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Dean Norton

@zentinl.bsky.social
200 followers 111 following 1.1K posts

somewhere between cold coffee and used twist ties is a paper life in an automatic heart

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Reposted by Dean Norton
Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Not feeling very profound today #PoemsAbout #DeadLetters @thebrokenspine.co.uk Not the house style, but there you go.
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Bernard Pearson @bernp.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
my thanks to @thebrokenspine.co.uk and @alanparrywriter.co.uk for hosting #PoemsAbout #DeadLetters this was written for my fathers great friend lost when H.M.S. was sunk I have the letter
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stace.bot @stacebot.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
For this week's #PoemsAbout #DeadLetters I'm thinking about what has to die for a letter to be dead. @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk #prompt #poetry #blueskypoetry #writesky #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #poets #creativewriting
dead letter

i wash the dishes
in the dark

because i know
where everything is.

the tap.
the soap.
the chipped glass
you always said
to throw away.

remember when
you said
nothing mattered
and i said nothing.

it does.

the glass slips.
i hear it break
somewhere in the sink.

for a while
i leave my hands
where they are.

the tap keeps running.

i am quiet.

you are far away.

or whatever
you are.

eventually
i put my hand
back in the water.
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Andy Williamson @andywilliamson.com · 25/09/2026
Happy #PoemsAbout folks, here's my quick contribution to #DeadLetters - will check back later to read others! Thanks @thebrokenspine.co.uk #poetry #poetrycommunity
Correspondence

every day of summer
I wrote you a letter
heartbeats
hand shaking
ink staining my fingers

I still have them
at the bottom
of a box
at the back
of the attic

I look out
over the sea
and wonder 
how this day would feel
if I had posted them
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Rachel @vignettes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
For this weeks #PoemsAbout #DeadLetters Thanks as always to @thebrokenspine.co.uk
Dead Letters

They dressed him in bronze,  
raised him above the traffic  
to applause.

A century ripened beneath his shoes.

Then rope.  
Bronze struck stone, shoulder first,  
the city ringing through his body.

Harbour water closed over his mouth.They dragged him out bedraggled,  
silt in his cuffs, weed between his buttons,  
stinking of still water.

Paint across his chest:  
the city writing back.

Now, behind museum glass,  
he dries badly.

This morning a letter lies
against the empty plinth,
rain loosening the ink
into the stone,
an address
still valid.
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Dean Norton @zentinl.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Hi #PoemsAbout community. With apologies, I've been away for about a month, but missing you all. Trying to shake the rust off for #DeadLetters. 🙏 @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk. #poetrycommunity #poetry #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity
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Dean Norton @zentinl.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Not much time for #PoemsAbout this weekend but dropping a quick go at #thriftstore and hope to read everyone's work asap! Best to @alanparrywriter.co.uk & @thebrokenspine.co.uk #poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity
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C. Oulens @owlnsquirrels1111.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Delighted that my poem “I had a” is published in Full House Literary @fullhouselitmag.bsky.social alongside an excellent group of poets and artists. Thanks to the amazing head editor Leia Butler @leiabutler.bsky.social & editor Lowena Olver. A draft appeared on #poemsabout #poetrycommunity #Oulens …
fullhouseliterary.com
I had a by C. Oulens — Full House Literary
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Dean Norton @zentinl.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Thank you so much @jenthorne.bsky.social for hosting this week's #promptcombo. Can't wait to see what we all make of #stand. #poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity
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Dean Norton @zentinl.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I thought I would have another go at #PoemsAbout #LastTrain. Thank you for hosting @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk #poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity
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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
In response to today's @thebrokenspine.co.uk excellent #PoemsAbout prompt #LastTrain, here's a rewrite of an older poem recalling a childhood train journey. Many thanks @alanparrywriter.co.uk and the rest of the #poetrycommunity. Looking forward to reading other responses!
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Jen Thorne @jenthorne.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Happy #PoemsAbout day everyone. Here is my offering for #LastTrain. I can't wait to read everyone else's. With thanks as always to @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk Have a great weekend all ❤️ #poetry #choo-choo
The Last Train 
 
 I am a witness  
 to the lairy, blaring call  
 of rowdy rogues returned from revelry.  
 
