Saturday, January 31, 2015

Saturday Jan 31st

Boot Camp

January Flash Blast

2015-0048 (Jan 31 2015) 07:25 (Saturday)



1176 BPPV
1177 The children are gone, the drawers are full of pencils
1178 Going to See Wednesday
1179 McLintock said the world would end yesterday, and he was never wrong
1180 They're discounting shit this weekend

1181 An afternoon of ghosts, rain on the tin-roof
1182 You can't know the world continues, only you think it does
1183 She said I had nice handwriting
1184 Rarely, a woman takes your breath away and you feel smaller
1185 I was left behind a curtain, hearing violins

1186 How it must have been, the terror
1187 Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh 
1188 the gleaming brown of a perfect conker
1189 I like the one about the coaster, not sure about Quinquereme
1190 Something about a man painting a wall

1191 I selected marble. It turned out to be flames
1192 We are distracted by your silences, speak!
1193 My other had an old bag, turned out to be her sister
1194 Everyone should experience dying
1195 How nice it would be if before, we met the men we'd kill

1196 What I miss the most is you, Good Morning Daddy!
1197 Four ways to go and a million ways between
1198 A man in his garden, potatoes in the ground
1199 The wind against the prison walls
1200 Oh my love is like a clump of weeds

Thursday, January 29, 2015

2015-0047 (Jan 29 2015) 10:45 (Thursday)

Boot Camp
January Flash Blast
2015-0047 (Jan 29 2015) 10:45 (Thursday)
1151Sometimes death just happens, without the act of dying
1152 The Kafirs have a predilection for killing
1153 Who Made You? God Made Me!
1154 The point she was making was that you just have to be and do
1155 Everglades
1156 Like that day you understood and knew what you should do, like that
1157 The kitchen floor all slugs
1158 Pictures in a JCB
1159 She seems to go on a bit too much about black snakes
1160 Two Serbs, two Croats, it's still dirty coats and staying alive
1161 Bullets, shiny, they just seem, I dunno, nice.
1162 I think of my weak heart and yet it continues
1163 Bluebottle
1164 I like the way the beavers can stay if they are healthy
1165 Washing the glasses in the toilet
1166 and what a word is that, anyway!
1167 So Selma, but someone said "coloured" (oops)
1168 I'll need to lock you in for half an hour, OK?
1169 I know fuck all, but more than you
1170 When I'm waiting for you to come to bed
1171 No it's not been a happy life. I'll probably live to be a fucking hundred
1172 My mother would have made a lousy acrobat
1173 PEPPER
1174 My mother making porridge
1175 It hasn't been that long. The sun's still there

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Important Note



Important Note. 

All of the prompts I am generating are Alex K "originals", none are
actually from other poems or stories. If I use a quote or title directly
I will always put it in "inverted commas"

But it's occurred to me that if ten people generate, say, a poem from
the same set of prompts, they may well have couplets, even stanzas
that look remarkably the same - and might be accused by a third-party
of plagiarism.

My prompts are themselves prompted by IDEAS in other poems, or thoughts,
or moments. Sometimes I may bastardise a line but I always aim to be at 2-3-4  
removes from the original.

So, when using prompts, please remember there is NOT a requirement to use All of a prompt
or the prompt exactly, or a portion exactly. We are not saying "This must be in the text!"

You read the prompts like you might read a series of poems or "great lines" and "wait
to be hit"... You may, on being hit, write something unrelated.

Just be careful that you and I don't produce the same poem, or be accused of
something undeserved.

2015-0046 (Jan 27 2015) 12:10 (Tuesday)

Boot Camp

January Flash Blast

2015-0046 (Jan 27 2015) 12:10 (Tuesday)




1126 Aeroplanes, thick as flies, moaning, droning
1127 How will the spaces fill, and what is substance comes from where?
1128 Continue, Reverend, full of shit
1129 The traffic cop, gleaming white, pretty enough to eat
1130 We are almost ready, but we are never ready

1131 How can your absence fill a room?
1132 I turn back to my own journey and will arrive later than expected
1133 All atoms but the egg is not the omelette
1134 Your death is in everything from a pebble to the sky
1135 Hold my eyes so I may hear

1136 Eventually I will have gone. Think of me now and then
1137 Her knees up to her throat, her crazy hair
1138 Surviving is a form of punishment
1139 Charred toast, broken yolks, bacon like leather
1140 They said you were sick. You look all right to me!

