#AfterTheSirens
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maddymarcotte.bsky.social
#AfterTheSirens #PoemsAbout
On the Concept of Complexity When the story was simple: The Ocean Freezes, there was no depth to entice the Eye. The Heart grew dull for lack of words. The Mind swam in an ocean that was like air and everything was falling falling. Then there was a fire in the frozen ocean, a small light, a glow to draw in the Eye and the Heart and the Mind, hopefully, followed to see the sunfire echo in the ice, to see the ocean’s ice, dying coals, ground zero of the merciful Fall. The range of gold-white, white-blue, and orange, enough for the Eye and the Heart, was, as it turns out, only the setting, the gray winter sky had fallen, slate-cracked and shattered Chicken-Little-like onto the flooded world. And we felt as if we had always known that the sky was ice, would fall and float like slabs of slate, if slate could float, before the sunset, that small fire, so that, when, at the edge, Sunset Beach, the children leapt out into the ocean, on the ocean, trudging through the ice-foam, god-men playing leap-cloud, the story, now: Child Slips Into Frozen Ocean, hurls us, the same characters as when it was just a setting, a simple immovable fact, as immovable as the ocean gets, like crack-the-whip, deathbound. On shore, calling them back, what despair wouldn’t we teach to keep them safe?
May 4, 2026 at 3:31 AM
dreadfullypoorpublishing.co.uk
My former accountant's sister boasted she could harvest the power of the sea. Rode straight through Charybdis on a paddleboard, she claimed, the paddle forgotten in most retellings.

#afterthesirens #poemsabout #prose #poetry #writing #poem #homer #odyssey #literature #classics #reading #books
Even More After The Sirens Part Three, with reservations L.D. Tudge No sooner had the song-spinning Sirens fallen silent than upon the wine-dark did later come a god-sent mist, a god-swirled whirlpool, and a god-knows-what — a multi-headed Scyllaean serpent of inconsiderate disposition, perhaps a teratological plaything of Amphitrite, the moist queen herself. Such was the much-suffering Ithacan king’s Trolley Problem: his swift black ship the trolley, his — “But trolleys didn’t exist,” I hear you screech, like a whiny siren bitch who hasn’t tasted sailor since the fall of Troy. How can one honestly test the deontological ethics of death-doomed mortals when Circe is trotting about the ancient world pulling on divine, dilemma-spoiling trolley levers? When the gods transform toil-worn human problems into prudence, they are turning trailers into spoilers, which is still, more or less, a lesser evil.
May 3, 2026 at 1:58 AM
dreadfullypoorpublishing.co.uk
This piece is dedicated to the wax-eared benchmen of Ithaca.

#afterthesirens #poemsabout #prose #poetry #writing #poem #homer #odyssey #literature #classics #reading #books
After The Sirens L.D. Tudge It is generally agreed by most scholiasts that, after the engagement with the sirens, there followed additional trials for the oar-worn Odysseyians, numerous afflictions of the ear — the extraction of beeswax having been, in those years, a labour worthy of Heracles himself, even with recourse to the most modern of medical practices, namely fingers, sticks, and seawater. The otological case of one Tinnitus of Cephallenia, an oarsman of the highest order from the lower bench, is preserved by Hellanicus: the sufferer is reported to have complained that the sirens’ echoes rang in him still, after the most vigorous shaking of the head, on multiple occasions. Tinnitus was eventually sent home on a raft.
May 2, 2026 at 3:23 PM
frankhudson.bsky.social
Admire the conflation of observations in that, a combination of attentions.

