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@fhpowellwriter.bsky.socialOct 9, 2026, 7:53 AM

@emteepoetry.bsky.social
#PromptCombo #Winged for Friday. Have a great weekend the #poetrycommunity

@winterroom.bsky.socialOct 8, 2026, 9:41 PM

@emteepoetry.bsky.social
#PromptCombo #Winged

So in contrast to my haiku here's a long piece (in three parts).
The Gift of Grace

The Gift of Grace

A murmurating starling said
“While we’re performing overhead
my feathered friends and I have found
that all your efforts on the ground
are lacking our esprit de corps 
and have, in brief, been rather poor.

“So now we offer, almost free,
this stunning opportunity,
a course we’ve tailored to your needs
(for modest sums of bugs and seeds).
We’ll give you all the skills you lack
in ten short weeks, or beetles back.”

So every day from eight til three
they coached their choreography,
the path to pirouettes and poise
and, at appropriate times, the noise
of one enormous forest fire,
the sound of flocks in night attire.

And then, to banish any doubt, 
certificates were handed out
affixed with odoriferous seals
(resembling wax, but not quite real)
and glossy wing-tips brushed the hand
of each proud human graduand.

Then as they nibbled cheese and worms
the boldest tweeted in these terms
#notimelikethepresent 
the 4cast 4 this aft is pleasant
Let us go now you and I
and dance beneath the salmon sky
At once from every habitation
shop and school and railway station,
bank and coffee bar and baker’s
factory and undertakers,
up from cellars, down from attics
minds intent on acrobatics

in one Terpischorean tide
human beings stepped outside.
and flowed away in braided streams
uphill, to where the upland seems
to shatter on  a gritstone edge,
where climbers grip and falcons fledge,

and on the sward below the height
they gathered in the fading light
to sway and waver, pulse and curl,
plume to a seamless mass, then whirl
away in a filementous burst.
They had no score, no steps rehearsed,

their rule, their principle, their groove
was “see what your neighbour does, and move.”
and when their spirographic spree
had reached its breathless apogee,
into a final swirl they drew
and poured as from a jug into

the thicket of a nearby wood.
And long into the night there could 
be heard their sleepy repertoire
of “Goodnight Jonboy,” “Goodnight Ma,”
and when the sun enflamed the East
the Age of Hearth and Home had ceased.
And in that dawn the Faculty,
observing from a nearby tree,
saw this event could now afford a
chance to change the pecking order
swapping drafty reeds and fences
for bijoux urban residences.

Our forbears didn’t hesitate,
they chose at once to relocate.
So now my sons, my daughters bold
the story of that day’s been told,
you know how starlings gave the race
of humankind the gift of grace

and in return became the heirs
of roosts with windows, walls and stairs.
So tuck your bills beneath your wings
and as your speckled father sings
a coda to this fairy tale,
we’ll dream, we’ll dream

we’ll dream, we’ll dream
we’ll dream along the dado rail.
@winterroom.bsky.socialOct 8, 2026, 9:13 PM

I'm rather prone to writing haiku about birds...

@emteepoetry.bsky.social
#PromptCombo #Winged.

over ridge and furrow
the rise and fall
of a swallow

--

that twig's
still not right !
coots are building

--

the crows
build the tree
back into itself

@jenthorne.bsky.socialOct 8, 2026, 7:51 PM

@emteepoetry.bsky.social

My final contribution for #PromptCombo #Winged.

A reworking of an old one which I wasn't happy with 😊

#poetry
#prayer
#Mythology

A Prayer to Hypnos 

O Hypnos,
shadow-winged lord 
who walks the star-lit paths,
brother of Death 
yet kindred to mortals,
loosen the bonds of my toil.

Lead me, weary, 
into healing night.
Descend, soothing one, 
and veil my eyes. 

Sacred keeper of rest,
grant me the hush that cleanses,
the sleep that renews,
the silence 
in which the spirit is reborn. 

By your favour 
may dawn find me whole,
my breath as steady 
as the slumbering sea.
@fhpowellwriter.bsky.socialOct 8, 2026, 6:15 AM

@emteepoetry.bsky.social
#PromptCombo #Winged for Thursday

@morganrrhaze.bsky.socialOct 7, 2026, 3:10 PM

#WildWalkPrompt #PromptCombo
Contrasts
Bright of Beak; Winged in gray
A big song; a tiny bird
Symbol of freedom; caged
#imageprompt

Two birds in a cage
@fhpowellwriter.bsky.socialOct 7, 2026, 7:21 AM

@emteepoetry.bsky.social
#PromptCombo #Winged on Wednesday

@jenthorne.bsky.socialOct 6, 2026, 8:48 PM

@emteepoetry.bsky.social here is my second contribution for your #Winged #PromptCombo call-out

#Poetry

Bat Among the Lights 

Once, weathered barns leaned
with beams whispering to the wind.
Fields were midnight seas,
and trees stretched their arms
to cradle the night. 