1141 There must be pain. Why?
1142 Poems about funerals and lofty speeches
1143 The way she sat upon a chair
1144 I cannot wallow in your despair 
1145 But the water can only find the sea

1146 Death is an anchor that makes us faster
1147 A puff of scent, then gone
1148 A foot of earth, another foot of snow
1149 You weren't here long enough
1150 There are things we live with, but we shouldn't live with

Monday, January 26, 2015

2015-0045 (Jan 26 2015) 18:20 (Monday/Tuesday)

Boot Camp

January Flash Blast

2015-0045 (Jan 26 2015) 18:20 (Monday/Tuesday)

1101 Talks are described as positive
1102 Believe!
1103 Some people live on their wits
1104 A glass of water, some whisky
1105 I fancy a low-wire act, or smoke-eating

1106 I'm a little fuzzy on the ghost thing
1107 Wireless
1108  On the corner of Arsehole Street and Shite
1109 If the tide went out and kept going
1110 Pity me, the bastard

1111 I am the walk-on in Gunsmoke
1112 Bulldozer
1113 Killing Gran
1114 We stole some bikes to ride to Mass
1115 Ten babies in a bombed-out truck

1116 Rabbit skulls in his pocket
1117 The story didn't start with you
1118 The child from rubble
1119 I will reflect on this and give it some respect
1120 Lost diaphragm: I'm going in!

1121 I have lots of spare manure
1122 A rusty key, corroded lock
1123 Plough my furrow
1124 You can see from their faces: not funny
1125 I can award you various medals

2015-0043 (Jan 26 2015) 06:45 (Monday)

Boot Camp
January Flash Blast

2015-0043 (Jan 26 2015) 06:45 (Monday)

1076 A bayonet-polisher from Eccleshall, a draper's assistant
1077 A sky with the colour of squid
1078 The dead grey general in the park is wearing a tall white hat
1079 On the canals, the junkyards, the stores
1080 There's a telecom mast in every cemetery

1081 When the dream lingers
1082 Spinning the wheels and digging deeper
1083 It depends on you point of view
1084 Come hold my frozen hand
1085 Fuck them all, fuck them all, fuck, fuck, fuck fuck them all

1086 Press the right buttons and in the right order
1087 It is Hush Hour, mouths backed up to the Highway
1088 I live just up the lane, and down the lane
1089 Float With Me
1090 A hundred commuter trying to move the train. Don't Laugh!

1091 The underground rattles below us
1092 Lorry loads, shed-loads, train-loads of boys
1093 This is a dead-end street
1094 Steam
1095 No-one goes hungry here

1096 A small, ordinary party
1097 Men came to see her by appointment, by charabanc and special trains
1098 The puff of cold air just before we hear the train
1099 Five days a week and often Saturdays
1100 She was nothing special but she knew three secret words

Sunday, January 25, 2015

2015-0042 (Jan 25 2015) 18:25 (Sunday)

Boot Camp

January Flash Blast

2015-0042 (Jan 25 2015) 18:25 (Sunday)

1051 We walk like extras in a movie
1052 Darling, Darling, Will you please fuck off?
1053 Sometimes things get complicated
1054 Let's watch something that makes us cry
1055 Spitting out your teeth

1056 A man in short flannel trousers, boy in a suit
1057 Put your chair against the door and be quiet
1058 You have passed, with distinction
1059 The sympathy of vinyl
1060 Wrist, blade.

1061 Our ankles chained, our tongues pressed
1062 Afterplay
1063 In the best seats, holding hands
1064 Bloody women are like bloody taxis
1065 The unfolding of your body

1066 The Normans are coming!
1067 We started out pushed for time
1068 Listen to how a man explains
1069 Slim, dark-haired, a wicked bride
1070 The later it is, the more expensive they are

1071 It was crowded. I didn't see you
1072 The Milk Train, smelling vaguely of fish
1073 And it depends how desperate you are for a ride
1084 Tall grass, hot and yellow
1075 I'd like to be that old man who smiles with his eyes

Blast Update

Our Band of Brothers is rather small at the moment. Seems every December a few move on to do an MFA or write The Great British/American Novel.

