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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 21h

Thanks - I'll have a look

David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I love the way this explores the idea of the mandala - its movement and the way it invests the creatures with mystical energy

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Lin Hart @poetry-with-hart.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Dragonfly witnessed in his reflection a king crowned a vivid blue. #dailyhaikuprompt #vivid #promptcombo #winged #haiku #senryu #micropoem #micropoetry #3lines #poem #poetry

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Suzy Dobie @suzydobie.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Hi, @emteepoetry.bsky.social Here is an offering for #PromptCombo #Winged The piece was originally written for a prompt by @malformed-poetry.bsky.social , but I am quite fond of it, and I hope it fits the bill. Thanks for the prompt! #poetry #poetrycommunity #writing #writercommunity #prompt

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Beautifully done, Emily. Love the way this builds to and falls away from the central line

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Emily Tee @emteepoetry.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Thanks to Ronnie for last week's fantastic prompt! This week tag me @emteepoetry.bsky.social #PromptCombo #Winged Winged or Wingèd? Birds, bugs, planes etc, or dragons/ wingèd cryptids? Icarus? Or winged, as in wounded? Just a few of the possibilities. Looking forward to reading your work!

Micropoem about an airplane in concrete form

Photo of a black and white pigeon, with a black mark on its head like a small hat.

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Thank you, Dean - delighted that this resonated with you!

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Dean Norton @zentinl.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Thank you @emteepoetry.bsky.social for this week's #PromptCombo #Winged. I've been pulled away for some weeks but delighted to be back reading. #poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity

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The Broken Spine (SUBS OPEN) @thebrokenspine.co.uk · 06/10/2026

“Bones of child labor thrown away – unbeautiful uneasy” From “Decadence Built This” by Karen Pierce Gonzalez Look at the glitter. Then look at who paid for it. Edited by Alan Parry He/Him & Karen Pierce Gonzalez shorturl.at/126Ks

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Beautiful use of language here, Jen, with a real sense of movement and energy

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Jen Thorne @jenthorne.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

@emteepoetry.bsky.social here is my offering for #Winged. This is an old one, but I love this #PromptCombo, so there may well be more to come. #Poetry

Ghost in Feathers

The barn walls drink the last of the light.
Shadows bloom like bruises across the beams.
The swallows sleep in cloistered hush;
the oxblood tractor ticks,
a cooling beast slain at sunset.

Moths rise, dust-winged,
erratically searching
for the memory of light.
Spiders unfurl their wire legs,
threading tremors through webs.
Bats spill from broken gables,
their flight a soft percussion
through the dark.

The barn's hushed breath is silenced.
But the night's chorus is not complete.
One nocturnal spectre lingers.
Watching.
Seeing all.

Talons unfurl, rusted hooks sear
through feathers pale as bone.
She ends her vigil with a haunted cry,
and the scuttling things below
wonder if they are the who she calls for.

There is no fanfare, only death on wing.
Silent, surgical, inevitable.
Rending flesh, she claims her prize,
then slips between the rafters,
folding into their oaken skin.

Though night wanes, she remains:
perched, unmoving, unblinking.
Waiting.
A ghost in feathers.

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I love the sense of movement and energy here! 👏

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Jude @jude-brucemoll.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Thankyou @emteepoetry.bsky.social for this week's #promptcombo #winged #poetry I'll try to focus later in the week but in the meantime an old one from me.

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Fleur Du Pseudonym @fleurdu.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

TW:may contain uncomfortable content @emteepoetry.bsky.social #PromptCombo #Winged

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La Reine des Metaphores @metaphorqu.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

@emteepoetry.bsky.social #PromptCombo #Winged I miss the Swifts now it's October The Jays on the swoop for Acorns Almost make up for it And if the Owls leave me another feather I'll accept that Birdkind is on my side.

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Thank you, Emily - much appreciated!

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Thank you, Jude - much appreciated!

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Thank you, Paul. Much appreciated!

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Many thanks @emteepoetry.bsky.social for today's #PromptCombo #Winged. I'm pressed for time this week so I thought I'd let this old one fly again. Will catch up with other offerings from the #PoetryCommunity later.

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Thank you for such generous feedback, Dean. The Otter runs through our village so it was going to feature sooner or later!

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Good question Ronnie. I remain curiously agnostic, I think..

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Martina Matijević @vientoverde.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

A not-so-long-ago quarrel and the fact that @thebrokenspine.co.uk is looking for #PoemsAbout #Rot made me write an experimental #haibun. Happy Friday! Cheers!