Now the earth is parcelled with concrete,
hedgerows clipped into obedience.
The dark fractured by streetlights,
blooming too bright. 

The bat drifts
through this geometry of glass and brick,
its wings brushing halos,
its hunger met by moths
circling the false moons. 

It's plentifully fed,
yet carries in its bones
the taste of muted evenings,
the weight of stars unchallenged,
the vastness of the black
before it was tamed. 

Its flight is a lament,
an elegy for what is gone,
a winged shadow threading progress,
thriving, yet haunted,
by simpler days.
Dreaming of a world
it cannot return to,
even as it flourishes
in the light we have made.
@metaphorqu.bsky.socialOct 6, 2026, 6:10 PM

I'm forwarding this to #PoetsOfBluesky and the #PromptCombo and @thebrokenspine.co.uk teams for digestion and reflection . 🙃🙃

@suzydobie.bsky.socialOct 6, 2026, 5:36 PM

Hi, @emteepoetry.bsky.social
Here's another offering for #PromptCombo #Winged, a favorite of mine written in celebration of "October's bright blue weather," which in these parts brings the raptors out on show. Thanks again for the prompt!

#poetry #poetrycommunity
#writing #writercommunity
#prompt

@fhpowellwriter.bsky.socialOct 6, 2026, 1:28 PM

@emteepoetry.bsky.social
#PromptCombo #Winged. for Tuesday
#poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity

@daveashleypoet.bsky.socialOct 6, 2026, 7:58 AM

#promptcombo #wings #poem #humour

@zentinl.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 11:36 PM

Thank you @emteepoetry.bsky.social for this week's #PromptCombo #Winged. I've been pulled away for some weeks but delighted to be back reading.

#poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity

@suzydobie.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 9:29 PM

Hi, @emteepoetry.bsky.social
Here is an offering for
#PromptCombo
#Winged

The piece was originally written for a prompt by @malformed-poetry.bsky.social , but I am quite fond of it, and I hope it fits the bill. Thanks for the prompt!

#poetry #poetrycommunity
#writing #writercommunity
#prompt

@jenthorne.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 8:41 PM

@emteepoetry.bsky.social here is my offering for #Winged. This is an old one, but I love this #PromptCombo, so there may well be more to come.

#Poetry

Ghost in Feathers                               

The barn walls drink the last of the light.
Shadows bloom like bruises across the beams.
The swallows sleep in cloistered hush;
the oxblood tractor ticks,
a cooling beast slain at sunset.

Moths rise, dust-winged,
erratically searching
for the memory of light.
Spiders unfurl their wire legs,
threading tremors through webs.
Bats spill from broken gables,
their flight a soft percussion
through the dark.

The barn's hushed breath is silenced.
But the night's chorus is not complete.
One nocturnal spectre lingers.
Watching.
Seeing all.

Talons unfurl, rusted hooks sear
through feathers pale as bone.
She ends her vigil with a haunted cry,
and the scuttling things below
wonder if they are the who she calls for.

There is no fanfare, only death on wing.
Silent, surgical, inevitable.
Rending flesh, she claims her prize,
then slips between the rafters,
folding into their oaken skin.

Though night wanes, she remains:
perched, unmoving, unblinking.
Waiting.
A ghost in feathers.
@metaphorqu.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 6:54 PM

@emteepoetry.bsky.social #PromptCombo

#Winged

I miss the Swifts now it's
October

The Jays on the swoop for
Acorns

Almost make up for it

And if the Owls leave me another feather

I'll accept that
Birdkind is on my side.

@fleurdu.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 5:52 PM

TW:may contain uncomfortable content
@emteepoetry.bsky.social #PromptCombo #Winged

@dmiddleham.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 5:21 PM

#PromptCombo
#Winged
@emteepoetry.bsky.social

winged
as a dream should be

subtle changes
in hue

as gravity
imbues the veil

you
became necessity
as i
became the sky

i exhale
your name

falling
like flying

you are summoned
to reverie
again
@davidbirch.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 3:22 PM

Many thanks @emteepoetry.bsky.social for today's #PromptCombo #Winged. I'm pressed for time this week so I thought I'd let this old one fly again. Will catch up with other offerings from the #PoetryCommunity later.

@mwplovesmusic.bsky.socialOct 5, 2026, 1:32 PM

Ode to You

What if we escaped
on this winged dream,
awoke in a clear
blue life,
danced the days on
end,
basked on endless
beaches,
listened to magical
melodies-

that would be beautiful
my love,
wouldn’t it?

#promptcombo #poetry @emteepoetry.bsky.social