But to date the blast has reached 135 pieces, and we have an outside chance of reaching 200 by the close (February 5th)

Boot Campers are also subbing like crazy to fill their "Out There" pot.

In my own case, 56 pieces, about 50 publishable, about a dozen a lot better than that, 27 subs so far (will go to 35 this week.)

I try to have about 50 items circulating, and when I'm working hard I'll get up to 70 and then just keep topping up as the hits/rejections start coming back.



Quantity Begets Quality


The most common criticism of "output-output!" is that it "must be" at the expense of quality.

I find the opposite, and most BCers report a certain "stiffness" in their writing which disappears about a week in. They then see steady improvement over two weeks (weeks 2&3) before either a plateau or a slight fall in mental acuity (ideas-wise) in the last week/ten days.

But, let's face it, if a one-month blast produces ONE really good piece and you win a competition or place at a level you've never reached before, isn't that worth it?

I will probably get to 80 pieces by Feb 5th.

I will be disappointed if I don't place 65 and win 1-2 competitions.

The test results will start landing in March and let's see where we are in December 15

Watch this Space!

Sunday

Boot Camp

January Flash Blast

2015-0042 (Jan 25 2015) 07:45 (Sunday)

1026 The eroticism of perfect pleats
1027 Horses, their dust rising
1028 Lists, and lists of lists
1029 And I was desperate for somehow just a kiss
1030 A fresh, cream, perfectly ironed bed

1031 How cops begin with Sir, end Motherfucker!
1032 I was a crazed and unknown thing, something mothers said
1033 I am in a pod, a handsome pea
1034 But she knew nothing of this
1035 Lost in the Woods above Montreux

1036 You are your own forest and I cannot penetrate 
1037 Sunday Bells
1038 The CDs we hid from prospective lovers
1039 A toffee Yum-Yum
1040 When you are frozen, mere cold is light relief

1041 You were at church
1042 What is messy in the heart
1043 Pretend the TV is on and you have sherry
1044 Why the calf slips out easy but women scream
1045 First, learn to love ironing

1046 Scooping Elephant shit is an art
1047 What a few crystals can do
1048 Spreading butter thick on toast
1049 When I grow weary and unhappy
1050 Knowing at four there's a game on TV

Saturday's Prompts

Boot Camp

January Flash Blast

2015-0041 (Jan 24 2015) 14:38 (Friday)

1001 I neither hope nor expect to turn around
1002 There is always time, though it sometimes hides
1003 I am happy; we can build on this
1004 The sky is too small and very dry
1005 How the desert calls us down

1006 The cruellest season
1007 We were warm then, deep in feathers
1008 All of us playing in the sun
1009 A mirror broken
1010 The sound of water over stones

1011 Something filthy beneath an innocent rock
1012 Throw the baby away and we'll talk
1013 Some part of London, heavy in fog
1014 We will plant the corpses and hope
1015 You treat your armchair like a throne

1016 The light upon the table
1017 The way joy withers as time swells
1018 A giant fire, a massive oak surround
1019 I am having trouble with my nerves
1020 The sponge to wipe our arses

1021 There are rats in the ginnel
1022 The wind beats against the passage door
1023 She was elegant, intelligent
1024 I'm washing my hair
1025 National Service

Friday, January 23, 2015

The 1,000th Prompt for 2015

Boot Camp

January Flash Blast

2015-0040 (Jan 23 2015) 08:15 (Friday)

0976 The men on banks with rods and nets and something else
0977 Don't be afraid of any of them
0978 I dream about icebergs
0979 You may arrive, you may not, but wake, walk, experience
0980 Rowing in circles because it's MY oar

0981 Nothing ever happens here
0982 Imagine a woman, then go find her
0983 Let the horses out, pause, begin crying
0984 A Poxed Blanket
0985 Overnight fucking on The Orient Express

