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Debra Nordyke

@dnwritespoetry.bsky.social

180 followers 280 following 480 posts

Writer of poetry. To walk as a warrior, embracing grace, into the storms of darkness to breathe out light. Weaving the evil threads life hurls with the threads of wonder. Beauty is cultivated in darkness.

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Debra Nordyke @dnwritespoetry.bsky.social · 1h

Thank you Glenn! Yes perpetually becoming…never quite fixed!!! Very thoughtful response! 🩷

Debra Nordyke @dnwritespoetry.bsky.social · 11h

Oh thank you John! Means so much to hear! 🩷

Debra Nordyke @dnwritespoetry.bsky.social · 13h

Thank you, Karen! Means a lot coming from a poet such as yourself!❤️

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Debra Nordyke @dnwritespoetry.bsky.social · 13h

Thank you, Carolyn! ❤️

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Debra Nordyke @dnwritespoetry.bsky.social · 15h

Thank you! 🩷

Debra Nordyke @dnwritespoetry.bsky.social · 15h

It was my joy of time spent!

Debra Nordyke @dnwritespoetry.bsky.social · 15h

That’s when you know your poetic instincts are spot on!

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Debra Nordyke @dnwritespoetry.bsky.social · 15h

Ha! Ha! Yes you would! 👏👏

Debra Nordyke @dnwritespoetry.bsky.social · 15h

Thank you ever so much! 🩷🩷

Reposted by Debra Nordyke

Karen Keefe @greenkari.bsky.social · 1d

My husband, Robert Guzikowski, has aphasia. These poems are from his book, Unwordly, published by UnCollected Press. #PoemsAbout#ImperfectMe

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Reposted by Debra Nordyke

The Broken Spine @thebrokenspine.co.uk · 1d

Thanks for tearing it up on last week’s #PoemsAbout. This Friday we shift: #BreakTheMould. Think refusal, escape, iconoclast energy. Start posting Friday—early drops get buried. Use Alt Text. Tag #PoemsAbout to be seen. Sign up for deeper prompts: shorturl.at/0Xm7A

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Debra Nordyke @dnwritespoetry.bsky.social · 17h

This is quite lovely! Favorite line "life lived in a key you refused to hear!" Wow that line says so much! The poem has a mixture of strength and melancholy which I love! Well done!

Reposted by Debra Nordyke

Fiftywords @fiftywords.bsky.social · 3d

Here’s to the imperfect, the mislabeled, the beautifully unfitting. This piece is for all of us who will not be named by other people’s judgment. #PoemsAbout #ImperfectMe Thanks to @alanparrywriter.co.uk and this wonderful community @thebrokenspine.co.uk

The Name You Gave Me
You gave me a name I never asked for,
a word carved from your slant of sight,
what you call incomplete. But 1 know no lack, my world hums with fullness, my life lived in a key
you refuse to hear. You measure in steps, in movements that conform, while I am content in the spaces
where stillness grows its own rhythm. I carry no burden, but your gaze is heavy,
my being
a question left unanswered. Yet I move through my days
whole, free of the silence
you called a name.

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Debra Nordyke @dnwritespoetry.bsky.social · 17h

I love the imagery of this poem...the repetitive use of three-legged works so well! Well done!

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Reposted by Debra Nordyke

John Chmura @johnchmura.bsky.social · 1d

#PoemsAbout #ImperfectMe
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
Having just encouraged another poet to double dip and being triggered in a good way by a line in another poem, I’d like to double dip with this short piece I wrote in 2021 after seeing a man with a cane walking a dog with three legs.

OMNE TRIUM PERFECTUM

Three-legged man walks
three-legged dog;
a cane, an absence, and a shared heart.

Third wheel in three-legged races,
odd in games of evens; spacewalker
pounding Cupola windows.

Grabbing Gorilla Glue
to fix a three-legged stool,
putting small stock in the bond.

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Debra Nordyke @dnwritespoetry.bsky.social · 17h

The imagery of this poem is so vividly seen! The sounds of time, tick tock so effective! Favorite line "even slow down the seconds of innocence lost!" Wow!