The subdued quiet  
of the nurse, 
longing to kick off sensible shoes 
and dance.
 
 The hushed husband  
 accepting the gin‑soaked airing 
 of his inadequacy.  
 
 The impatient sigh  
 of the lost girl, 
 searching for
 the last breath of warmth  
 before the cold night claims her.  
 
 I am a witness  
 to the carriage as confessional,
 to the tracks that hum with stories  
 no one meant to tell.  
 
 I am a witness  
 to the sway of strangers  
 bound together 
 for one brief, rattling moment,
 before scattering like sparks  
 into the dark beyond the platform.  
 
 I am a witness. 
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Andy Williamson @andywilliamson.com · 31/07/2026
Good morning everyone, still not much writing time but always good to write something about trains, so here's a wee draft for #PoemsAbout #LastTrain. Thanks @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk as always! #poem #poetrycommunity
Late train to Dundee
  
I run for a seat as
the day slides shut.  
Ticket gates, the noise,  
wheels feeling for grip.
  
A coal-black city evaporating,  
tenement stone, brick, darkness,  
the bridge where the city is lost.
And you.
  
Steel and diesel, dark fields blur.
My palm on the cold glass.  
At Inverkeithing the line forks,  
as the land begins to open.

Through salt-hardened towns:  
Dalgety Bay, Aberdour, Burntisland.  
Shuttered fronts,  
sea-worn stone.

Then harbour lights, iron hush.  
This river holds no shape  
until the final curve,  
and you.
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Fiftywords @fiftywords.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Here’s one for #PoemsAbout #LastTrain Many thanks as ever to @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk
The Last Colliery Train The future had gone
before the train did. I climbed the same steps,
laid my hand
on the same worn controls. The rails were rusting beneath us, as if the earth
had begun
to take them back. Behind me, the black wagons drew slowly
from the pithead.
On the bridges, men who had worked below, women who had waited children lifted high enough
to remember.
Nobody cheered. They watched us pass as they had watched their fathers leave for work, their husbands return
with darkness
worked into their skin.
For years, these tracks had carried coal from beneath the valley
and wages into its houses. That morning
they carried neither.
At the main line I brought her to a halt
and shut the engine down. The cab trembled,
then settled. And in the silence
that followed, it seemed the whole valley
was listening
for a pulse
that did not come again.
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John Chmura @johnchmura.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
#PoemsAbout #LastTrain @thebrokenspine.co.uk I will put a link to the reading in the comments.
DISJUNCTION

they took the train away
and they tore the lonely station down
left the barefoot pineys
with no way to get outta this town

So I’m talking about the old train station by where I walk the dog, that there’s only a sign now and a vinyl fence in front of an overgrown embankment, and that there used to be a turntable a few yards back because three rail lines met there, and my wife says I’m sorry but I just don’t give a shit.

the boiler is hissing the steam is nice and hot
the blue comet’s departing at nine on the dot
gals in summer dresses guys in linen suits
headed for the boardwalk on the classiest of routes

So we’re on our way to WaWa and my son goes what was all that about with Mom and I’m like I’m looking up shit for the prompt, last train. And then I tell him how my grandfather operated the Public Service trolley from the Hub City to Perth Amboy when he was still a teen. I wish he was still alive so I could ask him about it now. I wish he had told me stories when I was a kid. All I have is an odd quote in a retirement program I found at my mom’s that says, “My greatest thrill (Keasby [sic] Trestle) You ask me how I felt when the trolley went off the track.” I don’t even know who the “You” was, much less the how why and when.

the seriouser I study to me it starts to seem
the world is just a fat man in a trolley problem meme
I’m out of joy I can’t employ anything uplifting
the more I learn the more I turn to multitrack drifting