0986 Let's be honest, Godot is an arsehole
0987 I simply cannot understand
0988 Let us stay in and admire the new kitchen
0989 You said it could not happen twice and then it struck
0990 I am fluent in BS ans studying spin

0991 Hull stinks but not as much as Grimsby
0992 We can, but do not choose, to videophone
0993 A thousand mewling pups and snuffling
0994 I might be a hawk
0995 Wheelbarrows full of manure

0996 The snow fox using earth to catch its prey
0997 Is the flower in the bud?
0998 Primroses, Bluebells, Snowdrops
0999 I am obsessing on this sparrow, it consumes
1000 It feels as if we've reached some kind of goal

Thursday, January 22, 2015

2015-0039 (Jan 22 2015) 21:47 (Thursday/Friday)

Boot Camp

January Flash Blast

2015-0039 (Jan 22 2015) 21:47 (Thursday/Friday)

0951 I am a fisherman, that's all
0952 Bucket
0953 Arrangements are being made for my imminent demise
0954 Ladder
0955 You seem to want, one day, to meet the hangman

0956 We might as well clock out
0957 Something rotten, some dark, disturbing smell
0958 It is night here
0959 Cheer up. It might never 'appen!
0960 trying to walk the dogs

0961 The cupboards open and empty
0962 I don't expect you to understand
0963 The Native English
0964 I will be  juggler or eat fire
0965 Too close to the end of the month

0966 Picnic in Soweto
0967 A jury of FaceBookers
0968 Note this carefully
0969 We are pursuing our investigations
0970 How the negro cries

0971 Cut it all down, then burn it
0972 Alchemy
0973 The call this the known world
0974 A light round you
0975 There's a shop selling poems in the High Street

2015-0038 (Jan 22 2015) 08:15 (Thursday)

Boot Camp
January Flash Blast

2015-0038 (Jan 22 2015) 08:15 (Thursday)

0926 Skimming through Clifton
0927 And rise again, and live in caves again
0928 We do not all come to wisdom at the same time
0929 With blood upon a wall, the scratch of stone then dusts
0930 And if we ever fall, if we can forget all this

0931 Watching the scissor grinder in the street 
0932 The first brooch, the first bracelet, the first time love, not sex
0933 Perhaps China, or climbing from the Rift
0934 Our colour was the sky and given us
0935 I am pressed against the window

0936 No unborn babies, no more dead trees
0937 When at the cave mouth suddenly was smoke
0938 What ate, what we would eat, the poisons, the water
0939 When we grunted, fucked, fought for food
0940 But held our babies close and slept as one

0941 And us, unknowing, hurtled into the future
0942 You fell somewhere but did not die
0943 Savannah, swamp, alive in the shallows of the lake
0944 Let us run naked and black through our own streets
0945 And a white animal came from there, rapacious

0946 The smallest could not run and I could not carry
0947 Come back to the black and pure
0948 Playing Ray Charles in the heat
0949 And God say, I cain't promise you nuthin'
0950 We were at the bottom of something and as we climbed, went down

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

2015-0036 (Jan 20 2015) 17:35 (Tuesday)

Boot Camp

January Flash Blast

2015-0036 (Jan 20 2015) 17:40 (Tuesday)

0876 We are beasts, too, and slaughtered in our way
0877 I did not hear the start of summer
0878 It's just a dirty vest
0879 The flesh that came as I became a man
0880 A ploughman beside the vee

0881 The death-white shine of fish
0882 He flew, but for such small times
0883 I am not holy or from a holy place
0884 A hundred guitars, a trumpet
0885 The long slow mud at low-tide

0886 All the trees burned
0887 We stole a boat
0888 The way blood pours and makes us more alive
0889 No longer on the island
0890 One spring day green, the next is flowers

0891 Swinging from the tree, falling into water
0892 A soft story, a sparrow, conversion
0893 Apples, Pears
0894 O'Brien was a gentleman, at least at a glance
0895 The poor little thing, so skinny...

