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Jane Dougherty

@janedougherty47.bsky.social

740 followers 590 following 1.7K posts

Writer of fiction and poetry, lives in a green fortress. Not interested in 'communities'. Learn to live together, the rest of the natural world manages to. Visit my Substack https://substack.com/@janedougherty47 for short fiction and poetry

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 3h

So delicately phrased, no warrior-woman self-congratulation, just quiet, picking myself up and getting on with it. (I didn't know this about you, but I should have done. I have the same charcoal dots, same place).

Reposted by Jane Dougherty

Merril D. Smith @merrildsmith.bsky.social · 21h

Good morning! I wasn't going to do this prompt for #PoemsAbout #imperfectMe but started writing it yesterday @paulwritespoems.bsky.social writing group. It's still rough. Thanks as always to @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk

Poem:

Still Standing

The scar on my right breast
a faint tracing,
the charcoal under the artist’s paint,

tattooed dots,
ellipsis signaling the story continues—

always a before
and an after--

so far, always an after--

the sagging of flesh, the greying of hair,
points for endurance, if not for style,

as vain as anyone, I suppose,
but embracing the imperfect,
me.

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 4h

Congratulations! I'm going to look at the details now.

Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 4h

Thanks Debbie 💙

Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 4h

Thank you! When the subject is 'me', imperfect or otherwise, the less said the better 💙

Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 4h

Thanks Alan. Between humility and awe is exactly where we ought to sit, I believe.

Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 16h

I'm sure I'll know when to stop.

Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 16h

It did. I was just having a conversation with someone about grammar so it tickled me that you have put it into a poem.

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Reposted by Jane Dougherty

Carolyn Thomas @carolynthomas.bsky.social · 1d

For #PoemsAbout #ImperfectMe Posting my effort now but madly busy so will try to catch up with everyone’s work later - the ones I have seen are great 😊
@alanparrywriter.co.uk
@thebrokenspine.co.uk

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 17h

Ha ha! Clever 😀

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 18h

That was a bit cheeky, but I like the idea of putting the reader on the spot 😀 I find it intriguing, not so much why so many people think that their experiences are fascinating, but why so many people seem to find them fascinating.

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 20h

It might be just an impression, but it seems to me that's there's suddenly several billion people who think they are the nombril of the universe. We have reached a shattering degree of narcissism!

Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 20h

Thank you!

Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 20h

I think I'm getting close. It's a long way up from the bottom.

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 21h

Still working on it.

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 21h

Sometimes there doesn't have to be any reason at all. Disappointment perhaps. Powerfully told.

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Reposted by Jane Dougherty

John Chmura @johnchmura.bsky.social · 1d

#PoemsAbout #ImperfectMe
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
I will put a reel in the comments.

IMPERFECT ME

On days my son was measured
in length rather than height
I held him shirtless in one arm
while I lathered my face to shave.
Leaned on my chest, warm,
he plunged an explorer’s hands, decisive,
into my foamy cheeks, gaining agency,
the intimation of form, and play
affirmed in his corporeal birthright.

And me, significant, generative,
like the god of the psalmist,
I could do no wrong.

Whiskey it wasn’t that imperfected me
in his eyes. I may never know
which particular betrayal
inspired that loss of grace.
But it did boost his swagger to say
for the first time fuck you, Dad,
and I absorbed the preordained assertion,
concussive, cracked like a plastic bucket
abandoned on the back porch
when water expands into ice.

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 21h

Childhood illnesses leave their mark, like mothers.

Reposted by Jane Dougherty

Sarah O @palimpsest22.bsky.social · 1d

#PoemsAbout #ImperfectMe
Thanks @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk for nudging me into discomfort writing. Started life in @wendypratt.bsky.social workshop,been festering.

Poem called Face Cream by Sarah O'Grady.

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 21h

So quiet, no noise, just trying. It's all we can do, isn't it?

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Reposted by Jane Dougherty

David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks again @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk for an excellent #PoemsAbout prompt #ImperfectMe. Here's a poem about the imperfection of yielding to hope over experience

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 21h

💙

Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 21h

I tried 💚

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 21h

Small, but makes my point, I hope 💙

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Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 21h

👍