I write short stories and plays, and as the #BreakingBard predominantly SFF poetry within the bounds of Tweeting; these are written mainly for myself but there is always the hope that someone might appreciate or take something from what I have produced.
Edit: from October 2023 onwards, I shall be posting my own work in the usual feed alongside any reviews of books, rather than updating this page – it’s the easiest way without using plugins to let my subscribers know I’ve added something!
Youth’s blossom has died back,
Soul-stice recedes into fronded summers.
Ash’s autumn lies heavy.
Years ring him in,
As verdant memory fades.
And falls.
#breakingbard
False Aurora
Birds begin to stir.
Land wipes night-misted eyes,
In promise of a brighter gaze.
Sky yawns and stretches.
Campfire rubs warming face
And coughs awake.
The party is gathering.
We shall venture forth
When the Sun is risen
Dawn stays abed ‘til then.
#breakingbard
Self-Exiled
We know that dark’ning face.
In ire purpled,
Self-righteous eyes
Blaze with sneered malices;
Knellsome laugh ‘scapes salt-crack’d lips,
In a bleat of vindicated woe.
We seek refuge on wreck-wracked shores.
The Lord evades the justice-sword
And we into exile go.
#breakingbard
Adrift on the tides of time.
Not waving but drowning
In dark waves of memory.
Trapped in the doldrums;
No island of hope
Or buoy
Or flotsam to cling to.
In a sea of regrets.
#breakingbard
Beyond the gentle hum of the industrial estate,
Past that harsh oasis in a desert duned with shadows,
Traffic shushes the tarmac;
Distant ships ploughing their course on a dark river.
Cigarette smoke trickles through manufactured starlight
And curls itself up in a blanket of black.
Too-close moon of the town clock tells me it is midnight,
Clanging discordant knells for the day now deceased,
And ringing in tomorrow.
#breakingbard
The Librarian
She took to the books
Like a cat to a nook;
With the knowledge discovered,
My lady partook.
Ideas flew like birds
From those pages of words;
She strode and explored
A new galaxy of worlds.
This custodian, grown,
Guards a home of the tome
And initiates others
In wonders unknown.
#breakingbard
I used to wonder what the weather would be like,
Once outside the walls of life’s house.
I believe it will be a dawn, solicitous as a gentle spouse;
Earth’s face turned to Sol’s warm kiss.
I stretch in amber, breathe deep of day.
The rattle in my chest is worse.
#breakingbard
Heavens weep for the world that once was;
Grieve for the warmth of sunnier days.
The cathodyne abandonment of Gaia’s charges continues,
Still.
Light is dimmed,
Air holds its breath,
And Earth is changed.
Forever.
#breakingbard
Contemplated by the clouded brow of noon,
Ant-scampering under ancient, golden gaze;
Our mayfly lives are short & spent too soon.
Savour these moments of diminished days.
#BreakingBard
You acquiesce to Death as if t’were lordly being;
A being without our bonds, who knows no bound.
Yet, such a thing it is, as to accept is seeing.
Realise Death’s worth and woe;
Peace shall be found.
#BreakingBard
The darkling night flays us with dread
& draws us close. So close.
Deep-drumming heart’s humanity
Is clagged with thoughts morose.
And yet, the halo around us all
Is merely dimmed, not dead;
Nightmare dooms that would keep us cleft
Become sweet dreams, instead.
#BreakingBard
The storm has passed.
In the distance, thunder murmurs;
Clouds lighten between branches.
Beneath the trees, rain still falls,
Pattering on our hoods
As we soft-step the loam;
Our careful tread avoiding
Sky-mirrors dotting the soil.
#BreakingBard
Before I knew, the hedge maze had me
Held within its verdant heart.
The rustling leaf walls of the labyrinth
Refuse to bow or part;
Cursed and railed at, it roots unmoved
As un-solaced, I seek egress.
Hemmed in by this not-garden;
Lone path, one of distress.
#BreakingBard
Honey drapes the dawn-saluting trees;
Sky asks for five more minutes,
Peeking blue-eyed from within winter bedding;
Sheepdog sniffs freshening breeze & dreams of lunchtime warmth;
Purpled light waxes & wanes on branches,
As the slumbersome world stirs to life.
#BreakingBard
Muffled sound & sight meet us this fog-filled afternight;
Greet us with treewraiths & spectred sheep;
Strange guardians against the dark & disturbed sleep.
As sun lifts head, grey ghosts are goldened.
