• Blog

    Stolen Child ( Day 30 )

    The Challenge for Day 30 Today’s challenge is to write about “Innocence”. Maybe even share stories of the younger, more innocent you. My post titled  Memories, Poems & Fairy Ribbons pretty much covered that topic, so I thought it might be nice to try a different angle.  I’ve decided to go with one of my best-loved poets, William Butler Yeats and his poem “The Stolen Child”.   The Stolen Child “Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.” ― William Butler Yeats   Here, Yeats is writing about lost innocence. The…

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    Memories, Poems & Fairy Ribbons ( Day 28 )

    The Challenge Today, I’m meant to be writing my own Eulogy. Thanks, but no thanks, Jeff! All I’d want on a gravestone is ” I tried, I really did.” Tried to be loving, honest and open-minded. That’s about it, really. Still, he got me thinking about my past and some early childhood memories, lovely memories, came back to me. And that’s when I started writing ” Fairy Ribbons”. Maybe you could call it a Eulogy to my inner child, the innocent me? Guess that keeps us all happy then, Jeff. I’ve written three verses so far this morning.  Little pen pictures of me before I was six, before life got complicated, …

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    Poem: A Dark Vision ( Day 21 )

    The Challenge for Day 21 Today’s challenge is to “Write a Confession”. It could be about a time you messed up, maybe even felt like a failure. And here’s the important part…What have you learned from it? Could it help anyone else? So I decided to share a poem with you, one I wrote when I was going through a period of depression. At the time, I felt so alone, so lost, so helpless. I remember looking at my reflection in the mirror and not recognizing the person staring back at me. It was as if I had left my body and no longer understood that I had any connection with…

  • Creative Writing

    Spluttering Silence

    Spluttering Silence That night was a night like no other. A night of dark and brooding skies, Blue-tinged clouds and Shooting stars which bore the scars Of a million flickering miles. Slowly, silently, all was dimmed and A moon which hung disconsolate, Its light no longer needed and Useless as a burst balloon, Simply faded and receded. The stillness matched the darkness In intensity and pain, Until from deep within the earth, From its very core, hot like fire, A sound began to resonate, A rumbling explosion that roared and rushed to the surface, Spilling scalding red rivers And Sulphur fumed ashes Upon a once verdant landscape. Earth’s death throes,…

  • Creative Writing

    Last Steps

    Last Steps The last steps like the first steps, Cautious and faltering, Seeking for guidance and Aiming for home. The light that was carried and Molded and shared Is dimming and fading With each turn of the stairs. The breathing is laboured The heartbeat unsure But the gift is still carried And presented, unpure. The last light like the first light, Blazing and beckoning, Retrieving the flame and The gift that was given. Transparent hands hold it aloft, Was I worthy? Did I shine? Did I do enough? The flicker of life returns to its’ core, Unseeing, unknowing, undead.     I  wrote this piece in response to the above picture.…

  • Creative Writing

    Flanders Remembrance

    Flanders Remembrance You and me mate, that was our promise, Whatever happened, we were together. It didn’t matter how awful it was, How the guns blasted our ears, How the gas clogged our lungs, We were together, that’s all that mattered.   They came for us, like thieves in the night, Seeking us out, smelling our fear. But we were men, we fell together, Bled out as one on the field of dreams.   Falling backwards into a void, You and me mate, always together, Lost generations weep for our passing and Earth blushes in shame at the loss.     I  wrote this piece in response to the above picture and the poem In…

  • Creative Writing

    Dance Mermaid Dance

        Dance Mermaid Dance Long years have passed since first I felt your warm, Strong arms wrap my shivering body close to yours. You found me, floundering in low-tide, and pulled me From the gravelly sand that tore through my skin Like the teeth of a barracuda. “Fashioned from my dreams, ” you said And I, knowing no better, took the bait. Was it all an illusion? I felt transformed by love, Like the mermaid whose fishtail disappeared And I learned to dance in harmony with hope. But the curtain has dropped on that performance and I return, lost, to the place of our beginning, Searching for answers amongst the empty shells.…

  • Creative Writing

    Prism

      Prism A myriad rainbow of candy-striped Colours come streaming and Screaming, uncalled for, unbidden. Choose one colour , One pattern of consciousness. But each is alone, isolated, insistent, Cascading beautifully to conclusion, No interlocking or blurred blending. How to thread the beauty together, How to reunite the oneness of being? A prism splits me, spills me And I cannot find a vessel Big enough, secure enough To gather me together.     ©Bernie Delaney   Other Poems Sorceress Concrete Footsteps Ice Drop Anchored to the Past The Window   Photo Thomas Ensley on Unsplash      

  • Creative Writing

    Sorceress

      The inspiration for the Sorceress poem Sorceress In dark, skeletal woodland, Limbs of trees hang bleached and broken. Their finger like twigs, now robbed of jewels, Point sharply to the thieving culprit; Sorceress, temptress, fiery queen, Bewitching mistress of the light. Man’s nemesis, found in the sooty Footprints of a ruined forest.     ©Bernie Delaney       I wrote this poem in response to the visual prompt of the above picture.    ” What do you See? “ Other Photo by Angie Corbett-Kuiper on Unsplash I found it later on and thought that it worked with the poem. Other Poems: Concrete Footsteps Ice Drop Anchored to the Past The Window  …

  • Creative Writing

    Concrete Footsteps

    Concrete Footsteps Pounding, concrete footsteps Announce your arrival And soon I am trapped, Torn by metal claws And imprisoned by geometry. Forget me at your peril, In the darkness I persist. I may be enslaved, but Your book of knowledge was stolen And, in the final chapter, It will be reclaimed.   ©Bernie Delaney   Notes I wrote this poem in response to the visual prompt of the above picture.    ” What do you See? “ Other Poems: Ice Drop Anchored to the Past The Window