Poetry & field notes New poems Wednesdayshttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3melibosy6s2oNew piece: "⭢clean_slide" 'He’d seen her around, on the ship. She liked to sing as she worked, soldering the panels. It was an old song, low and sad, from before the war. ' https://stygian-muse.com/%e2%ad%a2clean_slide/11 Feb 2026 12:32 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3melibosy6s2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3mebgslxjg22qThe sun is low but its heat remains, radiating from the flagstones into the humid air— a visitor from the tropics— sweat pooling in the small of my back while many false suns shimmer on the dark stone, cast from the mirrored blue surface of an office building. stygian-muse.com/the-west/07 Feb 2026 12:39 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3mebgslxjg22qhttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3mc2rr3a53k2iNew poem: "Final Instructions" 'I wake. The traffic noise bleeds through the walls and the sun, low in the sky, sinks behind buildings. Bangkok.' https://stygian-muse.com/final-instructions/10 Jan 2026 10:16 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3mc2rr3a53k2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3mbngpk2cn22qNew poem: "Side Effects" 'The screen shows a box of medication above lines of small script. The voice says “Azartane. Side effects may include dizziness, nausea, confusion, and semantics.”' stygian-muse.com/side-effects/05 Jan 2026 02:53 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3mbngpk2cn22qhttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3mai3ez5wnc24New poem: "Ritual" 'The bowl is filled with ash. The ash holds the incense. The incense turns to ash. Your ashen hair.' stygian-muse.com/ritual/21 Dec 2025 06:22 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3mai3ez5wnc24https://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m7okktfvls25New poem: "Terminal Reflection" 'I move along the quiet concourse toward the darkened food court, the terrazzo floor catching a faint sheen under the after-hours lighting.' https://stygian-muse.com/terminal-reflection/11 Dec 2025 02:45 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m7okktfvls25https://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m7du3gslms2jThe clinical register holds as long as it can, until the unfiltered voice breaks through.06 Dec 2025 20:36 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m7du3gslms2jhttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m74mmke2cs2rNew poem: "Sine Qua Non" 'It is the reason the lungs heave, why the heart squeezes a turbulence into the arteries, what the brain bends itself toward, and craves above all else, the sine qua non of life and thought.' stygian-muse.com/sine-qua-non/ https://stygian-muse.com/sine-qua-non/03 Dec 2025 23:33 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m74mmke2cs2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m6oimsjmuk2vThe aim for this piece was to let observation taper into unease without announcing the transition. https://stygian-muse.com/basement-level-two/28 Nov 2025 08:45 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m6oimsjmuk2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m6kwotb6ts2hNew Poem: "Basement Level Two" 'My footsteps echo before the drone absorbs them, and they are gone.' https://stygian-muse.com/basement-level-two/ Links in bio26 Nov 2025 22:46 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m6kwotb6ts2hhttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m6bvni4v2k26I wrote this one by stacking menace onto stillness until it moved. stygian-muse.com/the-last-bus/23 Nov 2025 08:33 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m6bvni4v2k26https://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m63moxqcos2sNew Poem: "The Last Bus" 'Something in me contracts and the dark along the edges of light seems wider.' stygian-muse.com/the-last-bus/ #poetry #stillness #night counter/field: poems, prose, and observations.20 Nov 2025 20:37 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m63moxqcos2shttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m5iwcexxos26One unexpected thing about running a poetry blog is seeing where readers appear from. Yesterday it was Ukraine. Today it was Costa Rica. Poems travel in odd ways.13 Nov 2025 10:08 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m5iwcexxos26https://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m53chxhhjk23New reflection: On Attention — Vale Ellen Bryant Voigt. A short essay on precision, discipline, and what syntax can teach about seeing. https://stygian-muse.com/on-attention-vale-ellen-bryant-voigt/ #poetry #craft #EllenBryantVoigt #writing08 Nov 2025 00:09 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m53chxhhjk23https://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m4jq6szbp22dNew