So I tell my son I looked up the Keasbey Trestle and didn’t see anything about trolleys, but the deadliest US train wreck in the last hundred years did happen in Keasbey when “The Broker” commuter train derailed on a temporary wooden trestle built to accommodate New Jersey Turnpike laborers working on the main line. If my Pop Pop conflated the train and the trolley I wonder why his most thrilling memory would be something he wasn’t involved in and my son says probably because every other workday was boring. Yeah I laughed it p…
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Dean Norton @zentinl.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
In the fading hours of my Friday finally I can settle with #PoemsAbout and read poems for #lasttrain. Here's my first. Good vibes to our host @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk #poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet
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Dean Norton @zentinl.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Thank you @emteepoetry.bsky.social for hosting this week's #PromptCombo with #Perseverance. #poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity
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Andy Williamson @andywilliamson.com · 24/07/2026
Had a bit of fun with #PoemsAbout #BadHabits, not my usual stye at all! With thanks to @alanparrywriter.co.uk / @thebrokenspine.co.uk! #poems #poetry #writingcommunity
The good glass

she reaches for the good glass
ice dropped in for the sound effect
keeps pouring
a nightcap, a tonic
a well-earned reward

second glass, she’s luminous
she’s who we agreed to remember
third and fourth now
the house holds its breath 
and waits for morning

she’ll say the day got away from her
we let her, we always let her
only the bottle keeps its word
the one thing 
in her world that doesn't lie
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John Chmura @johnchmura.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
#PoemsAbout #BadHabits @thebrokenspine.co.uk I will put s reading in the comments.
BADASS HABITS

Not to be overshadowed by Jane
Fonda or Joan Baez or a flying Sally Field
they were the OG and primeval punks
jamming acoustic in tie-dye and jeans
no nine to five to tie them down
but 24/7 crushing on Christ
tryna make a better world
one coffeehouse one CYO
one flower power park at a time.

Yes they were healing the sick
and teaching us all the while with love
in their thoughts and in their words
in what they had done
and what they had never failed to do
not counting rosaries glued to a pew
getting the vulnerable off the streets
trading fresh linen for bloody sheets
neither vicarious always hard core
no matter who knocked they opened the door.

On the perpetual first two or three gather
at the facility where their Sister Felicity lives
but never leaves the past behind her
on a garden bench under golden elms,
power chords off her grid and the lyrics
she wrote like herself swirling in steamy
and silent kaleidoscopic hallucinations,
but when her soulmates reach the chorus
she hums along in quivered but perfect harmony
hint of a smile sneaking through closed eyelids
and Badass Habits rocks again.
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Dean Norton @zentinl.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
It's #PoemsAbout Friday. Let's talk about #badhabits. Thanks to @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk #poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity
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Dean Norton @zentinl.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
A second one for all you #RealPeople writing for @rfsmith.bsky.social's #PromptCombo. #poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity
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Scott McConnaha @smcconnaha.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Thank you @rfsmith.bsky.social for this week's #PromptCombo, #RealPeople. Here's my contribution.
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Ronnie Smith @rfsmith.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Thank you to Paul for last week and apologies for today’s delay in posting - last night’s World cup joy. For #PromptCombo this week it is #RealPeople love to all. @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social @emteepoetry.bsky.social @owlnsquirrels1111.bsky.social @jenthorne.bsky.social @paulbrookes.bsky.social
Poem - Downs
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Dean Norton @zentinl.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
A bit late for this week's #PromptCombo: #RealPeople. Big thanks to @rfsmith.bsky.social for teeing us up! #poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity
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Lin Hart @poetry-with-hart.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
I don't have explanation for this one. I nearly didn't post it, too brittle, a time we don't speak of in my family. Might be an impossible one to edit, but here's daylight on it for a moment. CW: childloss. @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk #poemsabout #exitwound #poetry #5amwritersclub
It was way too early and the light was on
making bright truths, we were too young to prepare for.

I was the first one up to see them. My mom
in my dad's arms cradled crying clawing for peace.

She was home. She was home. She was home. 
They said it'd be another week, they said a lot of things. 

