Dean Norton
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zentinl.bsky.social
Dean Norton
@zentinl.bsky.social
75 followers 63 following 500 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
stacebot.bsky.social
For this week's #PoemsAbout #TimeSlips, I'm thinking about what gets left unprocessed.

Thank you to the host @alanparrywriter.co.uk
and @thebrokenspine.co.uk and to all of the other writers.

#poetry #poem #writing #PoetryCommunity #BlueSkyPoets
skip take these are the dark days. the waiting ones. soaking the whites in bleach. idle hands. waiting. for something human to arrive. plastic-bag-on-the-head days. cold white sweat. dog-hair world. i lick my wounds and wait. the ache comes wrong-- heart stopping mid-break. i resolve myself. begin again. jig the saw. pieces everywhere. drain the dregs. pull the window shades off the rods. wreck the room. shake to shake in the gloam. i am the new wrong-way right. the wrong something anywhere sometime this time. no map. not the asphalt. not the bird cutting the flat horizon into forever nothing. i need mist. i need shade. not quite light. something to lose myself in. to loose these ties. these days do not need hope. they need names. definitions. black spray paint. the lot.
January 16, 2026 at 1:03 PM
Reposted by Dean Norton
merrildsmith.bsky.social
Good morning! For #PoemsAbout #TimeSlips
I'm fascinated by time. 😊
Thank you as always to @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk
Poem: We’re All Time Travelers The contour of time– not flat, but shaped with possibility, polished, as a queen’s pearls sliding from the string, dropped here there we meet, fall in love now, long ago, in the future-- a child’s perspective that a wish can alter time’s path, an unbroken circle, an orbit before we accelerate.
January 16, 2026 at 12:54 PM
zentinl.bsky.social
With apologies for the late Friday post to #PoemsAbout #TimeSlips.
As usual, gracious hat tip to @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk

#poetrycommunity #poetry #poems #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry
January 17, 2026 at 3:44 AM
zentinl.bsky.social
#PoemsAbout #static has me mindful of white noise in relationships

Thank you to host @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk
#poetrycommunity #poetry #poems #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry
January 9, 2026 at 2:52 PM
Reposted by Dean Norton
owlnsquirrels1111.bsky.social
Combining
#FromOneLine : Prompt 397 “We should have stopped”
with:
#PoemsAbout #YouShouldntHave
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
#Oulens #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry
#poetrycommunity #poetry

Thanks for Stopping by! 🙏🫶🙏
The River . . . Can . - C. Oulens we should have stopped like the river lost to silt like the breeze dropped in humid heat like the sky shying . . . not falling in sea OR you could’ve just stopped at the comma & nine ninety-nine syllable-stints before ‘ , ‘ and spared the period its pain . . . of be- coming a period . . . post . . . an . . . extended . . . out-of-place . . . (of non-consequence) . . . ellipsis. * the last lines from “post…. ellipsis” runs as a single line.
December 12, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Reposted by Dean Norton
fhpowellwriter.bsky.social
#PoemsAbout #YouShouldntHave
A poem inspired by Toyin Agbetu
I discovered this while watching a documentary about the British Royal family, on the BBC this week.
it's more in praise of what he did rather than what he shouldn't have.
December 12, 2025 at 5:51 PM
zentinl.bsky.social
For #PoemsAbout #YouShouldntHave I am thinking about all the things I shouldn't do.

Warm nods to @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk

#poetrycommunity #poetry #poems #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry
December 12, 2025 at 2:18 PM
zentinl.bsky.social
Sneaking this in before it chimes for the end of this day and thinking for #memorial about each day being an irretrievable loss. #promptcombo @rfsmith.bsky.social #poetrycommunity #poetry #poems #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry
December 9, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Reposted by Dean Norton
wodz.bsky.social
= after autumn =

so who will remember
but the flowers i watered
the birds that i fed
the black dog that followed
to the garden shed
though never a sigh
for the words that i wrote
in blood
on autumn leaves

#PromptCombo #Memorial #poem #poetry
v3
December 8, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Reposted by Dean Norton
stacebot.bsky.social
#weird #magenta #rift got me thinking like this.

#Emoetry
@fafo-poets-society.bsky.social
@mwplovesmusic.bsky.social‬

@sanjar.bsky.social
#vss365 @vss365hq.bsky.social

@ewiggins66.bsky.social
#BlueSkyRelay @blueskyrelay.bsky.social
magenta a rift blooms between us— a wound that doesn’t even exist. love does that. breaks open into something weird, bright, swallows us whole, too fast for saving.
December 7, 2025 at 5:02 PM
zentinl.bsky.social
Another for #blueskyrelay and #rift. This one from a university outing in Hawai'i give me an opportunity to be a bit more literal. Feels topical since Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has been showing off spectacularly. Thank you @ewiggins66.bsky.social.
December 8, 2025 at 4:50 AM
zentinl.bsky.social
Hello #blueskyrelay here’s one for #rift
Thank you @ewiggins66.bsky.social for hosting!
December 8, 2025 at 4:45 AM
Reposted by Dean Norton
stacebot.bsky.social
For this week's #PoemsAbout #Imps, I'm thinking about a presence behind the ear.

