Steve Westby
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stevewestby.bsky.social
Steve Westby
@stevewestby.bsky.social
Psychologist (but not yours). Poet. Father of two. Progressive. Author of "By Way of Introduction" (https://a.co/d/dVigNQl)
Pinned
we need them
need the hope of saplings
the steady growth of youthful trees
the reminder of vitality
and finitude
that we too will offer
what shade we can
return to earth
and be reborn

#vss365
Copse
#mountainous

once, I thought
how lovely
a soul of peaks and valleys,
stone jutting up to heaven
from bare soil.

and then I reflected
on the cataclysmic pressures
required for such heights,

and shook my head,
and read my story.

#vss365
February 18, 2026 at 12:13 AM
Reposted by Steve Westby
My next book? 😆
February 15, 2026 at 11:43 PM
Key to Victory

maybe it's just
love applied stubbornly

when evil walks
these winter streets

#restoartprompt
February 16, 2026 at 12:10 AM
#Minuscule

what heals is not the grand,
not the laborious,
nor the masterful,

but tiny shifts
made habit.

each day begun
with some small turn
to show our pain

the care it missed.

#vss365
February 16, 2026 at 12:02 AM
Reposted by Steve Westby
“I’ve never protested before - but I just watched 4th & 5th grade kids run away from our own government.” 😕🇺🇸💔

(From @crindivisible.bsky.social )
February 15, 2026 at 12:45 AM
Bitter Taste

I wonder
if it’s like our first sip—

strong, unpleasant,
until the taste turns.

something in this
meeting of lips
brings unexpected joy,

and we look in the mirror
and say,

well.

I guess I’m a coffee drinker now.

#retroartprompt
February 14, 2026 at 1:41 PM
#Kiss

physicians say its odd,
this impulse to show affection
by sharing saliva.

but maybe that's the point:
not to shock our doctors,
but to open ourselves.

to share, to risk,
to come close enough

to mock death.

#vss365
February 14, 2026 at 1:32 PM
#Dark

sometimes the shadow
is its power

its sway dissolves
when we step close

and trace the edge
of shaded truth

#vss365
February 13, 2026 at 12:53 AM
Release the Arrow

the story is
the enemy so feared the longbow
they cut off middle fingers
thinking they'd be safe

and the English that they missed
displayed the central digit

a reminder told
to men in masks

#retroartprompt
February 13, 2026 at 12:45 AM
Reposted by Steve Westby
February 11, 2026 at 12:45 PM
Restore Order

yes.

but whose?

and what is lost?

#retroartprompt
February 11, 2026 at 12:03 PM
#Touch

we are starved
caging ourselves to boxes

light and words distract
while skin longs

and the heart peeks out
beneath the veil

#vss365
February 11, 2026 at 11:55 AM
Construction

machines tear into
stone and soil

the very coiled might
of monsters
channeled into metal
rending

and its echoes
shake the ground
stir the air
with not quite sound

as I think of California

#poetry
February 10, 2026 at 3:17 PM
Take a Stand

once I felt
love would be enough

that if you were wronged
you just loved
until love called to their heart
and they were changed

perhaps I was not
entirely wrong

but time has taught
that sometimes love

opposes

#retroartprompt
February 10, 2026 at 11:32 AM
#Ache

one day
it just appears

a shoulder, perhaps
once turning without complaint

now begins each day
with sullen reminder

I am here

I am here

I am here

#vss365
February 10, 2026 at 11:25 AM
Devastating Force

I know

we think of bombs
or hydraulics
or crushing gravity

but the worst they could do
is end me

while one soft glance
to tender heart

can drive a soul
as long as dream

#retroartprompt
February 10, 2026 at 2:28 AM
#Bones

winter peels back
the skin of things

branches once heavy
with verdant life
now stripped

not even blood or sinew
just soft greys and white

and I stare at them
and see

fate

#vss365
February 10, 2026 at 1:59 AM
Sacred City

Hollywood acts as though
it is wood and stone, hidden
and discovered

when actually
it is wood
and stone

hidden

and discovered

within

#retroartprompt
February 8, 2026 at 4:32 PM
#Pale

my father
would have turned 90

today makes me wonder
if his spirit grows paler

or merely his voice softer
as his presence
infuses
more and more of me

#vss365
February 8, 2026 at 4:10 PM
February 8, 2026 at 3:24 PM
Price to Pay

we think mostly
of absence
of poverty
of loss

and not of reaction
what others receive

thus misery endures
through perceptions
we borrowed

from famine
and war

instead of the bounty
with tables
of plenty

#retroartprompt
February 7, 2026 at 9:31 PM
#Blood

it stains
horribly
because its whole function
is to leave of itself
on all it touches

like bandages

like souls

#vss365
February 7, 2026 at 9:07 PM
Our Fate

we think of darkness
death and taxes
as our only ultimate certainties

but what if
that's all mistaken,
an error of survival wiring
born to focus us on threat

and really
at the end of everything

there's joy

#retroartprompt
February 6, 2026 at 5:02 PM
#Wound

there are wounds of agony
ones that point to story
craving to be heard

and others that just...
say stuff

not because it’s their truth
but because the injury speaks only
the syntax of the repeat button

to keep us safe

#vss365
February 6, 2026 at 1:01 PM
Therapy

listen, just
don't overthink this

find some piece of you
to love

shower it with kindness
each morning

until at last it glows
and feels whole

then repeat

#poetry
February 5, 2026 at 6:23 PM