Merril D. Smith
LightNews LightNews
banner
merrildsmith.bsky.social
Merril D. Smith
@merrildsmith.bsky.social
1.1K followers 780 following 3.2K posts
Poet, Historian, Lover of river walks and the sea. Cat Lady. Poetry Collection: River Ghosts (Nightingale & Sparrow Press) New Poetry Collection: Held Inside the Folds of Time (Jane's Studio Press).
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
merrildsmith.bsky.social
Merril D. Smith @merrildsmith.bsky.social · 7d
Good morning! A poem for #PoemsAbout #LockedDoors. This is a revision of an old poem. Thank you, as always to @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk for these weekly prompts!
Poem Threshold The massive door has always been locked until now it stands slightly open like parted lips whispering yes. You imagine a turquoise sky, peach sorbet clouds— the opposite of this grey-shrouded world. You touch the weathered wood dotted with knotted eyes, wonder how far eternity is-- how wide? How deep? But there is the latch, undone, there is the handle, so, you inhale, exhale, and pull-- a sea-salt breath brushes your skin as you step over the sill. No more doors. No more locks. This is where your life begins.
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
poetryman1.bsky.social
Here's to beautiful reading on an ugly grey wet day where I am!!😀🖐 All the best to Alan and everyone!! 😄

@alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk

#desire #poemsabout #poetry
November 14, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
fiftywords.bsky.social
Roman Emperor Hadrian loved a young man named Antinous. History turned their passion into rumour #PoemsAbout #Desire @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk
A God of Flesh and Marble (Hadrian remembers Antinous) They say we used to canoodle; a word too soft for the solemn silk of your body folded into mine. Too coy for the way your breath halted my empire. They don't say love, not for men like us draped in marble and consequence. Unly rumours, reliefs, a glint in the eye of a broken statue. Only gods dare name it. You, river-born and taken by river, drowned not in current but in the undertow of politics, prophecy, or my own fearful need. I built cities from your absence. They deny our love. But they weren't there when the world slipped from your wet, unbreathing mouth.
November 14, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
johnchmura.bsky.social
#PoemsAbout #Desire
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
I will post a reading in the comments.
DESIRE, OF A MID-MORNING DRIVE Stormy the morning after a fretful evening, in the front yard warming up the Avalanche, got to pay a bill overdue in town. Several miles down the county road needled branches litter and deer on the shoulder dead, tolling the vulture’s dinner bell. Caffeine or the sugar kick in like a post-mortem spasm. I feel the face of desire wizen, a snarl I savor, broth of bone on canines and missing molars. Crossing the double line eyes closed pegging the needle. The engine pings. Idiot sensors scream.
November 14, 2025 at 6:16 AM
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
rburrows.bsky.social
More snails I’m afraid! #PoemsAbout #Desire @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk Happy Friday!
#parasite #poetry
November 14, 2025 at 6:35 AM
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
sueimnw.bsky.social
For this week's #PoemsAbout #Desire with thanks to @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk and all those participating.
November 14, 2025 at 7:00 AM
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
paulwritespoems.bsky.social
For #PoemsAbout #Desire this is a piece called ‘A Snake Sheds Its Skin In Eden’.

Will catch up later with others work.

@thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk
A Snake Sheds Its Skin In Eden I watch the saliva-slick river of devilbright pomegranate juice snake down the canyons of her face. Forbidden fruit. Her flesh, plucked from the harp of my rib— naked, as my maker is brutal. Soft. Cold. Prickled. Unforbidden fruit, mine to savour. Are you staring too? Are you staring too? Are you? I can’t hear you over lust in your breath and gritchurn of teeth. Admire the pinnacle of creation. I hold the power of the divine, your new God. A snake writhes. Ecdysis in motion. Beasts, ever-changing— succumb to temptation, gorge yourself.
November 14, 2025 at 7:13 AM
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social
For #poemsabout #desire @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk Three faces of desire:
Allow Me to see the skull in your passion the teeth in your desire to caress the bones of your delight the sinews of your breath to delve the niches of longing the cleft of floods My Freezing Desire for you clichés my words. We shiver as we touch. Each caress brings striations of ice over skin, blood bubbles to the surface. Our cold air stretches our lungs makes it hard to breathe. My body is alabaster, yours marble. Sex is a fridge turned up highest. Someday we must defrost. We Must Damage Each to feel anything for one another. I take this razor and cut your cheek until it bleeds. You reply with a needles stab in my leg. The blood drips as we continue our intimate conversation. Clearly this is most intense love and desire.
November 14, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
hool415.bsky.social
Hullo #poemsabout #desire @thebrokenspine.co.uk @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social
An old one, from far away student days. Hope you are on the mend Alan. Thanks all.
The Going Back Room Afterwards lying on my bed alone, I hear ceiling steps above, then metallic pulses from a tap: the heartbeat of a chugging pipe restored, and deafening still you facing me, having left the certainty of your chair to lock and check again the door before that your voice murmuring something soft and small, a footnote unheard, uneeded, just cluttering it all further back again getting close, my fingers brushing milky flesh within that seasoned kink of wayward buttons further still to 3:00 when sunlight hemmed those suffering curtains, you, here in my room, the building heat, so stultifying to even earlier, an age away, when content to just observe you as a voyeur: head bowed over desk, novel and notes, spread or propped, and at 2:00 when you arrived and only an oscillating fan vicariously could reach for you and wandering backwards ever more all the way to the day, that walk in the park, when I suggested we could study together, not daring to see your face as I spoke, by either hiding among those clouds, the ones so teased, caught like wool on wire, or down below stuck within the many fossils of muddy studs on show.
November 14, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
badvibrations62.bsky.social
#PoemsAbout #Desire - back after a short break, with a short poem. Thanks to @alanparrywriter.co.uk at @thebrokenspine.co.uk for this week's prompt.

#poems #poetry #poetrycommunity

www.davekurley.net
Screenshot of my poem on Apple Notes - the desktop background is of some idyllic scene in the Californian countryside, redwood trees flanking the valley, a river cutting between, reflecting a pale sky.
November 14, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
janedougherty47.bsky.social
For the #PoemsAbout #Desire prompt from @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk
November 14, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
andywilliamson.com
A wee contribution to this week's #poemsabout #desire. Short, simple, an old poem re-written, nice to revisit it. Thanks everyone for the wonderful sharing, particularly thinking of @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk
You I ache for you we cannot be together without this ocean in between I desire you the landscape of your body mapping softness to my touch your head resting on my shoulder
November 14, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
davidbirch.bsky.social
A quick #haiku in response to today's #PoemsAbout response #Desire from @thebrokenspine.co.uk. Very best wishes to @alanparrywriter.co.uk. Looking forward to reading and responding to other responses #PoetryCommunity #BlueSkyPoets
November 14, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
ignorantfairy.bsky.social
Devouring Egos

Kali turns in her sleep
earthquakes, harbingers
of her insatiable appetite
terrifying mother both
nurturer and destroyer
rattling skulls adorn
all-consuming deity

#poemsabout #desire
#poetrycommunity

@thebrokenspine.co.uk
@alanparrywriter.co.uk
November 14, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
pvcannon.bsky.social
For #PoemsAbout #Desire
with thanks to @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk

This Moment
A poem about desire
November 14, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
saintghost.bsky.social
For #PoemsAbout #Desire ✨