Thanks to the host @alanparrywriter.co.uk. And thank you to
@thebrokenspine.co.uk and to all of the other writers.

#poetry #poem #writing #PoetryCommunity #BlueSkyPoets
Come close, come close to the tether you broke. By wound, by want, by the crook of your arm— I deliver you this curse: Let my longing mark you. Let the truth undo you. Let every doorway dissolve. Let the spark in your eyes fall-- soft, like a held breath-- and settle where no one can comfort you. And may you carry it, forever, not as cost but memory. Listen close: I curse you to feel me in the quiet-- a presence you can't name without breaking. I don’t wish you ruin. I hope you will be happy sometimes. Let it be. Let it be. Let it be.
December 6, 2025 at 1:17 AM
zentinl.bsky.social
This is a WIP and is in part about that very thing. #promptcombo #thispoem #poem
@victoriaspires.bsky.social. What a great prompt!

#poetrycommunity #poetry #poems #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry
December 2, 2025 at 3:04 PM
zentinl.bsky.social
@tomsnarsky.bsky.social my first for #smallpoemsunday #poetry #poetrycommunity #poetry #poems #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry
December 1, 2025 at 4:33 AM
zentinl.bsky.social
Offering one for #retroartprompt #silver and #wintry @anntigone.bsky.social
#poetrycommunity #poetry #poems #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry
December 1, 2025 at 4:21 AM
Reposted by Dean Norton
owlnsquirrels1111.bsky.social
For #PoemsAbout #NoFuture , , , and maybe breaking the hourglass?
Will return later to read others’. Thank you for reading! 🙏💫

@thebrokenspine.co.uk
#Oulens #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry
#poetrycommunity #poetry
There’s NoFuture in This Bound Hourglass - C. Oulens That which wecamearoundto prepondering— the future— thatwhichpresseddownpoundingona couple of poor grains at the narrow neck piling up piteously at the bottom of this time-plagued hourglass Is nothing but the past flipped and posing as Future everforevernever to be a to be,,, ,,,oh! I forget! I’m trying to break free of shards that came t o b e.
November 28, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Reposted by Dean Norton
philippabowe.bsky.social
This week's #PoemsAbout prompt #NoFuture took me straight into something that is a sad reality, here in France, I have been closely connected to. Thank you for the ongoing inspiration @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk Happy weekend poets! 💜
Black text on a white background, the words of a poem: Bounded Future They flock here, the boys, and sometimes girls but mostly boys, here to the land of liberté, fraternité, égalité, where the streets are paved with education, with jobs, with fat consumer goods, whose language they speak, were taught at school, colonising legacy. They leave their villages, towns, cities, these children of West Africa, they flee the places where their horizons have shrunk to nothing, they walk north trying to keep their shoes together with string, they cross the desert on the back of pick-ups trying not to look at the corpses littering the route, they cross the Mediterranean trying to choke down their terror because they never learned to swim. The ones who get here are children in the eyes of the law, but the eyes of the system are indifferent, wanting to dislodge them like grit from the Sahara. When the system is forced to finally open the gate it guards so closely, Cerberus system, it tells them, this is your future, bounded here and no further. Some of them are grateful, some are relieved, exhausted, and some are angry. But they all know there is no going back.
November 28, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Reposted by Dean Norton
stacebot.bsky.social
For this week's #PoemsAbout #NoFuture, I'm thinking about paradoxes and the future problem.

Holding our host @alanparrywriter.co.uk in my thoughts this week and thanks to @thebrokenspine.co.uk and to all of the other writers.

