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Stefan Flanigan

@stefanflanigan.bsky.social

250 followers 160 following 59 posts

Poetry & field notes: Counter/Field →stygian-muse.com New poems Tue & Thu • US/AU based

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Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · Aug 27

I write poems & field notes → stygian-muse.com/start-here/

Begin here for context, samplers, & my posting rhythm.
New poems every Tue & Thu.

#poetry

Start Here - Counter/Field

Welcome. This is where I post poems and prose once or twice a week — some pieces are warm, some sharp, and some strange. I think of the blog as a field: a space where ideas and images accumulate — and...

stygian-muse.com

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Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 5h

it's a bit messy, but I like it. Cheers!

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Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 7h

I write #poetry

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Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 18h

Yes, it is. Also terrifying 😅

Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 19h

Poems have minds of their own. Last night, voices from a celebration by the river slipped into a poetry craft exercise, and the poem that emerged travelled farther than I expected — a bit like counter/field itself, I suppose.

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Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 22h

From 'The Night Is Young'

"After the sun has set,

but before the late chill

has sidled in, while the night

is still young — the lights

multiplying on the river’s glass —

the friends sprawl, laughing,

and content on the damp grass."

Link to the full poem in bio.
#poetry

Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 3d

The Oars, Forgotten.

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Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 6d

Collage: 'Bitch; A Reflection'. Link in bio.

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Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 6d

Poem: 'Under the Bridge'. Link in bio.

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Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 10d

"Sodium Zone"
#poetry

Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 12d

In the past month counter/field has blown up: 4x traffic, and 5x subscribers. Thank you to everyone who has popped in for a visit, and I'm genuinely chuffed that the poems have connected with people. Cheers!

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Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 13d

The damp rises from the river,

turns the air brackish,

seeps through clothing,

touches skin -

This is no place to be after dark.
#poetry
stygian-muse.com/under-the-br...

Under the Bridge - counter/field

The damp comes off the river, seeping into clothing, and the sodium light struggles under the bridge’s arc. When the curlew’s wail rises with the storm, the night strikes its bargain with the river, a...

stygian-muse.com

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Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 13d

After the art gallery and the museum,

past the light’s edge and into a hush,

the rough concrete path carries me.
#poetry
stygian-muse.com/sodium-zone/

Sodium Zone - counter/field

City bridge after hours: mattress, tent, algae-slick rocks. The light cuts, metal scrapes, light returns—and the scene holds.

stygian-muse.com

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Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 14d

#poetry

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Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 14d

where water stifles the light,

and presses an excess of nitrogen

into the blood—

and waits.

#poetry
stygian-muse.com/whalesong/

Whalesong - counter/field

In the concrete tunnel between the library and the theatre, fibreglass whales hang from steel cables, their recorded song groaning through the space. At night it becomes a gauntlet. But today, another...

stygian-muse.com

Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 17d

Bitch; a reflection.
www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
#poetry

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Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 21d

Full poem: 'Little Hooks'
stygian-muse.com/little-hooks/

Little Hooks - counter/field

A poem of moons and tides, of memory’s splinters and small betrayals that lodge like hooks, refusing to leave.

stygian-muse.com

Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 21d

In the mind, a few splinters—

memories of glances, of words:

small, piercing betrayals—

have lodged, are lodgers.

Little hooks: they refuse to leave.

#poetry

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Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 24d

Blogs are weird. Nobody reads your stuff, then all of a sudden, some dude in India is saying "Hey, I like your poem about a possum eating a mango." It's a nice feeling.
#poetry

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Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 27d

A poem about a possum (well, some of it):
But now, in the pulp-sweet air,

the cats are gone, the birds, the tree,

even the sky and the hot sun—

all gone; now there is only

a sweet greenness,

a mango—

only mango.
#poetry

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Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 27d

People often complain about The System, but The System knows best...
The system is Optimal.

Inputs, limited as they are,

do not register the documented necessity

of upward reallocation

and the requirement to off-board

non-performing units.
#poetry
stygian-muse.com/compliance-i...

Compliance is Efficiency - counter/field

A doctrine-voice poem where the system audits, cascades, and moves non-performing units below grade—cold recursion to a chilling clinch.

stygian-muse.com

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Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 27d

in the half-light
the ferry's fog-horn sounds—
a dog howls

cool morning breeze
along the river—
the scent of jasmine

a rustling flash—
on the railing:
a noisy mynah

from the topmost branch
of the tallest gum tree—
a magpie's call

#poetry #haiku

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Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 28d

A single-sentence drill:

Because the shells are close,
I stride toward the bus stop,
shivering in the dim light,
the houses boarded up or bombed—
although I don’t look hard enough
to tell:
on the sidewalk,
I see enough—
a mangled bike, a shattered helmet.

#poetry

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Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 28d

A new piece today:

"Grass slopes down to a sand flat: its surface ribbed

with frozen waves, crisp-edged in the sun."

Full poem: 'A Tiny Deity'
stygian-muse.com/a-tiny-deity/
#poetry

A Tiny Deity - counter/field

A poem set at the river’s edge in spring, a child lifts fruit into sunlight—an ordinary act that becomes creation, renewal, and wonder.

stygian-muse.com

Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 28d

The internet is a free-for-all in some respects. You can't prevent someone from copying your writing but you can report them for copyright violation. Publishers aren't interested in anything that's been on a blog. Being civil and writing reasonably well is enough to attract blog readers imho.

Stefan Flanigan @stefanflanigan.bsky.social · 29d

Well the fact is, my blog is about as low-stakes as you can get but plagiarism is just intellectual dishonesty. As it happens, this chap is a provocateur and probably a bit naive. He attributed my material in the end.