0896 That thing about a grain of sand, the world
0897 No water with it, for the taste
0898 Four dirty cowboys, looking for trouble
0899 Dusk fills the shadows first
0900 I don't intend to keep you long

2015-0035 (Jan 20 2015) 08:50 (Tuesday)

Boot Camp

January Flash Blast

2015-0035 (Jan 20 2015) 08:50  (Tuesday)

0851 OK, I'll say goodbye, but frankly, I'm pissed about dying
0852 The crowds upon the sidewalks, before the sniper settles
0853 What's the score with your PPI?
0854 I'd say more, but I can't stop laughing
0855 me want be your pretty, me be sexy

0856 The carved names, the crosses
0857 Don't you have a home to go to?
0858 The soft heat of a pulsing dick
0859 Off, fuck.
0860 Collecting glass eyes and horsehair wigs

0861 A fine bag of meat indeed
0862 Read about me in The Times, a snippet in The Sun
0863 A Happy Hearse, Ice-Cream Van Music
0864 A Slated Tenement, Slick with rain
0865 off you go, no help here

0866 Poor Little rich Boy, that'll do
0867 Like crabs from crotch to crotch
0868 That's me, full of it, life and soul
0869 How warm the water is here, how shiny the boats
0870 Field after field after field

0871 Sung by West Country Witches on their birthdays
0872 Plastic on the slab
0873 You can twirl your bloody skirts till suppertime
0874 When the door of the furnace is open like a magnet
0875 Mad or sane, dead is dead

Monday, January 19, 2015

2015-0034 (Jan 19 2015) 12:12 (Monday)

Boot Camp
January Flash Blast

2015-0034 (Jan 19 2015) 12:12 (Monday)

0826 The lies of those we love
0827 Secretly to Chicago, and then by train
0828 I have booked the Heathrow coaches
0829 Barcelona, no Gran Canaria, well, "Spain"
0830 You owe, I owe, it almost balances out

0831 The sound of someone on the stairs
0832 We don't make love but sometimes you let me fuck you
0833 Dead birds everywhere
0834 We could murder our parents and run away
0835 Because of this, women give themselves to me

0836 It meant nothing to me
0837 There is a room, a bed, a window
0838 We meet behind the ruins of our houses
0839 The light, somehow, comes through
0840 I want to name the town, but it feels wrong

0841 Late at night I stare out 
0842 A quiet man who raked his lawn on Sundays
0843 Flesh on flesh
0844 Between you, me and the dog
0845 My beard is growing slowly

0846 I would leave flowers there
0847 The anger is a heat in my ears
0848 Love perhaps, but what it is is unutterable 
0849 Cancer! Whoop-de-dooh!
0850 OK, it's over. Turn it off.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

2015-0033 (Jan 18 2015) 18:47 (Sunday Night)

Boot Camp

January Flash Blast

2015-0033 (Jan 18 2015) 18:47 (Sunday Night)

0801 In the probation Officer's Car
0802 Lose, but lose ANGRY
0803 Bright pools, deep and black
0804 The sea prays, waits
0805 I am from another city

0806 What was here has changed
0807 A long, leather, Nazi General's Coat
0808 What should be remembered?
0809 The smell of her
0810 I would rather not grow up just yet

0811 It is almost midnight, the sky shimmering
0812 I remember, I remember. Of course I remember
0813 Full of care, full of care
0814 From here, under such a sun, it all looks beautiful
0815 I'm a squirrel. Hold my nuts.

0816 Your house is cold, something is wrong here
0817 Dominate
0818 Plant the potatoes, then wait
0819 A tartan scarf and tartan pants
0820 Now, apparently, is three seconds long

0821 It's only a blizzard, Captain
0822 The moon bleeds, the lovers hold their breath
0823 Think big, refuse to compromise.
0824 I like to drive the way that let's me see the valley
0825 Don't blink!

