going to be shit
I won’t have any fun
I should have stayed at home tonight.
I didn’t want to come.

I bloody hate these people.
Elizabeth’s a bore.
Peter should be on a list.
And Martin’s just a chore.

I won’t be fucking social.
I’d rather be in bed.
I can’t be arsed with stuff.
It does me in the head.

-

That was really something.
An awesome night, you know.
We should see those friends more often.
I’m glad I made you go.

December 18, 2025 at 7:31 PM

David Thorne

@darthorne.bsky.social

@annemorrigan.bsky.social

I saw you that night
A glimmer of hope reborn
I love you for that.

#haikufeels #prompt

December 18, 2025 at 1:01 PM

Reposted by David Thorne

Anne

@annemorrigan.bsky.social

sup feelsfam
today's #haikufeels #prompt is

glimmer

December 18, 2025 at 11:01 AM

Reposted by David Thorne

Dave Ashley

@daveashleypoet.bsky.social

#promptcombo #dilemmas/decisions #poem #freeverse #vss365 #regrets
@hool415.bsky.social

December 18, 2025 at 9:36 AM

Reposted by David Thorne

Julian (Hool)

@hool415.bsky.social

Hullo @rfsmith.bsky.social @dragonslayerma.bsky.social @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social @victoriaspires.bsky.social All welcome, tag me @hool415.bsky.social and use as well #promptcombo #dilemmas/decisions **TILL 5pm FRIDAY!!**
(NB The four-legged one is doing ok currently with some
new meds…)🤞

Dilemmas/Decisions

Most I find easy:
avoiding that reliably keen,
slightly asthmatic,
tipsy-secretary
at the office party;

or giving up on God,
even after much knee-work
on my own part
and despite this once dutiful fan’s
cold and lengthy
stage-door loitering.

I hug so often
my decade-old dog,
already a great retriever of chronic disease,
I don’t know
if this overwhelming love
will ever contort enough
to…
some days I feel like a liberal U.S.
prison governor:
working breezily,
trying to be ignorant
of the stayed machinery
forever
my wretched and wholehearted
responsibility.

December 14, 2025 at 9:03 PM

David Thorne

@darthorne.bsky.social

@po3try.bsky.social

My catch up poem. I love the Nordic characters too much not to.

#RetroArtPrompt #qaqqaq #Krampus #Jólakötturinn #wassail @artbyseranya.bsky.social

Yule Hunt

As Krampus went a’wassailing
Around the qaqqaq, cold.
He came upon jólakötturinn
A wonder to behold.

He tiptoed softly through the den
To dodge the yule cat’s ire
For he had not received a gift
Of stockings or attire.

But then a child in his sack
Let out a mournful cry
And Krampus stood before the beast
As it opened up an eye.

Up qaqqaq and down qinngua
The festive feline chased
Until at once a hut appeared
The perfect hiding place.

Krampus, soon, would know his fault
I think you will agree,
For he wandered into Grýla’s den
And he’s just in time for tea.

December 18, 2025 at 11:34 AM

David Thorne

@darthorne.bsky.social

I reserve the right to make a maudlin poem about how much I do regret stuff when I feel less chipper and Christmasy.
@paintbuywords.bsky.social

#vss365 #prompt #regret

No Re-dos

My children asked the other day
What do I regret?
I sat them both upon my knee
And told them, “Nothing yet.”

I could have done things differently
If I were me back then.
But all my missteps led to you,
So I’d do them all again.

December 18, 2025 at 10:40 AM

Reposted by David Thorne

Jen Thorne

@jenthorne.bsky.social

I wish I'd had time to do poems for more of the #RetroArtPrompt list this week, there were some really good prompts and I have several half-finished attempts, but at least I've managed one!

#reflections #poetry #painting #life
@po3try.bsky.social
@artbyseranya.bsky.social

Reflection

I paint the water as memory:
a stroke of silver,
a ripple that bends the truth
without breaking it.

The trick is suggestion, not precision.
The softened edge,
a hue leaning too far into blue,
a shimmer insisting on light
where the world is shadow.

Reflections are beautiful liars.
They promise fidelity
yet tilt the jawline,
stretch the sky,
making the tree lean
with a secret weight.
I paint them wrong
to be believed.

The eye accepts the lie
by choice; it knows
that mirrors, lakes, and glass
are rehearsals
for the self we hope to see.

How like living this is,
rendering ourselves to others
in shimmering strokes,
convincing,
never quite aligned.

A portrait of the almost,
the nearly true,
the reflection that teaches us
how fragile the real can be.

December 18, 2025 at 10:10 AM

David Thorne

@darthorne.bsky.social

@po3try.bsky.social I might have to go back and do the rest. I'm liking these.

