Ronnie Smith

My #promptcombo #free40 for @hool415.bsky.social could almost bookend @dragonslayerma.bsky.social lovely poem. Written early when the noisy pigeons woke me up.

A late Friday entry. @rfsmith.bsky.social‬
#PromptCombo
#Powerless

@rfsmith.bsky.social‬
#PromptCombo
My #Powerless for Thursday.

Hmmm, the endless quest to explain our complicated power relationship with the particularly social demon drink. In this case you cite instance of booze as anaesthetic to this tortured world. Thank you Scott, perhaps the first of many in a series.

Yeah, I like this very much Paul. Are we exploring the power of guilt here by any chance? Always an interesting topic in its own right. Thank you.

Weakest are the most powerful. I'm against their authority. Homeless, destitute, abandoned hold sway. We're under their thumb. What gives them the right? We don't want to abandon our homes, cars, land. What gives them the right to lord it over us with those stares? Begging us to submit to their rule, As if they want us to sink to their level. We've got principles. They're all billionaires on quiet, you know.

For @rfsmith.bsky.social Ronnie and your excellent #Promptcombo #Powerless

Thank you Rachel, two responses are always better than one and I like both of these very clear expressions of feeling controlled by insurmountable forces, external and internal. I confess to loving the ‘calm’. Thank you.

On Being Called Obedient The tide looks obedient, a shoreline kneeling twice a day. But it is tendon and pull, muscle hooked to a distant bone, dragged by a body it never sees.

On Being Called Calm No flame. No voice. Still, oceans lean toward her. Salt swells in the throat of water. Blood keeps its red calendar

Thanks @rfsmith.bsky.social for hosting this week's #PromptCombo #Powerless
My thoughts veered into femininity, perception & misdiagnosis of powerless.
I couldn't choose one so here are both responses.

“… reduced after all his reducing”. A very strong line in my opinion at the very heart of your message.I have had reason to think that some people become more powerful after they’ve gone. Thank you for this excellent piece of work.

“…reduced after all his reducing”

Quoting Joyce while she tossed him His ashes fly furious at her words Cruel bitumen for potholes Compost for nettle and thistle He has no power now and less before Borrow ditch grave lends the name A road to send back by Terminally reduced after all his reducing A ceremony of banishment not loss She wants the spot for her own scatterings Take me down to the eternal, she sings, Make me the whirling howling phantom cinders Of victim turned tormentor.

@rfsmith.bsky.social #promptcombo #powerless.

Yes, I think the realisation of powerlessness is itself a long dark tunnel. It’s not acceptance as I believe that requires a certain element of choice. To understand that there is no choice must be very profound. Powerful Beth, thank you.

the past lives within my skin pink scars showing how powerless one is over their own mind depression shows up and never leaves like a bad party guest (could've at least spiked the punch) a downer with a knife while paranoia is watching staring, inhaling details to ridicule later every word you write every word you speak it's all ridiculous and wrong the darkness is incurable a partner for life unwanted uninvited unwilling to leave

Once it's in you, it's not going to leave. You have no say.

#PromptCombo #powerless #poetry #writing #mentalillness
@victoriaspires.bsky.social @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social @rfsmith.bsky.social

Oh this is a painful one Paul, the failing of the body and its senses. Where once we might have plunged a shovel into the soil, now we can hardly pick it up. I get your very sharp point here and my arthritic fingers are sniggering.

Yes, there is that aspect Francis sensing the slow motion see-saw of a very strong power relationship transforming before your eyes. I managed to take the less stressful path of just watching them grow, stepping in where necessary, when asked. It’s a tough one, thank you.

@rfsmith.bsky.social‬
#PromptCombo
#Powerless on Wednesday offering

Blue. Just blue.
Not periwinkle nor forget-me-not.
Not Prussian, nor sapphire, nor cerulean. Just beautiful blue-ness on a sun soothed day.

Excellent and urgent Mathias. It is assumed that having power is exhausting but for the powerful, as far as I can see, having power is invigorating, stimulating, life-affirming. Those who don’t have are simply drained. Thank you.

nerve endings screaming
overloaded mind — shutdown
nothing left to spare
neuronal sparks misfired
mental batteries drained

#promptcombo #powerless #tanka
#poetry #poetrycommunity

@rfsmith.bsky.social

DRNaturegirl (@drnaturegirl) Today is world wildlife day. Every day should be, in my book, given the state of nature in the world and the UK in particular. There is positive news in some places - like the return of a Giant Torto...

Today is #WorldWildlifeDay some simple suggestions for how you can help the wildlife in the UK.

#nature

substack.com/@drnaturegir...

When it feels
as if dark swathes
separate us

especially then

I hear our song
swaying on the wind,
as if to say—

there is nothing
that can truly
keep us apart

since a thread
of light & hope
connects our hearts—

singing always

even
in the dark.

#sensewrds 192

A Difficulty Gust cold gets inside skin. Difficulty with fingers as he finds coin he cannot grasp. I know the old have thinner skin. "It is colder," I suggest. "Early onset of Parkinson's," he replies. "Have a better day," I reply weakly.

Hi @rfsmith.bsky.social, here's my second for your great #promptcombo #Powerless

Power cut we sit in darkness outside the storm breaks the bough reach for the matches

A slightly literal haiku for #PromptCombo #Powerless on this gloomy wet Monday. Thanks for the excellent prompt, @rfsmith.bsky.social #poems #poetry #writingcommunity

A hole in the road FOOTWAY CLOSED, so the sign says. Playmobil-green barriers enclosing a cavity that yawns from a wave of lawn to the cliff edge of a kerb – a couple of feet at most. They did this in the small hours: tore at tarmac with a toy JCB; heaped up spoonfuls of rubble, clay; arranged a miniature mountain range around a hole filling fast with children’s echoes, binmen’s tutting, a neighbour’s concerns, the yap of an anxious dog.

For @rfsmith.bsky.social's #promptcombo on the theme of #powerless, a surprisingly literal interpretation from me. This was written after a power cut that took out all the electricity in our cul-de-sac about 12 years ago.

I can see from a brief skim (I'll be back soon to read properly) that my take is far from unique. Still attempting brevity. For @rfsmith.bsky.social #PromptCombo #powerless

Thanks @rfsmith.bsky.social for this week’s #promptcombo #powerless. Here’s one about the powerlessness that comes with an aging body.

Thank you @rfsmith.bsky.social. For #Powerless I am thinking about energy in relationships.

#PromptCombo #poetrycommunity #poetry #poems #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry

A 2 stanza poem by Debbie Ross entitled Illusions Text as follows: A vote in a democracy, a bill through the letterbox, a result from a test, a credit card in a wallet, a roof over your head. Power-crazed lunatics running the show, protest won't stop them, neither will hope.

Morning, Ronnie @rfsmith.bsky.social and the rest of the crew, thanks for this week’s #PromptCombo #powerless This was what came to mind and as you can tell I’ve not spent any time working on it. #poetrycommunity #poetry

@rfsmith.bsky.social‬
#PromptCombo
My #Powerless for Tuesday.

These times can make us feel #powerless confronting the human tendency, acutely exhibited by the populist grifters & felons, to give in to base impulses & reprise old error. It moves me to reshare my poem Magdeburg for @rfsmith.bsky.social’s timely #promptcombo theme #poetsonbluesky #poetrycommunity