Saturday, January 17, 2015

2015-0032 (Jan 17 2015) 20:53 (Saturday/Sunday)

Boot Camp January Blast

2015-0032 (Jan 17 2015) 20:53 (Saturday/Sunday)


0776 In the gap between my fingers
0777 Quietly, a Sunday, a soft, rested river
0778 I hoped for this but would not pray
0779 We were all young and easy
0780 Before, in the dark future, we imagined now

0781 Our various toys
0782 Somewhere, way off a clatter of bottles
0783 The way the Male Voice lifts the village
0784 I left a long time ago
0785 Children be brave, stand, walk forward

0786 Let us remember
0787 Please excuse me, but I must die now
0788 In the old age of my childhood I had paused
0789 I prefer trees, summer, autumn
0790 When the bus made an emergency stop

0791 I remember a bright red blanket
0792 Finally, the sun broke through and the children sang
0793 Yes, I am lonely
0794 We started you off like a watch
0795 I will not give you up, not shut you out

0796 Into the thigh
0797 I hear a woman singing, a man weeping
0798 When you were born, we applauded
0799 I remember the smallest, purest things
0800 Lights in French Windows

2015-031

:
:

 Boot Camp January Flash Blast

 2015-0031 (Jan 17 2015) 07:36 (Saturday)

0751 Moria Jones was round and brown
0752 The three of them went to a back-street pub
0753 The house was in a grey terrace
0754 It was overcast but Greavsie pretended to sunbathe
0755 She was driving her boyfriend's vintage Jag

0756 Underneath the floorboards, ninety-nine types of shit
0757 She had said her Mum would fuss
0758 The Inter-City sloughed out of Manchester on time
0759 You walk bloody slow, Ocean, Thomas said.
0760 Eventually she got through to the desk

0761 The DCS wanted another look at Number 17
0762 On their way to her mother's Moira told Billy
0763 He stood at the lectern and waited
0764 It was cleaner now, no blood, no shit.
0765 Jenn' drove slowly, the windows open

0766 Kings Parade, silent, amber.
0767 On one wall were a dozen pictures of Hornby
0768 She was back a little before two a.m.
0769 Welcomed by summer rain
0770 The DI pointed to the street door and she went ahead

0771 Moira was sitting up in bed
0772 His name was Angel
0773 A string of aliases
0774 She hadn't run for days
0775 Hands up everybody who wants to go to Manchester

Friday, January 16, 2015

2015-030

Boot Camp January Flash Blast


2015-0030 (Jan 16 2015) 11:20 (Friday)

0726 Reciting poems on the Moon
0727 The morning drug run
0728 Sometimes we step aside and despair flies by us
0729 Paris Noir
0730 The things in my diary; 1967

0731 Stand on the edge by all means, but choose which way you fall
0732 Some things will always be hidden
0733 Were you ever a child?
0734 The negative correlation between Kittens and Pussy
0735 My stick-man cartoons of the prophet

0736 Forced Divorces
0737 Tell me what you're thinking
0738 He's very heavy, he's my brother
0739 You have shattered me, but the pieces are still beautiful
0740 In a yellow window, just your face

0741 Not just the sun, not even the sun
0742 BLUE
0743 The various rules of desire
0744 It's a Cactus, Prick!
0745 Your absence has been extended but I am patient

0746 I would prefer to remain if you can provide me with a heart
0747 Is that really all you want?
0748 Lolita!
0749 A woman in the shadow of a doorway
0750 Catch the light, hold the hope, hang on to dreams

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Boot Camp January Flash Blast 28

Boot Camp January Flash Blast

2015-0028 (Jan 14 2015) 15:54

0676 No Loitering
0677 You See? No-one is judging
0678 So many wonderful men
0679 Ghost Busters
0680 Death comes softly, and occasionally sweet

0681 Expectoration Forbidden
0682 A bit of jostling, a little shove
0683 Fer fuck's sake, say something funny!
0684 Gurkha!
0685 How to Sing the Blues

0686 How long have we been lying here?
0687 Hear the voices whispering, "Sleep!"
0688 136 Jones!
0689 Blang, bang, blang!
0690 Together as if on feathers

0691 All present and incorrect
0692 As innocence departs
0693 The body now beside me is my own
0694 Bluebottle
0695 ARRANGED

0696 On the far bank a child mewling
0697 A field for planting
0698 TIGER!
0699 Away, shimmering, the lights of the village
0700 Blenkinsop & Blenkinsop, Newsagents

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

2015-0027 (Jan 13 2015) 21:45 (For Wednesday)

