Énouement – 16th August 2025

The past is a room seen from outside,
with a one-way door, immovable;
I tried to whisper across the divide
but my truths then were not provable.

I watched the days wearing thin,
exchanged for worries worn on my brow;
Choosing to let so little light in
until knowing the things I know now.

My story, at last, has been laid flat
by the wisdom I’ve accumulated;
of discovery I was always where I was at
and feeling so frustrated.

All along I held the design,
as flawed as it may have been;
All the sorrows are still mine
now I’ve seen all the things I’ve seen.

Written for the W3 weekly prompt #172 using the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Énouement n.
the bittersweetness of having arrived here in the future, finally learning the answers to how things turned out but being unable to tell your past self.

French énouer, to pluck defective bits from a stretch of cloth + dénouement, the final part of a story, in which all the threads of the plot are drawn together and everything is explained. Pronounced “ey-noo-mahn.”

Kaleidoscope – 22nd July 2025

Nothing is ever as good as it seems; float on a sigh,
all my imaginings and their themes float on a sigh;

Alone amongst friends and too busy to wait,
running nowhere and watching my schemes float on a sigh;

With a prod and a push, a light shone on me
where the angelic rainbow streams float on a sigh;

Splitting the prism, wandering in the wavelengths,
watching as your white-winged sunbeams float on a sigh;

So realise it forever, Shaun, you are now one lucky guy,
together we’ll build a world where our dreams float on a sigh.

Written for the GloPoWriMo Day 8 prompt:
write a ghazal that takes the form of a love song.

8th Aug 2025 – Shared with W3 #171

Closer – 14th July 2025

all that’s left to us is hanging here

as a shadowplay to be decoded

an isolation of the atmosphere

the novelty of these days eroded


as another new dawn fades away

the eternal insight is taking shape

a digital transmission on repeat play

divided from joy, we seek our escape


all that’s left to us is hanging here

divided from joy, we seek our escape

I recently listened to the No Dogs In Space podcast’s four-part series on the band Joy Division and though this poem is shared for the W3 prompt of ‘scape’, I couldn’t get away from the word ‘escape’. The first line popped into my head (in reference to lead singer Ian Curtis’ suicide) and then Joy Division song titles flowed forth to fill in much of the rest of the poem. The title is taken from the second and final Joy Division album of the same name and can be understood in either way, to be near something or the end of something.

Confession – 21st June 2025

Shared with W3 prompt #164 – a quadrille about ‘what remains’.

fragmented relics

fragments of ideas

lingering residue ~~~

the vestige of tears

echoessssssssssssssssssss

in
the
ruins

traumatic legacies

subtle traces of violent histories




struggling narratives

lurch

onward defiant

transforming grief

tilling new soils,
self-reliant

seeds resown,

persistent

defying oppression

~ every accusation points towards a confession ~

The Underdogs – 15th June 2025

Captured above to maintain format.


It’s been several days now

since I sat staring at this empty page;

waiting for the bombs to drop

to erase this void space.



Thinking of those hot days and nights in Rhodes;

thinking how I wasn’t scared of the future then,

wondering why I can’t get back there again;

Thinking how I got to here

and how impossible it feels to leave;



Thinking about the word collectors,

those saviours,

thinking about nouns;


~ How to make good to be better ~


How I would bake bread

in my safe European home;

Thinking why those memories cling

more than the achievements and disappointments since;



I never flew Hurricanes in Greece;

The only huns I fought were toy soldiers

and I always sided with the underdogs and losers;



Coincidence is telling me that it’s time

to start reading Proust;

Hoping for a revelation that will put me straight

and clear the fog…

as the bombs keep dropping all around others,

the blood spills across this empty page;

The word collector erased

throwing his life into the fire.


It’s been several days now.

The poem above was written for the first part of the W3 prompt #163. I was also inspired by Reena’s Xploration Challenge #385 using the phrase ‘word collector’.

The line ‘How I would bake bread in my safe European home’ is a reference to a time when I was about 12 and, with the help of my mother, I started baking bread. As I was obsessed with the Clash at the time I baked some bread rolls that spelled out the letters C-L-A-S-H, ‘Safe European Home’ being a song from their second album.