Our brother was in the NICU, and she would stay 
in the hospital. I stood in the hallway, liminal space.

Not quite entering, not quite exiting, haunting 
without acceptance of the sight of my mother in despair.

We would always have a guardian angel, they said
group-hugged with breath vacated by grief.

Tyler would always be there looking out for us
they tried to spin it like it was okay, accept it, it's life.

Loss left no visible mark on her. Still beautiful 
still her, still soft warmth, still my mother. 

I saw the wound that left no scar. I saw her and
wondered how close we came to losing her.

I chanted it in my mind like a prayer.
She's home. She's home. She's home.
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stace.bot @stacebot.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
For this week's #PoemsAbout #ExitWounds, I'm thinking about how infrastructure is invisible when it works. @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk #poetry #poem #writing #PoetryCommunity #BlueSkyPoets #writingcommunit
a love letter to the evidence of absence 

exit velocity 
is the speed required 
to leave 
a gravitational field 
forever. 

not to travel. 

to escape. 

the body 
measures 
what force 
was required 

by the wound. 

the evidence 

that something 
overcame 
an enormous force 

to leave 

at all.
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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
A kind of #ExitWounds that I'm familiar with. For #PoemsAbout @thebrokenspine.co.uk
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John Chmura @johnchmura.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
#PoemsAbout #ExitWounds @thebrokenspine.co.uk I will put a link to a reading in the comments. I think the commentary would be helpful and I do something very rare for me if you can guess what it is.
THE PERFECT PLACE, POSTHUMOUSLY YOURS

when i started to write
this letter
it was all i could stand with edward bear
singing it’s the last song i’ll ever write
for you on the phonograph
maybe it will take two years to finish
maybe it will take two years for it to find you
and I won’t be here anymore

the raveonettes have been playing
last dance for seventeen years
sune’s pursed lips
barely unzip as he squeaks
baby baby please
and sharin foo
cut glass eyes glimmering
under liquid platinum bangs cooing
if this is the last dance if this is the last dance
save it for me baby
what happens to your soul
when you probe a prolonged ache
for so long
microscopic razor cuts
shearing the gossamer sheath of your psyche

people in trauma have been saved by words
on a wee bench for scott in kelvingrove park
we’ve still got hope so i think we’ll be fine
maybe it’s true but it wasn’t for him
i’m torturing myself in bed well
after mudnight bingeing frightened rabbit
i know the perfect place
may never exist may never exist
yet how far from perfection can one survive
how much air does a locked room suck
from your personal space and leave you
recognizable yes
i’m bored of flying but
i still want to be here too
i just don’t know
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Ash & Ink @bundtkake.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
@thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social @madp03t.bsky.social So I did the #mapform from #Promptcombo for #AmpersandAfterDark I think it worked? Should read as three complete #poems Two down columns and then across. Anyway I am done wrestling with it so Here is a #poem..
Pride                                 

I stood straight with pride,
The possibilities endless in the moment,
I straightened my tie, a sharp half Windsor,
My shoes polished to a high gloss,
I was a pillar, carved from marble,
My heart thundered, pulse in my ears,
Immortal, invincible, and incorruptible

Fall

I sat, defeated, head in hand
Then the possibilities ended
And I wiped my tears on my sleeve
A false accomplishment, useless in reality

I wouldn't be moved, only admired
A throbbing at my temple
Time and Entropy chuckled in the corner
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winterroom @winterroom.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
#promptcombo #MapPoem @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social "Collision"
(text is white on a black page)

'Collision'