Boot Camp January Flash Blast

2015-0027 (Jan 13 2015) 21:45 (For Wednesday)

0651 How a house smells after a week away
0652 Watch them at the gates, still believing it matters
0653 Here we go! Here we go!
0654 Try drooling
0655 I would like a beautiful Thai woman to cook for me

0656 Blackman Jones, Plumber
0657 Selfie, Selfie on the Wall
0658 We are back where we started, but cleverer
0659 TOOT!
0660 He was a bastard, took forever to catch

0661 We could write the script of this, how it ends badly
0662 CRUST
0663 A pocket full of flowers
0664 When I grow up, I want to have died in my teens
0665 A Kind of Assassin

0666 We are all born naked, except royalty
0667 Fancy a donut?
0668 Docklands, dark, metal looming, mud
0669 Hello, House
0670 Stop That!

6071 Drink to me only and all that
0672 Hold my dead baby while I answer this
0673 Festival
0674 Today is the morning after the night
0675 I like children (with salt and vinegar)

Do You Use These Prompts?

If you wander in here, copy the prompts,

Do you use them?

How do you use them?

Are you writing poems?

Are you writing flashes?

Are you writing stories?

Are you sending things out?

Have you had any successes?

Please let me know.

2015-0026 (Jan 13 2015) 10:42

Boot Camp January Blast

2015-0026 (Jan 13 2015) 10:42

0626 You hated Spain
0627 This is the real kicker...
0628 A Rich Red Blanket
0629 Not so much the physics of it
0630 Like a Grown Up Musical Chairs

0631 On a Diet of Love
0632 A seat in a public toilet
0633 Splinter!
0634 Almost like begging, like asking for feels right
0635 The black edges you perceived

0636 I don't remember how you won me
0637 CORPSE
0638 Tourists, watching
0639 We are half-way to another country, falling
0640 Granite

0641 Cheeky!
0642 For some reason or other, we all knelt
0643 We married like frogs                                     
0644 Something pink and light
0645 The dogs spinning before they shit

0646 Coal Tar Soap
0647 I made the mistake of seeing into you
0648 Love muffled by rain
0649 I remember you in moonlight, in a particular moment
0650 The many ways you could have killed me



Monday, January 12, 2015

2015-0025 (Jan 12 2015) 08:46

Boot Camp January Flash Blast

2015-0025 (Jan 12 2015) 08:46

0601 It isn't difficult to eat fire. Once.
0602 I died at birth, which is kind of a bummer
0603 I often dream of saving downed pilots
0604 My nocturnal habits are not for the squeamish
0605 Towels

0606 Newsprint, coffee, the smell of rain on wool
0607 I could build a boat?
0608 I hate the brown ones, thick and mad
0609 The contents of a man's handbag
0610 Sitting quietly, watching Kittiwakes

0611 Sleeping upright
0612 Nous Somme
0613 We are the convoy, you are Das Boot
0614 At the highest part of the mast
0615 I only teach Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and over the long weekend

0616 KETTLE
0617 Half an Indian, a bit of kebab, her address
0618 Feel the swell, the motion, understand
0619 PING!
0620 The blackness between stars

0621 That's the thing with shoes
0622 My mobility scooter
0623 Perfecting Sprawl
0624 I turn to you second, after the sports pages
0625 We should build the cenotaphs higher and use them as radio masts

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Prompts

Boot Camp January Flash Blast

2015-0024 (Jan 11 2015) 10:08

0576 Crimson
0577 Nothing more than to be loved 
0578 Take it if you want, my epitaph
0579 Puce
0580 Their feathers white on white

0581 The end, beginning
0582 Dancing Together
0583 They arrive, depart
0584 When every word, every phrase, is blessed
0585 This is how we rise

0586 Je Suis some bloke or other
0587 It is rumoured I am Welsh, let me deny it!
0588 Sign my petition. I'm sure it's important.
0589 Hear that! Is that a waterfall?
0590 Share this, OMG!