I was almost going to post this similar one for #poemsabout #afterthesirens but I’m still trying to get out from under all the National Poetry Month stuff. frankhudson.org/2022/05/19/r...
Rain on a Spring Night (after Du Fu)
Early this week, Poet Jose Hernandez Diaz on Twitter put out a call for people to respond with their go-to poets in our troubled times. I’m always uneasy when being put on the spot for short-lists,…
frankhudson.org
May 2, 2026 at 1:59 PM
philippabowe.bsky.social
Loved exploring the nature of sirens' with the #PoemsAbout prompt, #AfterTheSirens. May have a second piece too. Look forward to reading everyone's wonders!
Thanks as ever to @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk 💜
Pale blue box with dark shading the words of a prose poem in black: The true nature of sirens Once Odysseus and his boat of ear-plugged men sailed on the sirens shook lovely feathery shoulders, sloughed off the charade, the sham desire to enthral those paltry needy humans with their god-sized egos, and beaded their silver voices with laughter once more, singing the waves, singing shimmering fish, singing coral fronds the colour of kindness, songs dropping through pearling ocean depths as pebbles rebuilding the world.
May 2, 2026 at 12:19 PM
dreadfullypoorpublishing.co.uk
It takes an Achaean village to raise a siren that will raise an Achaean village.

#afterthesirens #poemsabout #prose #poetry #writing #poem #homer #odyssey #literature #classics
On Sirens, Their Numbers, And Look, It Was Probably Three A private notation on the count L.D. Tudge I can tell you Odysseus lost no men to the sea on the sirens’ account — or a lack of a count, which was likely on the order of three, give or take one siren. That is, unless you are inclined to align with Andrew Lang’s Homeric essay My Accounting of Sirens, as It Pertains to the Odyssey, A Heroically Heroic and Epic Tale Containing A Number of Sirens and really, Does It Make a Whinny of a Difference How Many? Three sirens is a chorus. Four or more is commedia dell’arte.
May 2, 2026 at 4:05 AM
reginaphalange1234.bsky.social
@thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk #PoemsAbout #AftertheSirens #WritingCommunity @nathanbrazil.bsky.social @malformed-poetry.bsky.social
May 1, 2026 at 11:51 PM
owlnsquirrels1111.bsky.social
For #PoemsAbout #AfterTheSirens, and
@alanparrywriter.co.uk
@thebrokenspine.co.uk

Thank you for reading 🙏🙏

#Oulens #poetry #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity

On the floor,
bent low, you are trying
to undo what I did—
for keeps—
as I try to undo all
that we thought we will.

By C. Oulens
May 1, 2026 at 3:16 PM
daveashleypoet.bsky.social
#empty #emoetry #freeverse #poemsabout #AfterTheSirens #war
May 1, 2026 at 2:33 PM
stacebot.bsky.social
For this week's #PoemsAbout #AfterTheSirens: going quiet.

Thank you to the host @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk and to all of the other writers.

#poetry #poem #writing #PoetryCommunity #BlueSkyPoets
the dogs have gone quiet like it was after the sirens and i hadn't just burned everything that turned that we hadn't just wrecked it right down to the hinges everything unsaid resolved into you not here me not lighting matches in the dark the porch lights on at the neighbors everyone else gone inside emergency lights far off peel
May 1, 2026 at 12:58 PM
zentinl.bsky.social
A second one for #PoemsAbout #AfterTheSirens
@alanparrywriter.co.uk
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
#poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity
May 1, 2026 at 12:52 PM
fhpowellwriter.bsky.social
#PoemsAbout #AfterTheSirens
@thebrokenspine.co.uk

@alanparrywriter.co.uk
May 1, 2026 at 12:47 PM
pvcannon.bsky.social
For #PoemsAbout #AfterTheSirens

with much thanks to @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk
A free verse poem about the aftermath of whatever invoked sirens be it a crash, war or other calamity.
May 1, 2026 at 12:21 PM
merrildsmith.bsky.social
Good morning! Happy May Day! Here's my poem for #PoemsAbout #AftertheSirens. I'll be back in a bit to read others. Thank you as always to @alanparrywriter.co.uk and @thebrokenspine.co.uk
Poem: Tomorrow and Tomorrow I wonder if the sirens of myth, bewitching and bird-winged, whose songs drove men mad, were warning, not ensnaring, it’s the nature of sirens to warn of emergencies, disaster, the unknown-- stories, time’s tales, all the knowledge of what lies beyond our mortal existence, impossible to comprehend. Beware. But after the sirens? After the ship crashes, the towers tumble, the tornado tosses trees and houses, the needle pierces the vein, the fire consumes everything-- we live with questions, not answers. There are no answers, only more siren calls.
May 1, 2026 at 12:09 PM
zentinl.bsky.social
#PoemsAbout #AfterTheSirens
@alanparrywriter.co.uk
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
#poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity

This prompt sent me digging in the archives. This is a VERY old piece I hadn't read in a long time.
May 1, 2026 at 12:09 PM
metaphorqu.bsky.social
@thebrokenspine.co.uk #PoemsAbout

#AfterTheSirens

Although I had commanded
that only I should hear them

I wish now that all my comrades had fallen to their music

As now I hear no birdsong, no waves crashing to the shoreline

Now lost forever craving
the sweet siren voice of

Peace
May 1, 2026 at 10:22 AM
zoomburst.substack.com
#PoemsAbout #AftertheSirens
Here's my concoction. Its a bit of a sequel to an old one - (bit.ly/3Rd5HOg if you are at all interested) - but perhaps a tiny bit more romantic.
Thanks to all who read
A poem in which an old seadog reflects on his career and looks to a calmer future.
May 1, 2026 at 10:21 AM
brendafromia.bsky.social
#poemsabout #afterthesirens #Tanka

After the Sirens

I turn on the news—
Mass shootings—again.
After the sirens
fade away, I scream aloud—
Will this madness never end?
May 1, 2026 at 10:19 AM
janedougherty47.bsky.social
There's something in the Greek myths for every occasion.
@thebrokenspine.co.uk #PoemsAbout #AfterTheSirens
May 1, 2026 at 10:17 AM
brendafromia.bsky.social
#poemsabout #afterthesirens
#RhopalicVerse

the
siren’s
song lures
mesmerizes—
drawn down to the depths
there’s no escape
until the
refrain
ends
May 1, 2026 at 10:16 AM
shivpotter.bsky.social
@thebrokenspine.co.uk #afterthesirens @moleculesunlimited.bsky.social @alanparrywriter.co.uk
May 1, 2026 at 9:36 AM
poetrader.bsky.social
#PoemsAbout #AftertheSirens #Blueskypoetry
Text of a poem TUESDAY MORNING 10:30 and all is not so well As a shirt hangs in the balance, Precariously tipped, I striving to decrimp the collar And set right the momentary mattering. 10:30, the Devil's Angelus; And I remember holey shirts, Shirts melted to skin - And did their collars survive to tell That someone spent their last on earth Smoothing things out? 10:30 and we crawled under desks Making sure our plaided dresses Covered our legs, Protecting from boys' curiosity- not from fire storms. And it was something then Text of a poem To break monotony When we did it - Which wasn't always, And now is never Because no one pays attention To white noise, The always there. And no town crier comes around Reporting He saw a pretty, silver plane, Just one - So high And quiet: Before his eyes went sunny-side up, And his shirt atomized. And her fingers while caressing Hangered shoulders Felt the man One last time Before she left nothing behind Except her Tuesday morning scream.
May 1, 2026 at 9:33 AM
johnnorthwrites.bsky.social
The doppler shift
of her heartbeat stretched
like passing fingertips.

For #PoemsAbout #AfterTheSirens
with thanks to @thebrokenspine.co.uk
May 1, 2026 at 9:23 AM
ianbrownlie.bsky.social
Thanks to @thebrokenspine.co.uk for the prompt. I won't blame them for my response, or indeed for the state of the world currently.
#PoemsAbout #AfterTheSirens.
it’s the hope the plane engine cuts out and the song stops a splitsecond of loss in the vacuum between the tick and the tock the tension of a woundspring releasing as we hurtle towards the hopeful moment eyesopening that his pigfuck face might no longer be there
May 1, 2026 at 9:10 AM
davidbirch.bsky.social
Here's my response to @thebrokenspine.co.uk
#PoemsAbout prompt #AfterTheSirens. Many thanks
@alanparrywriter.co.uk. Travelling for the next couple of days so will respond when I can to the #PoetryCommunity #BlueSkyPoets
May 1, 2026 at 9:00 AM