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Fidel Walsh

@dragonslayerma.bsky.social

1.9K followers 990 following 1.1K posts

Writing poetry. 3 poetry collections, Living with Love, Time & Out There. Short stories, Thrice Remembered an Anthology. To buy my new book Out There https://lettertecbookstore.com/product/out-there/ I'm 1 of the #PromptCombo hosts

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Fidel Walsh @dragonslayerma.bsky.social · Jul 25

Excited to announce the upcoming release of my latest poetry collection 'Out There'

#Irishpoetry
#PromptCombo
@victoriaspires.bsky.social @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social @hool415.bsky.social @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social @janedougherty47.bsky.social @sueimnw.bsky.social @rfsmith.bsky.social

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Reposted by Fidel Walsh

Emily Tee @emteepoetry.bsky.social · 12m

Ah, the #simplepleasures of watching the behaviour of the birds! One from a short while ago for @dragonslayerma.bsky.social and this week's #PromptCombo

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Fidel Walsh @dragonslayerma.bsky.social · 1m

I'm loving this Bird Report.You have written a very visual scene & I can hear that beautiful geese sound. #SimplePleasures doesn't get any better than sitting watching & wondering 'to who knows where' really plays with the imagination. #PromptCombo thanks you, Emily🦢❤️
@sueimnw.bsky.social will like

Fidel Walsh @dragonslayerma.bsky.social · 12m

Thank you so very much❤️

Fidel Walsh @dragonslayerma.bsky.social · 31m

You are most welcome 🙏

You can't a more basic #SimplePleasures !

Reposted by Fidel Walsh

Roger Hare @hareontherun.bsky.social · 2h

For this week's #promptcombo from @dragonslayerma.bsky.social about #simplepleasures a true story!!

All it took was a broken
toilet pedestal to take us back
to the wild, to the art of finding
a place to leave our spoor where
we hope it doesnt give us away -
the joy of a supermarket toilet,
a pub with facilities open to
non-patrons, an overnight hotel
equipped with nothing but
the clothes we stand up in.

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Fidel Walsh @dragonslayerma.bsky.social · 1h

Roger, this is a very powerful piece of work evoking old memories/spoor (excellent word) from a broken toilet, to the very #SimplePleasures of 'the clothes we stand up in' & 'the joy of a supermarket toilet. #PromptCombo thanks you ❤️

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Fidel Walsh @dragonslayerma.bsky.social · 2h

You are very welcome 🙏

Fidel Walsh @dragonslayerma.bsky.social · 3h

It's a lovely thing to sit over a cuppa & have the chats.

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Reposted by Fidel Walsh

Scott McConnaha @smcconnaha.bsky.social · 4h

Hello Fidel. Love this prompt. Thank you!
@dragonslayerma.bsky.social
#promptcombo #simplepleasures

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Fidel Walsh @dragonslayerma.bsky.social · 3h

For some reason, this exquisite piece pierced my heart with such hope. Yes, it's the safety of being at your little table with family & enjoying the #SimplePleasures & the holding of togetherness.
#PromptCombo thanks you, Scott❤️

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Reposted by Fidel Walsh

Paul Brookes @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social · 5h

Hi @dragonslayerma.bsky.social Fidel. Thank you for the great ##promptcombo #SimplePleasures. My first is from my collection "These Random Acts of Wildness", (Glass Head Press, 2023)

I Make A Cuppa

Some say it is better with a warmed pot, or with tea leaves through a strainer held over a bone China cup. A specialist shop had a bud float in my clear cup unfurled

before my eyes. Expensive and rare sight.

Indulgent, like days of Imperial splendour when women tea harvester's plight long hours, low pay, working was very real.

My dad national service merchantman mariner kept his life in the loft stored in old tea chests, plywood box, steel battaned edges. Brought home carved elephants for the sideboard.

We collect the wild as ornamental. Domesticate, put on a pedestal

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Fidel Walsh @dragonslayerma.bsky.social · 5h

One of the most #SimplePleasures the cuppa🫖, which comes at a hard toll for others, tho. I like mine in the bone china.
Another outstanding storytelling of yours, Paul. #PromptCombo thanks you❤️

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Fidel Walsh @dragonslayerma.bsky.social · 5h

Very welcome🙏 David

Fidel Walsh @dragonslayerma.bsky.social · 6h

It really brought a smile to my face. I love doing those things I did with my child who is no longer a child but a man! It really is the #SimplePleasures that last a lifetime❤️

Fidel Walsh @dragonslayerma.bsky.social · 6h

It really is❤️🙏

Fidel Walsh @dragonslayerma.bsky.social · 6h

You are very welcome 🙏

Reposted by Fidel Walsh

Rachel @vignettes.bsky.social · 6h

Thanks @dragonslayerma.bsky.social
What a delightful prompt to start Monday morning. My secret simple pleasure that returns me to childhood joy is flying a kite. I keep it in the boot of my car.
#promptcombo #simplepleasures

Simple Pleasures

The wind frets at the pebbles,
salt spray burns my face.
The kite jerks like a stubborn gull,
its red plastic heart flapping,
tail tangled, untamed.
Thin bamboo bones creak
as it strains for sky—
a sailboat chasing invisible tides.
I laugh, barefoot, skirt & hair whipping,
each tug of string a pulse returning—
old hands, yes,
but the girl is still flying.

