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David Birch

@davidbirch.bsky.social

1K followers 720 following 1.1K posts

Worked in education and mostly taken up with poetry these days: you can find some of my poems at https://wildfire-words.com/?s=David+Birch and most recently in the latest @thebrokenspine.co.uk collection 'Beautiful Little Fools'.

wildfire-words.com

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 2h

Thank you, Helen - much appreciated!

David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 5h

Thank you, Fidel - much appreciated!

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 5h

Many thanks Sue!

David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 5h

Thank you Jan!

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 7h

Many thanks, Fidel, @dragonslayerma.bsky.social for your enticing #PromptCombo #SimplePleasures. I'm sure I've posted this before but I think this bit of nostalgia fits the bill

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 9h

Wishing you all the best, Alan. Please understand how much all your efforts for this community are valued and take strength from that

David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 18h

Thank you so much, Victoria - very kind of you!

David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 21h

Thank you, Debra: much appreciated!

David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 1d

It's a pleasure!

David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 1d

That's very kind, Carolyn. Much appreciated!

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 1d

I'm with you there!

David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 2d

You're right, of course, we shouldn't confuse the two: I didn't put that well!

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you! Much appreciated!

David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 2d

My pleasure!

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 2d

Haha - so clever! And rooted in the world of Party Seven. How many of us, reading this, are thinking - yes, I was there?

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Reposted by David Birch

Carolyn Thomas @carolynthomas.bsky.social · 3d

For #PoemsAbout #ImperfectMe Posting my effort now but madly busy so will try to catch up with everyone’s work later - the ones I have seen are great 😊
@alanparrywriter.co.uk
@thebrokenspine.co.uk

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 2d

Wonderfully defiant and independent!

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Reposted by David Birch

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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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 2d

Self-evident, and yet... we continue to write and read each other's work and embrace its imperfections

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Reposted by David Birch

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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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 2d

There's a tension here between the rich imagery and the level of menace it explores. Compelling.

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Reposted by David Birch

Jan Peters - Solivagant Wisdom @janpsolivagant.bsky.social · 3d

#PoemsAbout #ImperfectMe @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk

#adaptation: ©Jan Peters/Solivagant Wisdom, 2025

#Expressionism #Trakl #PoetryInTranslation #DepthPsychology #TheShadow #CainAndAbel #Blake #Nightmare

Dread

After Das Grauen (1909) by
Austrian Expressionist poet, Georg Trakl (1887-1914)

I drift through deserted rooms.
Frenzied stars dance upon a blue backdrop.
Dogs bay in beck-rimmed yards.
Manic chinook roots through the treetops.

Then all stir ceases.
Aglow with choleric ardour,
Venomous blooms sprout from my mouth.
Blood-drip sap from marred branches
Shimmers pale as dew.

From the mirror’s specious void,
From the mirror’s pearly shade,
Contours merge vaguely into the
Visage of Cain.

Curtains rustle softly.
The moon stares vacantly
Through the window.
I’m alone with my killer.

Free adaptation from the German:
©Jan Peters/Solivagant Wisdom, 2025

"The Body of Abel Found by Adam & Eve", William Blake, circa 1826

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Reposted by David Birch

Quill of Mnemosyne @sonnetsmith.bsky.social · 3d

My contribution to #poemsabout #imperfectme
It's a piece that I've been meaning to write for a few weeks but never got round to it, so thank you
@alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk
For the push.

This is

Cracks In the Mirror

#poetry #blueskypoet #poem #mirror #identity #lost

It stares at me, from the other side of an empty room,
A face familiar, but still unrecognizable.
Silvered glass, which was not cracked last time I looked upon it
Now shattered into fragments, in each one an impostor.

A thousand faces trapped within; not one is whom I seek,
It stares at me, from the other side of an empty room
And I stare back, wondering who this man before me is
The man with cracks that crawl across his myriad of masks.

I know him not; I never have, but somehow he knows me
His crooked smiles, and weary eyes drill deep into my soul
He stares at me, from the other side of an empty room
From in between the cracks; a man I thought I used to know.

Once upon a time I saw my own face in the mirror
A bright and beaming smile; that was who I'd always be,
But somehow I cant see him in the faces of the beast
That stares at me, from the other side of this still empty room.

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David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 2d

Thanks, Alan, much appreciated - 'creation in a hopeless mess' just about nails it!

David Birch @davidbirch.bsky.social · 2d

The title suggests long experience of being told you're not good enough. The poem refutes this by its quiet and moving existence.