Rot in Hell

Through the glassiness of suburban stars, I stretch out my hand to tuck them in. With each one, the root of red bleeds as if the devil's a painter. I splay my fingers like paintbrush bristles and sway them across the horizon. They tickle the gates. Suddenly, I become the black ink of the galactic canvas amid the last traces of fiery red. At once, I can hear the shouts of my family and the screams of the doomed.

bathroom mirror —
mouthing the insult
I left unsaid

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Thank you! 'Unfiltered' came by chance - but it is weirdly appropriate

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

That works too! That we both see a different shade of meaning is a tribute to the writing. Or I'm stupidly optimistic....

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The narrative here is so engaging and beautifully managed 👏

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Talah Reed @talahreed.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

A small study in distance, denial and cut flowers. #poemsabout #rot #poetrysky #poetsky

STILL FLOWERS

The flowers lasted eighteen days.
I know because I counted.

By six, the water had gone cloudy.
By nine, the first stem bent.
By thirteen, they had started
leaning on each other
for structural reasons.

I changed the water anyway.

From the kitchen door
they still looked like flowers.

I tried the hallway.

Still flowers.

The sofa:
flowers.

Three feet away:

less convincing.

Up close
they had become
a collection of failures,
minor and major.

Apparently beauty
has a minimum viewing distance.

Nobody tells you this.

Museums know it.

Pointillists knew it.

By eighteen
I knew it too.

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

My goodness, you went to town in this one! The relentless cascade of images is superbly managed. Stanza 4 is my favourite

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John Chmura @johnchmura.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#PoemsAbout #Rot @thebrokenspine.co.uk I will put a reading in the comments.

KNOCK GO GENTLE

round here
knock gentle
better yet holler

anything made of wood
termites have
probly obliterated

holeyer than your mama’s
teeth on the nightstand
that kind of fit so you share them

the buckets catching drips
from the ceiling
themselves leak through rags onto the floor

if there was a doctor in these parts
they’d tell you speaking of holes
your liver weren’t none too good neither

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Bernard Pearson @bernp.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

My thanks again to our hosts @thebrokenspine.co.uk for this week hosting #PoemsAbout #Rot here's one from its inspired by an extraordinary Shropshire landscape love to see what other poets do with the theme

Whixall Woman

On finding her below
The sphagnum moss
He brought her up
From the ancient deep
He carried her from her mortal bed.
To his cottage in the wood,
lit a fire to warm and dry her.
And asked her, if she could
Love a simple country lad,
Who longed to have a wife.
She said she already loved him,
But up here she couldn’t live his life.
So, he took her by the hand,
Her beauty still in tact,
No telltale sign of decay
But neither was there time
Now to dally and delay.
As he led her back down into the fen
Where he and his beloved
Could forego this world of men.
© Bernard Pearson

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This is beautifully done, Andy - captures the sense of loss perfectly

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Andy Williamson @andywilliamson.com · 02/10/2026

Good morning lovely #poets, sharing something new for #PoemsAbout #Rot this week. 'Glas' can mean grey (Gaelic), green (Irish, sometimes Gaelic), blue (Welsh, Breton) or even paler/silvery shades! Colour as a social construct!

Glas

To learn the words
for colours,
we must unsee.
Nothing is fixed,
nothing finite.

Changes come
with the light,
the season,
your mood,
my presence.
Or unpresence.

On your table
are the flowers,
he left.
Left
too long.
Bleeding to
grey.

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I love the brutal physicality of this, Jane - I can see exactly where your comment on mine came from

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

A spontaneous one, written just now in anger for #poemsabout #rot for @thebrokenspine.co.uk #poetsofbluesky

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patriciajvs.bsky.social @patriciajvs.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

A Friday offering for #PoemsAbout #Rot. Thank you @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk for the prompt. I'm travelling a little further North for a weekend with friends and beach walks so will come back later to read everyone's contributions. This one was inspired by Steve Harley and life!

Blue eyes blues eyes,
Ice cold bright,
Lying and lying again
Cracked by the mirror rot,
Desilvered by fraud
Layer upon layer
A mist of deceit,
The steel that would not rot,

This rebel hit a floor of
Dogged dust and spiralling hair,
Ephemeral in the dusk light
Stifling the lies and life,
Gathered along ages
Tumbleweed in empty rooms,
Warm breezes whispering
Through cracks and crevasses
Nurturing spores of decay.

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