20 Monday Apr 2020
Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized
20 Monday Apr 2020
Posted in Uncategorized
Welcome to another Monday friends, and another writing prompt (21).
Short and sweet, small is beautiful…what six word message would you like to offer, as a gift and a kindness, to whoever might come across it? And where might you leave it? And how?
A few years ago I came across a six word message, painted on stones, left on a beach for anyone walking by to enjoy. It read, ‘You are loved, loving and lovable.’ (See main image on my blog too)
So what’s your six word message? And where would you leave it? Recently, I have seen thank yous on letter boxes, blessings on bins, wit and wisdom in windows…
Once you have your six word phrase, you can of course extend that into a poem or a story or diary type piece…if you wish.
You can find more inspiration on this theme in the archives:
https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/…/writers-well-six-wo…/
I’d LOVE to see, read, your six word messages in the comments.
Speaking of short and sweet, and small is beautiful…Mum and I made some mini books at the weekend! Just folded from regular A4 paper, with covers from some origami paper mum had, and sealed with ribbon rescued from a gift bag destined to recycling plus some buttons from mum’s glass jar of miscellany. Such fun.
Ok…😉 Ready? Steady! Write! 🙏❤️
And if you’ve been enjoying my posts, and are able to offer some support, I’d really appreciate you making a contribution here:
17 Friday Apr 2020
Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized
I’m a bit behind – it’s ok, I’ll catch up. For now, this:
Pain
Instructions be be followed,
Or not,
At your own pace.
Close the gate, lock it, chain it do not
Answer the door, shut the windows,
Stuff the cracks in the walls, your skin, do not
Let it in because sometimes we have to begin
by resisting.
Some people may be able to skip this stage.
You do not have to be one of those people.
Once it gets in, which it will,
Take it on, carry it, find a way for it to be
Manageable if not comfortable while you
Move on together.
Some people may be able to make friends with it, forgive it, appreciate it.
You do not have to be one of those people.
Once you’ve carried it for a while, which you will
Time will come for you to put it down, temporarily
or for good, that’s up to you. Then again
If you don’t want to put it down, ever, that’s ok too.
One day you will anyway, through no effort of your own
You will not longer be alive to carry it.
17 Friday Apr 2020
Posted in Uncategorized
So today’s writing prompt, number 20, is what I call…The Spiral.
I think I came up with this about 10 years ago. I’ve used it many times, both personally and in writing workshops I’ve offered, and it’s got a bit of magic.
Yesterday I had a real low. A climb in your bed at midday, try to sleep this bad dream of a world away etc etc I’m sure we’ve all had hide under the duvet times. This prompt is one of the things I turn to, when I’m struggling, both personally and/or with my writing. So here goes. If you want to give it a go, but the explanation isn’t clear, get in touch. If you have a go, and you get something out of it, it would be lovely to know.
Share at will.
Blessings all. Welcome to – The Spiral.
1: Take a blank piece of paper, and draw a spiral, from the outside in, in a clockwise direction.
2: Take two distinct breaths. Breath in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.
3: Now write in the spiral (beginning at the start) any word/words that come to you. There is no theme, no need for in to make sense, just the first word/words that come to you.
4: Now breathe again, two distinct breaths. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.
5: Now write again, whatever word/words come to you. No need for it to connect in any way with what you’ve already written.
6: Repeat this process (breathing, writing, breathing, writing…) until you’ve written your way into the centre.
7: Stop. Pause. Feel into that centre.
8: Turn the page and write, whatever comes.
😉 Ready? Steady! Write! 🙏❤️
And if you’ve been enjoying my posts, and are able to offer some support, I’d really appreciate you making a contribution here:
16 Thursday Apr 2020
Posted in Uncategorized
And here’s Thursday’s writing prompt, number nineteen – Magic Glasses.
What would you choose to be able to see, something you can not see now, if you had a pair of magic glasses that could make that wish come true? Anything! You can truly see anything with these magic glasses! Just write a quick list, minimum 10, because sometimes it takes a while for imagination to warm up. Now follow where that takes you and write…
You can read more about this prompt, and my own response (from the archives) here.
https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/…/wednesday-writers-w…/
Go on, tell me, what can you see?