Reposted by Debra Nordyke

Karen Pierce Gonzalez @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social · 3d

Another #poem that can speak for herself. #PoemsAbout #ImperfectMe @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk #StayCreative #PoetsSupportPoets #PoetsOfBlueSky

My Clock

Bare feet on the hour hand
metal edge slicing my soles

I cannot stop time.

Fingers on razored minute hand
pushing hard to rewind the moments

I cannot stop.

Tick tock, tick tock.

His touching me like that
has already happened

too many times.
A warped cycle.

I cannot

even slow down the seconds
of innocence lost.

Tick tock, tick tock.

Karen Pierce Gonzalez

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Debra Nordyke @dnwritespoetry.bsky.social · 18h

I love this poem, and the rhyming works beautifully! Paired with the photo is so perfect! And so universal...we all must traverse the path of loving the imperfect me! Lovely!

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Reposted by Debra Nordyke

DrNaturegirl @drnaturegirl.debbiemross.co.uk · 3d

Good morning #BlueskyPoetry Community. A grand start for #PoemsAbout #ImperfectMe today. @alanparrywriter.co.uk & @thebrokenspine.co.uk here’s my experimental draft. Weird form for the 1st but the rhyme is intentional. 2nd’s a Haiku as it seemed appropriate. Will catch up on the rest later. Thanks.

A poem by Debbie Ross

Super Model
I used to be bothered about my hips, my tits, my lips - all the bits that didn't conform to some societal norm of what a girl should be
it was my Dad who shaped me - never good enough at what was important to him.
Now
I embrace the 'flaws':
the love of books and poetry,
the lines of learning, this errant body -
imperfect, perfect ME.

A photo of a grey bowl with the text of a poem by Debbie Ross overlaid as follows

Kintsukuroi 金繕
We are travellers filling our imperfections with thin lines of gold

A definition of kintsukuroi underneath

kintsukuroi
(n.) (v. phr.) "to repair with gold"; the Japanese art of repairing pottery with gold or silver lacquer and understanding that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken.

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Debra Nordyke @dnwritespoetry.bsky.social · 18h

Love the story...so universal and relatable! Favorite line "her play unspools!" Fabulous!

Reposted by Debra Nordyke

paulrapley.bsky.social @paulrapley.bsky.social · 3d

#poemsabout #ImperfectMe #KeepWriting
@alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk
#poetrycommunity #poetry #PoetsWhoSupportPoets #PoetsOfBlueSky

matters of the clock

Flower power liberated me.
Smart suit and tie, straight job: the movies preached
those made a man. Impossibility.
My trade-off: sanity for duties breached.
Our first-born, anxious she’d be late for school
aged only six, delayed by me—dumb rules
go hang, they know you’ll miss no class—blind fool
I was, now watching as her play unspools
and mark my irresponsibility.
Base theme: her stumbling over keeping time
since angst subverted punctuality.
Though I’ve rebuilt my views, that early crime—
plus many others flickering her screen—
she’s worked to straighten, made her clock run clean.

Paul Rapley 2025 #ImperfectMe

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Debra Nordyke @dnwritespoetry.bsky.social · 18h

Bravo! Doing what poetry does best...brevity that speaks volumes! Well done! I am glad you choose to write it and share!

Reposted by Debra Nordyke

Jane Dougherty @janedougherty47.bsky.social · 3d

I wasn't going to do this #PoemsAbout until ten minutes ago. #imperfectme seems so self-evident. So that's what I said.
@alanparrywriter.co.uk
@thebrokenspine.co.uk

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Debra Nordyke @dnwritespoetry.bsky.social · 18h

I love this poem! It is so universal and relatable! I "list feel" when read out loud works so well! Well done!

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Reposted by Debra Nordyke

DaniGraceWrites @danigracewrites.bsky.social · 2d

Broken

I'm no model of high society
I have not inherited great legacies
If you cut me, I bleed profusely
My tears sometimes fall incessantly
My words don't always roll perfectly
I still survive life's edge
with an imperfect me.

#poemsabout
#imperfectMe
@alanparrywriter.co.uk
@thebrokenspine.co.uk

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