Emboldened, raised from the dead,
I am brought to life & light.
#BreakingBard
Trees sway to the rhythm of the breeze,
Blossom falls;
At my feet, cat rolls in luxury
On soft-bladed bed.
Fettered by coffee cup, pages try to fly.
Pen lies, unmoved by zephyr
Or writer’s pleasure.
Eyes closed and deep-breathed,
I share nature’s company.
#BreakingBard
Coffee chuckles through machine,
“Without time, there can be no space,”
As my sudded hands caress plates clean;
“Therefore; matter moves through time,”
Cradled calm, as against the pane
“As well as space…”
Coy gusts of wind bring playful rain.
#BreakingBard
Slate sky weeps softly in gloomed afternoon.
Silver-lidded gaze shines spotlight onto lone hawk,
Following its hopeful hover for umbrellaed field mice.
Now, curtain of rain falls across those eyes –
Brings verdant dreams to unjaded countryside.
#BreakingBard
On looming hill, once-mighty castle dost lie,
As lances of light pierce Heaven’s iron husk.
Cowers like a cur as destruction draws nigh;
Lit by sun’s blood, we march t’wards doom & dusk.
Spears cleave the benighted sky,
And ramparts quake at our battle cry.
#BreakingBard
Steel-blue & bright-lit sky belies the cool of day;
Butterflies meander, sap wakes.
Buzzing by, a bee goes on its way.
Birds call in ownership & want,
Flight full of Spring.
Wedding ring is warm on my hand,
As sun moves to depart the land;
Towards dusk, March-ing.
#BreakingBard
Day breaks.
Sun-kissed and ambered, mellow mist rolls away;
Meadow sloughs nocturnal linen, replaced by the warm embrace of sky;
Unduveted lea lifts tufted head from fresh and earthy bed.
Should you seek the root and fruit of life,
Here is the ‘why’.
#BreakingBard
Waking was hard today;
Wondered which words would find a way
To my sleep-addled brain,
One step away
From facing dreamy state.
This my first morning tweet;
Wordsmith should greet
The dawn on a better road.
Yet, tread the mud-clodded feet;
Lead Breaking Bard to wake.
#BreakingBard
‘Ekphrasis’ Project
I have been exploring an ongoing project with a brilliant photographer friend of mine, Andrea Kennard; the process is essentially ‘ekphrasis-but-not’ – a verbal interpretation and description of visual pieces of art but not in the traditional sense. Sometimes my title and thoughts will come direct from her title, sometimes I focus on a smaller part of the whole picture and interpret it as I see it (or wish to see it)
Below are some examples:
I Think I’m Barking
Near the entrance to the park,
Stood Willow softly weeping.
Had she been here all her life?
Was this a dream, while she was sleeping?
No memory sprang readily
Of how she came to be here;
No knowing if this was here and now,
Last week, last month – or yesteryear.
Others’ children played around her,
Not seeing her there, at all.
What must she do to be noticed?
Must she catch a disease? Or fall?
No-one tended to her these days,
She weathered her life, as she could;
Stayed strong as wind blew through her crown,
Hid her heart under skin like wood.
Nuke D.E.Z.
A century has passed since Boomsday.
Blasted Forest sighs under ashen skies;
Like us, it survives Kumwotmay –
Quiet, hidden and disguised.
Two thirds of all life is now Unseen –
No riot of colour or birdsong here –
Soft we slip through the desperate-green,
As we hunt Albinodeer.
‘Neath barren ground live my dear kin,
In the city where survivors were swept;
Our Nu K’dez, full of love and fear.
Forgive us. The Records Be Kept.
All around has not yet been laid waste
And though hope nowadays be reserved,
Is this the dawn of our new race?
Kumwotmay, We Must Deserve It.
Inside-Out
Through the ribcage of the Barrier,
Metal barren beyond distress,
Meadow sweetly sings of bees and timeless wilderness.
We see with hungry green eyes
A dance of breeze through long grass,
The whisper of cirrus across ice-blue skies.
We could use those chains to scale the height,
To escape from this dark to life and light.
But we do not.
Links hold us foetally curled,
Spine-deep in the detritus of our world.
Instead, we dream our time away;
Our heartbeats measured in items owned,
Hours worked and money earned.
And skin forgets the warmth of sun,
The power of earth,
The joy of breathing day.
All writings the property of Andrew James Deane and all photography the property of Andrea Kennard. Copyright 2023 Andrew James Deane
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