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Fidel Walsh @dragonslayerma.bsky.social · 6h

Yes, yes, Rachel, I can see the girl & the woman loving every moment. What a very visual write. I can see your hair/skirt wildly moving. Beautiful #SimplePleasures & I love you have the kite in the boot of your car so you can relive again & again. #PromptCombo thanks you for brightening up Monday❤️🪁

Reposted by Fidel Walsh

Stefano Carini @cieloceano.bsky.social · 6h

Thank you, Fidel, for your kind words.
Another one on #simplepleasures
#promptcombo

Pumpkin sings of routine,
morning waves the dewy wings
for daring solar winds

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Fidel Walsh @dragonslayerma.bsky.social · 6h

'Waves of dewy wings' aw, the images this promises & suits #SimplePleasures to perfection. #PromptCombo thanks you again, Stefano ❤️🌬

Fidel Walsh @dragonslayerma.bsky.social · 6h

You are welcome. That friend & I over the last 18 months have a swift conservation project that is in our old buildings in our town. We had a glorious summer watching them in their new nest boxes.

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Reposted by Fidel Walsh

Francis H Powell writer and poet @fhpowellwriter.bsky.social · 6h

@dragonslayerma.bsky.social
#promptcombo #simplepleasures

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Fidel Walsh @dragonslayerma.bsky.social · 6h

Oh, Francis, this is perfection for #SimplePleasures , & I'm now going out for a walk to the lake to breath in all this beauty. #PromptCombo thanks you❤️🌳

Reposted by Fidel Walsh

Jan Peters - Solivagant Wisdom @janpsolivagant.bsky.social · 7h

🙏 @dragonslayerma.bsky.social as #PromptCombo host.
#SimplePleasures of #Solitude #daydreaming #solitaire #gitanes (I no longer smoke 😁)

#poetry / #photography: ©Jan Peters/Solivagant Wisdom, 2025/2008

#LeGrandMeaulnes #Sologne #EscapeRoom #Philemon #Baucis #Chateau #InnerLife

Lost Estate

La Sologne,
Sand-and-clay implacability, where
Maquisards,
Oblivious to time’s march, melt into a
Marsh-and-meadow melee.
Where hedgerow-cached
Portals open onto pingo-pond,
Sylvian dominions
Pooling the nameless, numberless Consolations of
Solitude.

Readers chanced upon a clearing here in
Alain-Fournier’s Le Grand Meaulnes
A century ago - its enigmatic
Lost Estate the tale’s symbolic pivot.

Mystery and transience of youth,
Doomed quest for a vanished world,
Now sequestered in a nondescript Chateau:
Museum-retreat fashioning a
Charmed, homespun niche amidst the
Upheavals of interwar France.

I see them with my mind’s eye, ninety Years on: ageless, reclusive
Philemon and Baucis, in whom Bukowski’s Gods still delight.

Game of solitaire arranged on the disused Billiard table in a shower of sun-gilded Motes, overseen by a tarnished
Suit of armour out of the foxed, Mildewed pages of some chapbook.

Unfinished letter, article, story or Manifesto lodged in the
Underwood typewriter, unsent to Minotaure, Pages Folles or Le Figaro -
Ashtray studded with Gitane stubs in Unfailing attendance.

Hunting trophies consigned to the boot Room, mounted askew or littering the Workbenches like decapitated
Dollies in some child’s dark, Mad Hatter Fantasy.

I hear the Lost Estate has begun hosting
An Escape Room that harbours
Twin torments for hermit souls:
Teamwork and claustrophobia.

Millennial-Zoomer masochism – gravity Of a dystopian coworking hub warping The space-time fabric of their inner life.

Imagination now a peer-driven,
Groundhog-Day litany of
“Check In,
Action This,
Get Aligned,
Circle Back.”

I recall a more spacious age, not long ago,
When I visited this nondescript chateau in An obscure corner of
France de l’intérieur.

© Jan Peters/Solivagant Wisdom, 2025

©Jan Peters/Solivagant Wisdom, 2008

Staircase, hallway, open door, window admitting sunlight in a nondescript chateau in Central France.

©Jan Peters/Solivagant Wisdom, 2008
Beekeeping paraphernalia (?): white beekeeper's hat resting on one of two conical structures on the sill of a window admitting daylight.

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Fidel Walsh @dragonslayerma.bsky.social · 6h

I love the idea #SimplePleasures of daydreaming around this old Lost Estate. You have such a great way of describing things that I feel I'm there & able to touch the items. I love this 'soul's store of solitude' #PromptCombo thanks you❤️🏰

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