#poetry #poem #writing #PoetryCommunity #BlueSkyPoets
the future problem that’s the part nobody warns you about— how long something dying keeps walking past its own expiration date. we perform belief until the ground peels out from under us, quiet as hunger, elegant as ruin— already down, bruised, off balance, pretending we meant to fall. if i were to tell you this, you mustn’t tell anyone else: stop believing in living into the endings. everything always is forever until it isn’t.
November 28, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Dean Norton
paulrapley.bsky.social
#poemsabout #NoFuture #KeepWriting
@alanparrywriter.co.uk
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
#TakeRisks #EndOnAnImage #AvoidCliché #poetrycommunity #poetry #PoetsWhoSupportPoets #PoetsOfBlueSky
knocked out quickly - interrupted by a person from Porlock
gaps to be filled...
rip tiredness tired of searching, lugging, peering, failing, nagged by certainty that if he found it, or if they, discovering themselves to him, through half-dreamt chance, by half-remembered waking, longing, long-abandoned planning, buried deep within forgotten books; or crushed beneath a pile of magazines long semi-read while meaning drained away; or dwelling with a creche of much-loved toys whose lovers, grown and gone, had bid adieu; or furniture awaiting skilled repair and warm return to rooms that never were; or, trapped within soft piles of sleepless blankets, confidants of truth to aid his quest; or relics from the homes of hard departed, promising solutions to life’s puzzles only if he’d brave his torch to read them; or, tucked beyond in some far crevice, out of reach, denying his spent grasp, he lay in darkness under his dark roof. […] slipping the ripper between the flat slates, its flat body subverting their reign of opacity, feeling its nose tap against the old nail, he adjusted its tooth to engage in the darkness and pulled out the nail… […] …and began his ascent to the light and the sky and his future beyond… […] Paul Rapley 2025 #NoFuture
November 29, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Reposted by Dean Norton
merrildsmith.bsky.social
Good morning! With Thanksgiving and houseguests, I wasn't going to participate in #PoemsAbout #NoFuture this week, but I felt the urge to write--so a quick one from me. I'll be back to read when I can. Thank you @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk
Darkest Nightmare, Brightest Dream The possible impossibility of no future, the universe’s flawed design, a bug in its brilliant breath, a break, a slow bleed-- or a flashbang— the syncopated rhythm of stars collapsed jazz-hands flutter and fall time folded, an accordion waiting to play every song and none here, not here a hummingbird, an azure sky, green vines, orange lichen, a soft-pink lotus flower opens, a laugh.
November 29, 2025 at 11:50 AM
zentinl.bsky.social
Arriving late to #poemsabout for #nofuture. Thank you to our host @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk for the weekly prod to continue creating. #poetrycommunity #poetry #poems #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry.
November 29, 2025 at 6:51 AM
Reposted by Dean Norton
owlnsquirrels1111.bsky.social
For #PoemsAbout #DogTags
Will come back later to read others and comment. A slightly long poem today, will understand if you give it a miss. Thank you! 🙏 💫

@alanparrywriter.co.uk
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
#Oulens #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry
#poetrycommunity #poetry
Of Certificates and Of Those Missing - C. Oulens I was born happy and blue! A little confused coz there seemed a lot of hullabaloos over this fact and that I did not wail and kept my eyes shut—they even discriminate against babies that are introvert! Oh c’mon, what’s the deal with this—I thought—should I gawk wide at the beauty of sunshine? Can I not let it seep in with time? Have they not learnt from dawn, of light’s slow release? Should I let the sun jump on me and damage my eyes? Let’s say I concede to that, but why, oh why—should they want me to shriek? Then I heard my mom’s wail—Yeah, well, emotional blackmail commences as early as that—even before they’ve prepared your destiny’s sketch (and the many certificates of mismatch). Besides, they were shaking me (and what not—uncomfortably)—so, with an eye roll, I kindly complied and delivered a heart-rending scream—an encore to my mom’s premature mournful cries (it seemed she thought I got born with an intent to die)—and to my bafflement—followed by a roomful of applause and cheer—it now appeared I had claimed my first entitlement of existence—certified in a registry. … and that, in short, is my introduction to a kind world that said—undocumented—you’ve had your heartful—henceforth the world would appreciate if you kept your screams inside and your tears dry—there’s too much, anyway, to pass by. And sunshine I found is not infinite—how can it be when some are looking to steal from you with a sleight of hand—but some, at the edge of abyss, will find a bagful of a warm wish—unclassified, uncertified. I am not happy but I’m happily blue. I stole too—some stars—of a blue moon—committing poetry—without standard devices—without requisite licences—without certificates to earn.
November 21, 2025 at 6:22 AM
Reposted by Dean Norton
drnaturegirl.debbiemross.co.uk
Hello #promptcombo crew Thanks Paul @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social for this week’s #onrooftops theme. I’m just about to go out, but thought I’d post my wee offering first. Photo by me, Jerusalem rooftops looking towards the Dome of the Rock.

#poetry #poem
A poem by Debbie Ross entitled, Domes Stars and Steeples text as follows From up here the churches, mosques and synagogues glint in sunlight, perfectly co-existing. Rooftop views can be deceptive. On the ground invisible barriers fracture communities. Nationalism, religion and fear keep people apart. Down in the narrow tangle of alleys and streets we found communities that mixed. A glimmer of hope in a desert of grief. A view across mostly flat rooftops - with TV aerials and shade shelters - towards the Dome of the Rock
November 24, 2025 at 2:02 PM