for @thebrokenspine.co.uk
& @alanparrywriter.co.uk

I know I need to learn how to edit but this is another one of those that just burst out of me in a fountain of blood and snot. It kind of had to get out, I guess.
Desire She asks me, what do you want, and I say I need a raging cattle gun between my eyes. I say, I want to go crazy, like real crazy, not this choked silent suffering but a scream that will burst every seam-crazy, neon-crazy, heroin-crazy, woman with her head in the oven-crazy. The kind with confetti and ambulances. Chalk outlines. Hot as brimstone, emergency room-bright. Look here, I want to open this here window and jump the fuck right out of it. I want to cut deeper. Darker, more demented, more desperate. I want to hemorrhage. I want you to have to sew me back together from scratch, without all of the mistakes, the failure, the fear. Twenty-one stitches is not nearly enough. You ask me, why, and I say, desire desire desire. I am going mad with desire. for him for love for belonging for applause for a hand around my neck for fame for attention for death for cheating death for outliving for the blood of christ For the rush of losing your mind. The desire to cross that line. I want to be the lady in the park that coos at the doves and flaps her arms like wings. I want to dangle from the precipice like a leaf in October, I want to be a tightrope dancer across all of your edges. I want to be that patient on the ward who barks the whole day long like a frenzied dog. I want to stick needles into my arm until I squeal like a porcupine. I want my veins fat with methamphetamine. I want a harder door, a bluer bruise, a more brutal concussion. I want to bash my head against this wall until I laugh again. I want to tear this room down this skin this padded cell a world a girl a wound that hurts like fire that is too sharp to touch to kill to feel to fuck. I want to leave myself behind to become everybody else. I want to be a poet I want to be a lover rockstar priest saint cult leader a goddamn work of art I am possessed by desire and empty as all hell.
November 14, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
rayhourigan.bsky.social
Desire's inferno,
Glowing warmth of love, the fire
Lives inside us all.
#PoemsAbout #Desire #haiku #poem #writing #writingcommunity
@alanparrywriter.co.uk
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
November 14, 2025 at 2:29 PM
merrildsmith.bsky.social
From @dalectables.bsky.social
That is Where You Will Find Me - Friday Fictioneers adelectablelife.com/2025/11/13/t...
That is Where You Will Find Me – Friday Fictioneers
Yes indeed.  I am double-dipping this week… I had this title yesterday but then didn’t know what to do with it!  Now… I do ;-) Don’t you just love when it flows in one fell …
adelectablelife.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:31 PM
merrildsmith.bsky.social
Good morning! I had trouble with this one--do I write that every week?😂 I wrote two short ones that maybe I'll post later, but then I decided to consult the Oracle for inspiration for this third one. #PoemsAbout #Desire
Thank you @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk
Poem: Haunted The hard need of the heart, like flower-celebrations, like cloud-bellies opening— soft rain, salt-scent, storms-- you wonder about it later, after life over without a word.
November 14, 2025 at 1:03 PM
merrildsmith.bsky.social
Roberta Writes - Reblog: Photography – People: Shibuya Crossing – world’s busiest crossing roberta-writes.com/2025/11/14/r...
Roberta Writes – Reblog: Photography – People: Shibuya Crossing – world’s busiest crossing
Do you like to photograph people? This is a place to showcase your photographs of people on LatinosUSA. Come over and take a peek.
roberta-writes.com
November 14, 2025 at 11:16 AM
merrildsmith.bsky.social
Hope this helps anyone who is having a problem reading the e-book version of my book.

merrildsmith.org/2025/11/13/r...
Reading Held Inside the Folds of Time using the Kindle App
I’ve had a few people tell me that they can’t read the e-book version of my new collection, Held Inside the Folds of Time. I have had this issue with other people’s books, too. It…
merrildsmith.org
November 13, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
rotherwrites.bsky.social
Tomorrow, Friday 14th November, bring your #Desire in whatever form it takes for you. Alan is still with us in spirit, even if he is not giving you feedback on your poem, so please, please, please carry on posting and liking and commenting and reposting #PoemsAbout. 🔥
thebrokenspine.co.uk The Broken Spine @thebrokenspine.co.uk · 1d
Tomorrow: #PoemsAbout #Desire. Not romance—risk. What can’t you name without trembling? Don’t post before Friday. Tag your post. Use Alt Text. Sign up for Saturday inbox prompts: shorturl.at/0Xm7A
A halved papaya lies open on a dark, wet surface. Its glistening red interior, filled with pomegranate seeds and dripping juice, carries a sensual, sexually suggestive tone. Scattered berries surround it. The Broken Spine logo, shaped like a black fountain pen nib, appears top left. "@thebrokenspine.co.uk" is written top right in white. At the bottom right, bold white text reads: "Read Repost Reply #POEMSABOUT #DESIRE".
November 13, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
janes-studio.bsky.social
In Blood, In Living, We Go On merrildsmith.org/2025/11/03/i...
In Blood, In Living, We Go On
Monday Morning Musings In Blood, In Living, We Go On “in blood / Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er”–William Shakesp…
merrildsmith.org
November 3, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
janes-studio.bsky.social
Today I'm counting blessings, not my steps or zone minutes... I'm excited for Lawrence's launch on Thursday 20th November, 7pm on Zoom, please join us for a relaxed, joyful evening of poetry 🥳✨
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1878254171...
November 5, 2025 at 2:05 PM
merrildsmith.bsky.social
What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon/evening--amongst such brilliant, convivial, and generous poets!
blackboughpoetry.bsky.social Black Bough Poetry @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social · 2d
Our #openmic - rich, cerebral, inventive work tonight. Two poets new to online open mics who smashed it. Featured poet was Newcastle’s @paulwritespoems.bsky.social

#spokenword #poetry
@iantattum.bsky.social @eleanorholmes.bsky.social @sarahraybould.bsky.social @wrenwoodwrites.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by Merril D. Smith
blackboughpoetry.bsky.social
Our feature writer at the #openmic this evening. Newcastle poet and blogger @paulwritespoems.bsky.social

#openmic #spokenword
November 12, 2025 at 11:15 PM