post: "Field Notes Between Storms" It contains a new poem: 'Goanna' (no, it's not about goannas, but there's one in it). Also, there are a couple of links, and a subscriber update. #poetry #update #collage https://stygian-muse.com/field-notes-between-storms/01 Nov 2025 00:26 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m4jq6szbp22dhttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m4dfxmv3tk24A new poem: "After the Storm" 'The sky is released and changed. An orange haze rises from the horizon to blend with the delicate violet-blue of now-quiescent clouds and a single crow flies south to north.' #poetry #stillness #ritual Read the full poem here: https://stygian-muse.com/after-the-storm/29 Oct 2025 12:07 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m4dfxmv3tk24https://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m4c5fhebes2gHere's a quiet poem from the archive: "The Oars, Forgotten". 'The grass is rough underfoot as I sit in an old lawn chair by the river. Birdsong swells: mynahs, harsh crows, and the peep, peep of a river-bird I cannot see.' #poetry #stillness #observation https://stygian-muse.com/the-oars-forgotten2/29 Oct 2025 00:01 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m4c5fhebes2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m3v4vld4nk2sI revisited a local spot of great sadness recently and took notes. Twice. I now have one good line and a resonant metaphor that I don't know what to do with. I'm unsure whether that place haunts me or if it's actually the other way around. #poetry #writing23 Oct 2025 19:48 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m3v4vld4nk2shttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m3rwpyoquk2bAfter stillness comes strangeness. 'I heard her in the next room but when I walked in, she wasn’t there there were only echoes.' Poem: "The Beforetimes" #poetry #poetrycommunity #stillness #surreal https://stygian-muse.com/the-beforetimes/22 Oct 2025 13:19 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m3rwpyoquk2bhttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m3gnw53atk2kThanks, Shevek!! It's always nice to see my poems and images resonating with people, so I am chuffed to no end. #poetry #poetrycommunity #collage [contains quote post or other embedded content]18 Oct 2025 01:42 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m3gnw53atk2khttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m3fcerhmzc2mThe river is the colour of tea, made with the slightest dash of milk: silt-clouded. Poem: 'A Tiny Deity' #poetry #stillness #poetrycommunity #river stygian-muse.com/a-tiny-deity/17 Oct 2025 12:43 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m3fcerhmzc2mhttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m3azyitvzc2sIn the mind, splinters— remembered glances, words; small, piercing betrayals; have lodged, are lodgers— little hooks; they refuse to leave. Poem: 'Little Hooks'. Link in bio. #poetry15 Oct 2025 20:03 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m3azyitvzc2shttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m3a3fdttus2jI write #poetry15 Oct 2025 10:55 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m3a3fdttus2jhttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m36rw56gzs2gPoems 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.14 Oct 2025 22:33 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m36rw56gzs2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m2quqy3rsc2mCollage: 'Bitch; A Reflection'. Link in bio.09 Oct 2025 09:46 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m2quqy3rsc2mhttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m26b3tkzdc2zAfter 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/ https://stygian-muse.com/sodium-zone/02 Oct 2025 00:06 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m26b3tkzdc2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m24tnkd5ok2v#poetry01 Oct 2025 10:33 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m24tnkd5ok2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3m24qzbnk6c2rwhere water stifles the light, and presses an excess of nitrogen into the blood— and waits. #poetry stygian-muse.com/whalesong/ https://stygian-muse.com/whalesong/01 Oct 2025 09:46 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3m24qzbnk6c2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3lzkxq3regs2lIn the mind, a few splinters— memories of glances, of words: small, piercing betrayals— have lodged, are lodgers. Little hooks: they refuse to leave. #poetry24 Sep 2025 07:58 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3lzkxq3regs2lhttps://bsky.app/profile/counterfield.bsky.social/post/3lzdhj564ts2cBlogs 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. #poetry21 Sep 2025 08:19 +0000at://did:plc:v4bu44n4dhmt5epeqaas5cei/app.bsky.feed.post/3lzdhj564ts2c