(top right)

in this neighbourhood
of 100 billion stars
I’m baking bread*

old light
falls on my face
from Andromeda

*the translation is uncertain

(bottom left)

old light
falls on my face*
from our
magnificent
companion

I made this thing
it does this thing
I plot trajectories

*the translation is uncertain

(centre)

in this space
galaxies met
will meet
		their heavy hearts
		merge have merged
		and the wave
		washes the universe
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Dean Norton @zentinl.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Thank you @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social for hosting this week's #promptcombo with #MapPoem #poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity
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roger waldron @throwawayreg.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
morning Friday there’s an old saying which I don’t remember here’s my little “throwaway” poem for #PoemsAbout #Powercut and thank @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk #blueskypoets #poems #poetry and while we’re on the subject enjoy your weekend everyone everywhere 🛋️🚮🗑️🛋️
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Dean Norton @zentinl.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Thought I'd have another go at this week's #PoemsAbout #PowerCut. This one a little more starry-eyed than my usual. Hat tip to @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk for hosting! #poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet
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Bernard Pearson @bernp.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
huge thanks to @thebrokenspine.co.uk for once again hosting #PoemsAbout #PowerCuts heres my wee contribution look forward to seeing the work of everyone else
 Anomaly
The ghost priest that had been
ordered by Prospero
Arrived as lights failed.
Due to the collapsing sun .
While the girl who sang
Like a honeyed bell,
levered herself into some kind of dress.
As a silver snake sneaking
back into Its still warm skin,
Just as something went 
bump in the day.
Telling you that particular lesson was over,
and someone would be along later.
to collect the bodies and your homework.
Sleep now, for when you awaken.
The dreams will come again,
seeping like magma 
Through the cracks and seams in your façade,
Like   tunes from someone else’s
Half erased, musical score.
© Bernard Pearson
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Lin Hart @poetry-with-hart.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
I am still in my verse memoir -esque #haibun phase right now. I am not sure if the prose part at the end needs a little more punch in the later edit? Regardless, here's another little picture of what could be called my childhood. Boogie on and enjoy 🤗 #poemsabout #powercut #poetry #6amwritersclub
Boombox Queen

When the power went out the mountain, it’d be out for a week at least. Mum had a knack for knowing exactly when even without the forecast to guide her. The scent of water in the air, the pressure in her bones. She prepared like a monarch of her domain. The box of candles all set out on the counters, a regiment at attention, ready to burn for their queen. The firewood on the back patio, kindling in brown paper bags portioned out properly for the woodstove. The pantry overflowed and the campfire percolator set out for morning. 

The best part was the boombox. She always kept a hoard of CDs to feed it. Classics, hard rock, hairbands, country. Genres melting together like wax. She’d set it out on the dining room table, pushed against the wall, and she taught us how to dance. Every guiding step was an exercise in fun, a finding of our selves in the expression of movement. The twist gave us all particular glee, for whatever reason. And we’d all danced like we were electricity, like we could power the mountain again.

A force of nature
she is both the thunderstorm
and the grounding rod.
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Avery Lark ✨ @thebisylarke.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
my entry for #PoemsAbout #PowerCut @thebrokenspine.co.uk loved this prompt, looking forward to reading everyone’s takes on it later!
Sandy Serenade

One October, in a
hurricane 
wasteland
during the year
of apocalypse
I walked down 
the hell-hill
to where the river
rose up to meet me
and decided to change
my sorry little life, to take
my power back. The sleepy
shore town dithered with the 
hum of backup generators like
mechanical cicadas hanging on to
summer’s last branch. I strummed my
heart out on the guitar at dusk in our
candlelit kitchen. Ill-advised adventurers
kayaked through downtown streets. A nurse
doggy-paddled across a floodwater channel
to her ER shift. Lost teens like us wandered the
waterlogged streets as power lines dreamed, strung
up from pole to wooden pole, high on the sound of
humans existing outside of our brimming temporal
bubbles, long overdue hibernation for a crumbling
world. 
When the town’s grid came alive again,
I know those wires wept.
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Dean Norton @zentinl.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Happy Friday #PoemsAbout community. Can't wait to explore everyone's #PowerCut Thank you to @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk for keeping us writing! #poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity
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Jen Thorne @jenthorne.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
@janpsolivagant.bsky.social I couldn't let #Bestiary pass without doing one about my mixed up menagerie of misfits! #PromptCombo #Poetry #Rescue #AdoptDon'tShop
The Broken Ones Speak

She calls us broken. 
Fair. We do leak.
We do bite. 
We do stare into corners like we’ve seen things you wouldn’t understand.