😉 Ready? Steady! Write! 🙏❤️
And if you’ve been enjoying my posts, and are able to offer some support, I’d really appreciate you making a contribution here:
15 Wednesday Apr 2020
Posted in Uncategorized
Welcome to Wednesday, and writing prompt number eighteen. The focus? Food!!
Mum and I have both cooked for others as a job, so there’s a lot of food happening in this house at the moment! That said, we’ve always been a foodie family, with my Dad still baking his weekend soda bread most Fridays in Bali, and my sisters and I gathering in the kitchen whenever there’s family stuff to celebrate.
The current situation has made us more aware of where our food comes from, how it gets there, and courtesy of whom. There’s already been talk of the UK struggling to bring in the harvest this year.
https://www.theguardian.com/…/uk-farmers-fear-huge-labour-s…
Think about where your food comes from.
Draw a line in the centre of a blank page.
Above the line draw a tree trunk, with (to start with) three branches leading off with the words WHO (do we eat it with?), WHERE (do we eat it?) WHAT (do we like/not like to eat?).
Below the line, draw roots, again labelled WHO (grows it?) WHERE (does it come from?), WHAT (does it need in order to grow?)
Now, at your whim and pleasure, extend those branches off in any direction with your own spontaneous answers/responses to those questions. Once you’ve done that, just write whatever comes.
I originally shared this prompt with my regular Friday morning writing group, about a year ago, when I’d recently read these two books (see images) Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, and The Dirty Life, by Kristin Krimble, which you might be interested in checking out, although they’re both written from a US perspective. Here’s a link to the original post:
I haven’t yet found anything similar written from within the UK, but would love your recommendations if you’ve come across anything. That said, I did recently come across this blog:
https://cloudcottageland.co.uk/
Ok, enough food for thought! 😉 Ready? Steady! Write! 🙏❤️
And if you’ve been enjoying my posts, and are able to offer some support, I’d really appreciate you making a contribution here:
14 Tuesday Apr 2020
Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized
When all you have is questions…make a poem of them.
How…?
How many spiders are there in this house?
And do they really all need second webs?
How many times have I looked at these windows and thought,
they could do with a clean, then returned to
eating, reading, drinking, tweeting, watching, eating?
How many cakes, cookies, sourdough breads does it take,
to grow a person too big to leave the house, even if
they wanted to?
How many rainbows have been stuck on windows?
And does that mean the people inside are always in
a colourfully uninterrupted state of sun and rain?
How many Thursday nights would it take to make
our gratitude loud enough to be heard in heaven,
or whatever name you give to that place or state
where the ones who’ve already left are now?
How many samey days will it take to make me forget
days used to have names, Monday, Tuesday…next day?
How do you make friends with being scared?
How long before I can harvest those radishes I planted?
How do you mend something that’s never been this broken before
and can’t be delivered in battered, broken, much loved pieces
to the experts at the BBCs Repair Shop, so they can make it right
on a Wednesday night while mum and I watch from the sofa?
How can we make sure, so totally absolutely, guarantee nobody
falls through the gaps as the world cracks along
fault lines we knew were there but chose to step over,
walk around, stuff with psychological sociological polyfilla?
How many people allowed in the shop at any one time?
How much salt in those crisps, those tears, the sea and where
did it all come from? And how many minutes of tears to fill
a 330ml can and is that how you drink the pain away?
How do you grieve numbers, or manage the agony when you dare
to give each one a name, and a family and an unrealised dream
or two or three?
How many times did you, I, he, she, they
the postman, the rubbish collector, the funeral parlour worker,
the doctor, the nurse, the hospital cleaner, the residential home carer
the one who stacked the shelves, the one who cooked your supper
wash their hands? And when you add all those twenty seconds together
and launch that number into the sky on a prayer would it find
enough stars to know itself?
How many zooms before you start zoning out?
How many friends does it take to make not ok, ok?