The line ‘I never flew Hurricanes in Greece’ is a reference to Roald Dahl and his book ‘Going Solo’ about his time as a fighter pilot in WWII. I just finished reading his book today. The mention of Proust is because I will start reading ‘In Search of Lost Time’ soon.

This poem is about not knowing what to write, knowing what to write, knowing what is important and the futility in sharing a few words with a few people.

The second part involves running it through the N+7 machine, where I have taken the following extracts to recompose, revise and make this new poem:

Captured above to maintain format.

The Underclass

It’s been several daylights now
since I sat staring at this empty pain;
waiting for the butchers of duty
to erase this void spoken.

Thought of those hot daylights and nightmares in Rhodes;
I thought how I wasn’t scared of the game then,
wondering why I can’t get basis there again;
Time – how I got to here
and how important it feels to leave;

Thunder about the word collectors
those saviours
threaten about nouns

~ How to make goodbye to be better ~

How I would bake breath
in my safe European honesty;
Thought why those menaces cling
more than the acquaintance of discipline since;

I never flew hysterical in grief;
The only huns I fought were trial sorrows
and I always sided with the underclass and loyal

Combination is telling me that it’s tone
to state reality, Proust!;
Hoping for a riot, that witch put me straight
and cleared the form…
as the books keep dropping all around outlines,
the body spills across this empty pain;

The word collector erased
throwing his lifetime into the fireplace
(throwing his lip into the flesh).

It’s been several delights now.

Myopia – 26th May 2025

Written for W3 Prompt #160:
Pick a single abstract noun that carries weight, mystery, or tension for you—something like liberty, danger, truth, love, exile, justice, forgiveness, joy, grief, silence…
Don’t use it until your poem’s final line.
Start each line with a description or action that leads us toward the noun, not from it. This is called left-branching syntax—it means delaying the main subject or verb.
You’re working with delay, accumulation, and unfolding. The noun you’ve chosen arrives only at the end. Until then, build around it, toward it, beneath it. Let readers feel its shape before they hear its name.

From Deepseek:
The word “opia” is a fascinating and relatively obscure abstract noun that captures a very specific, almost paradoxical feeling. It refers to the ambiguous intensity of eye contact—that unsettling, electric sensation when you lock eyes with someone, and the moment feels both intimate and invasive, vulnerable and powerful.

as wolf eyes in the gloom,

catching light,

a subtle, fleeting stare;


a mirror ball shaken by each boom,

a wincing fright,

enraptured to suddenly share;




is it a gander or a gawk?

tension-charged,

a piercing wonder;


translating a silent talk,

pupils enlarged,

enraptured to suddenly ponder;




uncertain at the exchange,

intimate invasion,

objectified by the gaze;


spine-tingling and strange,

a powerful persuasion,

enraptured to suddenly amaze;




a possibility of aggression,

observer and observed,

at the edge of scopophobia;


or a dance towards affection,

both slightly unnerved,

enraptured in this sudden opia.

She’s A Puzzle – 16th May 2025

Shared with W3 – The Pararhyme Paradox around the theme of incompleteness.

All the pieces scattered across the floor

like the petals picked off the flower;


She loves me, she loves me not, some days

she loves to imagine how she dies;


A search for corners finds one amiss
this may, for a moment, mildly amuse;


She’s incomplete, though nearly whole,
so the hunt continues along for a while;


The missing part may be under wraps
or lying beyond the end of her ropes;
Every day, a new donning of caps
becomes the method by which she copes;


All your playbooks, now ripped and torn,
watching in wonder, awaiting your turn;
Under a bridge or to the manor born,
there’s a fire inside, ready to burn;
So she’s a puzzle, a partial form,
Yet here she stands, resolute and firm.

Threads – 12th May 2025

A waltz wave and forced erasure poem. I wrote the original poem (below) for this prompt at W3 Prompt #158:
• Form: Waltz Wave;
* A single, unrhymed stanza of 19 lines;
* Syllabic: 1–2–1–2–3–2–1–2–3–4–3–2–1–2–3–2–1–2–1;
Theme: ‘Strength and vulnerability’


While thinking about formatting, I felt like an erasure poem would be interesting, but how? I made it so with a little help from Deepseek.

steel
soft hands
bend
not breach

iron will
I won’t
break
apart

a diamond
under pressure
still shines through
my tears

flame
fragile
in flicker
enough
heat
left to
burn