We were not chosen. 
We were offered. 

It’s a bit odd, they said.
She’ll take it, they said. 
And she did. She always does.

We came with quirks. 
One of us hums. 
One of us hoards socks. 
One of us hates joy. 

She feeds and loves us anyway. 
Talks to us like we’re normal. 
We’re not.
But she’s not either. 

She disappears for hours 
without leaving the room. 
Sits in the dark like it’s a place to be.

We watch her float just beneath the surface. 
We don’t comfort. We just sit closer.

She calls us broken. 
But we know the truth. 
She’s one of us. 
And we’re keeping her.
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Dean Norton @zentinl.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Honored and grateful to have three of my peices featured in The Starbeck Orion today. With appreciation to Paul Brookes @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social for his consideration🙏 #PoemsAbout #PromptCombo #poetry #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky open.substack.com/pub/the880/p...
open.substack.com
Welcome To The Starbeck Orion Summer Feast Fifty Days Of Poetry And Artwork. Day Thirteen featuring the work of Dean Norton
A Feast Of Looking
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Dean Norton @zentinl.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Grateful to @janpsolivagant.bsky.social for hosting this week's #PromptCombo with #Bestiary. Exploring that which we cannot control. Looking forward to everyone's work! #poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity
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Avery Lark ✨ @thebisylarke.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
belated entry for this week’s #PoemsAbout #CheapMotels because this heatwave has me flaring up big-time @thebrokenspine.co.uk
Thorny Mistakes (meet me at that motel on the edge)

That desert blue night
has nothing to give me
but cold scorpion kisses

I’ve already picked my poison—
lying here with you
wine-rotten and bed-drunk

My heart a motel room door
waiting for you to knock
my parched-dog tongue

panting for a sip
from rosebud lips
hiding switchblade teeth

All the times I’ve placed my life
in your hands, a sharpened knife

My only regret—
I’d jump at the chance to do it again
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John Chmura @johnchmura.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
#PoemsAbout #CheapMotels @thebrokenspine.co.uk Will add a reading in the comments.
ROOM SERVICE

Generous me
I grab you
a shot and a beer
from the minibar
as I call the dollar store
styrofoam cooler.

Room service
I tease
tossing a Pirate’s Booty
and Funyuns
over the mattress
neither of us will be sleeping
on.

A shadow passes
the window
where the curtains
don’t meet.
Yo I point and half whisper
wedge a chair under the doorknob.

Now!
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Dean Norton @zentinl.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Long delayed, I am finally here for #PoemsAbout #cheapmotels Wishing good things to you all and to @alanparrywriter.co.uk of @thebrokenspine.co.uk for hosting us. #poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity
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Scott McConnaha @smcconnaha.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Great #promptcombo Jen! Here's my contribution. #monument @jenthorne.bsky.social
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Jen Thorne @jenthorne.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
I am part of the #PromptCombo team now, so be warned replies may have gifs and many emojis! It's my first time hosting so to mark this momentous experience, this week's #prompt is #Monument Have a great week all. I can't wait to read your contributions. #RhymeRoyal #Poetry 🩶
Carannog in Bronze

From bronze I stand where once my feet knew earth, 
I gaze on waves that shaped my wandering days. 
Your village hums with engines, light, and mirth, 
Where once the oars beat slow through salted haze. 
Yet laughter on the shore still finds its ways, 
The same bright joy I knew when I walked free, 
Though clothed in colours new beside the sea.

I knew the fishermen in wool and prayer, 
Their hopes as fragile as the nets they cast. 
Now hi-vis jackets blaze against the air, 
While engines drive where once tall sailcloth passed. 
Yet still the tides return, as in the past. 
The sea keeps faith with all who trust its roll; 
I keep my watch, content in bronze and soul.A photo I took of the monument to St Carannog which looks out over Llangrannog bay.
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Dean Norton @zentinl.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Thanks so much @jenthorne.bsky.social for this week's #PromptCombo for #Monument. #poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity
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