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David Birch

@davidbirch.bsky.social

969 Following 1.3k Followers

Worked in education and mostly taken up with poetry these days: see some of my poems at https://wildfire-words.com/?s=David+Birch and in the @thebrokenspine.co.uk collection 'Beautiful Little Fools'. Also no 103 in https://sixtyoddpoets.substack.com/

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@davidbirch.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 9:10 AM

"2B or not 2B"! Has to be the line of the day

@jenthorne.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 7:15 AMReposted by @davidbirch.bsky.social

Happy #PoemsAbout day people.

I hope you all have a good one.

Here is a fun one for #Bites

#Poetry
#Writing

Biter's Block

Wood creaks between my jaws.
Coarse rubber and the tang of metal on my tongue as I sink my teeth
into the pencil.

The prompt is #Bites.

I roll the wet, splintered shaft
along serrated ivory edges
and ponder.

Snake bites?
Flea bites?
Biting an apple?
A crust of jam and bread?
... His shoulder?

I wonder how to convey in lyrical flights
the feelings and notions arising from 'bites'.

But I munch on in vain
at the well chewed observer of an empty page.

2B, or not 2B?

The letters have long since succumbed
to dental destruction.

@davidbirch.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 6:17 PM

You're welcome!

@davidbirch.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 11:53 AM

Thanks - I'll have a look

@davidbirch.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 8:15 AM

I love the way this explores the idea of the mandala - its movement and the way it invests the creatures with mystical energy

@janpsolivagant.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 9:07 AMReposted by @davidbirch.bsky.social

Thank you for your inspired #PromptCombo #Winged
Have a great week @emteepoetry.bsky.social

#poem: ©Jan Peters 2026

#poetry #poetrycommunity #BlueksyPoetry #Birdsky #Puffin #Seabirds #Mandala #transience #eternity

Pelagic Mandala Birds

Beyond-offing
Bounty without source,
We swirl and eddy before you as the
World’s hidden orbit -
Coating drear crag and salt crust in
Fecund demand and fornication.

Wintering in grey silence,
We listless-pick at plankton and
Shoal-speck like mendicant friars.

Then
Deep-brain, pineal-eye
Skull-blister cracks open
Light into song-centre and florid
Hormonal wardrobe -

Plumping shrunken selves into
Buxom summer vigour;
Steeping leg and beak in
Mandala saffron of
Life-death turning.

We are the Great Wheel:
Thousandfold ember-flow,
Counterflow -
Whirl upon whirl,
Whirl within whirl -
Eight-figured eternity
Held momentarily as it
Melts into air.

©Jan Peters/Solivagant Wisdom, 2026

@rock-rex.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 12:47 PMReposted by @davidbirch.bsky.social

"Pterodactyl".

#poem #poetry #skypoets #blueskypoets #poetsofbluesky #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #concretepoetry #concretepoem #promptcombo #winged
@emteepoetry.bsky.social

The words "winged poetry" arranged in the form of a flying creature.

@poetry-with-hart.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 8:49 PMReposted by @davidbirch.bsky.social

Dragonfly witnessed
in his reflection a king
crowned a vivid blue.

#dailyhaikuprompt #vivid #promptcombo #winged #haiku #senryu #micropoem #micropoetry #3lines #poem #poetry

@suzydobie.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 9:29 PMReposted by @davidbirch.bsky.social

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

@davidbirch.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 8:06 AM

Beautifully done, Emily. Love the way this builds to and falls away from the central line

@emteepoetry.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 8:08 AMReposted by @davidbirch.bsky.social

Thanks to Ronnie for last week's fantastic prompt! This week tag me @emteepoetry.bsky.social #PromptCombo #Winged

Winged or Wingèd?
Birds, bugs, planes etc, or dragons/ wingèd cryptids? Icarus? Or winged, as in wounded?
Just a few of the possibilities.

Looking forward to reading your work!

Micropoem about an airplane in concrete form

Photo of a black and white pigeon, with a black mark on its head like a small hat.

@davidbirch.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 8:03 AM

Thank you, Dean - delighted that this resonated with you!

@zentinl.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 11:36 PMReposted by @davidbirch.bsky.social

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

@thebrokenspine.co.uk Oct 6, 2026, 7:00 AMReposted by @davidbirch.bsky.social

“Bones of child labor
thrown away –
unbeautiful
uneasy”

From “Decadence Built This” by Karen Pierce Gonzalez

Look at the glitter. Then look at who paid for it.

Edited by Alan Parry He/Him & Karen Pierce Gonzalez

shorturl.at/126Ks

@davidbirch.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 9:48 PM

Beautiful use of language here, Jen, with a real sense of movement and energy

@jenthorne.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 8:41 PMReposted by @davidbirch.bsky.social

@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.

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.

@dmiddleham.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 5:21 PMReposted by @davidbirch.bsky.social

#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.social Oct 5, 2026, 7:18 PM

I love the sense of movement and energy here! 👏

@fleurdu.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 5:52 PMReposted by @davidbirch.bsky.social

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

@metaphorqu.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 6:54 PMReposted by @davidbirch.bsky.social

@emteepoetry.bsky.social #PromptCombo

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.

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