Why is this happening?
How many?
How much?
How long?
14 Tuesday Apr 2020
Posted in Uncategorized
Tuesday blessings friends! Here’s writing prompt number seventeen.
I’ve been thinking a lot about laughter, tears, the bridge between the two (and other bridges, physical or invisible), the gifts they each bring, that weird alchemical thing that happens when they come together, happening all at once in a red faced hiccoughing snot fest. I have a few questions for you:
What makes you laugh/cry? You could make a list(s).
Do you find it easy/necessary/freeing/embarrassing/ scary/uncomfortable …(ADD YOUR OWN WORDS) to laugh/cry?
What do you need to do most at this time? Laugh or cry? A bit of both? What helps you move between the two, if/when you do? What’s the/a bridge, if you feel like you’re getting a bit stuck on one side?
What does it feel like in you body? In your heart? In your mind? Before/during/after you’ve laughed/cried?
Can you answer these questions in a poem…?
Ready? Steady! Write! 🙏❤️
And if you need more inspiration, here are a couple of links to older posts on the same topic(s)
And if you’ve been enjoying my posts, and are able to offer some support, I’d really appreciate you making a contribution here:
13 Monday Apr 2020
Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized
There, then
I wish I were there, then.
But I’m here, now, wondering how
to escape with paper and pen
back to that time when
I stood at the sink in the early morning admiring
the colour of the water dyed by the red cabbage
I’d just washed, then watched that beautiful blue
disappear down the plug hole.
If I were then again, there again, I would
bathe in the beauty of wonder instead of
letting it drain away. If I could please
just be there again, then again, when
we sat at your kitchen table drinking tea
while you sang to your baby granddaughter
and we laughed through the love gathering
in the air threatening another shower of devotion.
If I were then again, there again, I would
ignore the call of the parking meter and
linger over the Portuguese custard tart. If only
I were then again, there again, when
I pushed my shopping trolley ahead, leaning
forward until it pulled me gliding down the aisles
with my pizza, spinach and coffee, still shopping
regularly enough not to need that much
and I could enjoy a brief chat with the woman
behind in the line once I’d placed the divider on the belt
to be sure her things didn’t mix with mine. Simple times
worthy of a postcard right now I’d gladly pay
the cost of a flight to Dad in Bali just to push
my supermarket trolley through carefree aisles
again instead of hanging the present in a noose
of nostalgia.
13 Monday Apr 2020
Posted in Uncategorized
Monday blessings friends! Here’s writing prompt number sixteen, time to go off piste, and believe six ‘impossible things’. This Alice in Wonderland quote (see image) came up in my morning pages today, so I went with it. The result? Curiouser and curiouser. It turned out a lot of the things I came up with weren’t really impossible – just improbable and perhaps difficult. But not impossible.
Go on, I dare you, write down six impossible things without overthinking. Then keep writing. See where you end up. I found myself expressing some of the things I deeply wish for…as well as the rainbows and unicorns stuff. But I think what’s really interesting, fertile creative ground, is that edge, the frontier, where Narnia and the it-just-hasn’t-been-tried-yet meet. The so called impossible has evolved into possible, and on into the positively mundane many, many, many times over the course of humanity’s existence, and that magic lives on the frontiers of belief.
I’d forgotten the challenge was to BELIEVE in six impossible things before breakfast, not just think of them, or imagine them, but BELIEVE them. Even if just for a moment…
Like that little girl quoted in Ken Robinson’s TED talk.
If you haven’t seen it, treat yourself, and join the nearly 65 million who have. Here’s the link.
https://www.ted.com/…/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_crea…
Blessings on the start of your week all. May your Monday be magical, in the mundane reality is malleable ways.
Ready? Steady! Write! 🙏❤️
And if you’ve been enjoying my posts, and are able to offer some support, I’d really appreciate you making a contribution here:
Poetry, Plants & Planet
and in conversation
Welcome to occasional reviews, comments and news from this Leicester, UK based writer of poems, stories and book reviews
Never Knowingly Mainstream
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