#RetroArtPrompt #reflections @artbyseranya.bsky.social

The Spit of Me

They all say it.
One look is all it takes.
Poor sod.

I hoped he’d take after her.
She’s the beauty; I’m… not.

I want to help him,
Stop him from making my mistakes.
But he’s as stubborn as me too.

She says I’m not broken,
But she only sees the wrapping.
She doesn’t hear the broken glass within.

I need to see, well, him,
But I can’t.
I just see the spit of me.

Me, the spit of my dad.

Poor sod.

December 18, 2025 at 10:18 AM

David Thorne

@darthorne.bsky.social

When there isn't a word. Make one.

@ourpoetryx.bsky.social
#OurPoetryX #poetry #productive

nofuctivity
/ˌnəʊfʌkˈtɪvɪti /
noun

The state or quality of being compelled by external forces to
perform a task for which the individual has no enthusiasm
or intrinsic motivation. Often expressed as minimal effort
sustained just above the threshold of reprimand.

May be measured, colloquially as output per unit of shits given.

“The supervisor’s managerial style increased nofuctivity by
sixty percent across all sectors.”

See also: cursory output, perfunctory, dysfunctional

December 18, 2025 at 10:09 AM

David Thorne

@darthorne.bsky.social

@blueskypoetry.bsky.social

Gifts.

#BlueSkyPoetry #BSPP48

#poetry #poetrycommunity #frayedribbon

Gifts

She keeps them in the wardrobe,
the gifts she meant for you.
Golden, pristine wrapping,
baby blue ribbons.

I sometimes see her looking;
she sees you opening them
in a Christmas long ago,
a Christmas that never was.

It was a cold year, that year,
the coldest I remember.
There was no dinner,
no songs sung, only tears cried.

I have forgotten what’s in them,
those gifts left that saw no tree.
I ask her from time to time;
she always remembers.

December 18, 2025 at 10:03 AM

Reposted by David Thorne

Jan (#vss365 host Dec 16-31)

@paintbuywords.bsky.social

#vss365 #prompt for

December 18, 2025 is #Regret

A human trait
I don’t think cats feel it
Or dogs
Maybe cows
They just stare in midair
Stuck in literal shit
Knowing they can’t even do anything to end it

If you ask me

December 18, 2025 at 8:03 AM

Reposted by David Thorne

Jen Thorne

@jenthorne.bsky.social

I've been trying to get a #petrarchan to work all week, and I finally think I've done it for today's #dilemmas/decisions #promptcombo

Thanks to @hool415.bsky.social for the prompt and to @daveashleypoet.bsky.social for the form.

Stalled

I freeze where familiar pavements meet,
Two equal roads that circle back to home,
Familiar paths lie safe when I’m alone,
Yet choice itself becomes a jagged beat.
My lungs revolt, each breath a broken sheet,
My hands shake hard, my pulse begins to roam,
The world tilts sharp; I’m caged within its dome,
And silence hammers panic’s cruel repeat.

Sometimes he comes, my anchor in the storm,
His hand that steadies tremor in my chest,
Guiding me from the corner’s rigid form.
No path is worse, no path is more or less,
But sameness shatters, choice becomes a storm,
That traps my body in my mind’s distress.

December 17, 2025 at 10:20 PM

Reposted by David Thorne

Malachy Moran

@malformed-poetry.bsky.social

Woohoo!!! My #poem “ryegrass” is available now on Sublunary Review!!

I’m really excited, this is one of my favorites from my unpublished collection.

www.sublunaryreview.com/home/ryegrass

ryegrass — Sublunary Review

A poem by Malachy Moran

www.sublunaryreview.com

December 17, 2025 at 2:57 PM

Reposted by David Thorne

Eric

@madp03t.bsky.social

Something leaves,
then pulled back it is.
What was settled rises,
orders turned around.
Into older motion the body slips.
Habits step forward,
decisions thinning behind them.
Finished, it seemed,
undone it becomes.

#vss365 #poetry #prompt #Recall #5amwritersclub #writing

December 17, 2025 at 1:14 PM

David Thorne

@darthorne.bsky.social

@marcialynnpaul.bsky.social thank you for the reposts 👍

December 17, 2025 at 9:49 PM

David Thorne

@darthorne.bsky.social

@annemorrigan.bsky.social

As I leave my loves
I wish you long, happy lives
But all lights will dim

#Haikufeels #poetry

December 17, 2025 at 9:47 PM

Reposted by David Thorne

😻 m i k e ❤️‍🔥

@po3try.bsky.social

hello friends, welcome to #RetroArtPrompt week 20 for dec 13th - 19th

huge thanks to Nya (@artbyseranya.bsky.social) for letting me host this week!

it's snowfalltime, so let's go off-piste with our words!
(links and info daily)

#RAPwinner shall best nail the theme “warm winter chills”

enjoy! <3