0591 If only things could stay where they were
0592 DUTCH
0593 Once there were Bysantines, once Romans.
0594 The brightest light passes
0595 The plans dissolve

0596 My father, 24, in shorts and a grin
0597 The sound of silent weeping
0598 The exact weight of your breath
0599 Thin tea from an old flask
0600 A kind of sad music

Saturday, January 10, 2015

2015-0023 (Jan 10 2015) 08:37

Boot Camp January Flash Blast

 2015-0023 (Jan 10 2015) 08:37

 0551 Back when the world was wilder
0552 Metaphors at Dawn
0553 The he dismissed us; you went first
0554 You are young and do not smell nice, but you have talent!
0555 People arguing in every room

0556 A fat lady, pissing herself
0557 Ploughs to swords as soon as possible
0558 For her pains, she had been born in Llantwit Major
0559 Gong & Gong
0560 I am building a balsa house to take with me always

0561 An empty block of five
0562 Listen to yourselves! You pontificate like jellyfish!
0563 The last piece of coal. Next we shall burn books. Or You.
0564 Any Sunday before 1970
0565 Miss Wilce and Miss Dufner?

0566 Do not be sentimental. Never expect applause.
0567 You ought to find a greater joy in music.
0568 I have sent my penny for the Black Babies
0569 The Nine Fridays
0570 Crushed beer cans, the suggestion of bad sex

0571 The silent music of pi
0572 I wear and thousand locks and want a beautiful locksmith
0573 The last surviving man
0574 That wolf is taking the piss
0575 Twelve months later, or a year

Friday, January 09, 2015

Boot Camp January Blast: Prompt Set 21

.
.
.

.
.

Boot Camp January Flash Blast

2015-0021 (Jan 09 2015) 08:50

 0501 Essential Rules for Staying Alive
0502 I need to make dough
0503 You fill up with light even as your light goes out
0504 Tell me about my despair
0505 You left your keys and a cheque for have the rent

0506 If you could start again
0507 I mine books, but smelt, even as I come back up
0508 I would have left a flower
0509 After the footballer, who will we gather round next?
0510 Love is waking up in the night and discovering you're not alone

0511 Open the door and begin walking. Whistle
0512 The world will continue
0513 I would like to dream this dream again. This what?
0514 If we could turn of living like a light, but turn it on again
0515 I think you are shouting, "I am here!" that is all.

0516 Try to be complete
0517 There is a spider and, to it, I am something to mull over
0518 The flash of light as we run between trees
0519 No better, no worse, just you.
0520 Lie down, face down, peer into the grass. There is a life there

0521 New bullets gleam
0522 Do we go to war marked with the entry wound?
0523 Can you feel the wind on a still day?
0524 Let's call this alive, but not pretend it's more than that.
0525 Ask them in, make tea, tell them a story



.
.
.

Thursday, January 08, 2015

More prompts


2015-0020 (Jan 08 2015) 16:05


0476 Summary Justice Unit
0477 Do not read this!
0478 The deck is stacked
0479 A free cup of tea, a round of toast
0480 He was so bad he made my father seem decent

0481 Game On!
0482 Chickens in the Corridor
0483 When I was tiny, a little shiny apple
0484 Two left
0485 We open our throats and sing

0486 On Hundred and EIGHTY!!
0487 You can TRY to disengage
0488 When silence being, for a while it rings
0489 Your name upon a stone
0490 How small it folds

0491 There you go again, pretending to exist
0492 The chairs move by themselves
0493 All his bikes, his cars
0494 The extra child in the cupboard
0495 Joyous, reckless, impertinent

0496 I will either kill myself or read a book
0497 A woman is the blues
0498 The people here are too small
0499 If my mother could speak, she would tell you
0500 I am not looking for nuance

Wednesday, January 07, 2015

2015-0019 (Jan 07 2015) 09:30

Boot Camp January Flash-Blast

2015-0019 (Jan 07 2015) 09:30

0451 I live approximately twenty-four hours a day
0452 Would you like to come up and see my Time Machine?
0453 If I am not me.without my glasses on // who would I be// in contact lenses?
0454 I might bark at strangers in the street
0455 I am glad I was never a Japanese Prisoner of War

0456 California, Cold White Wine
0457 Montmarte, hearing The Blues Brothers through a window
0458 Magnolia
0459 Ray Guns and Automatic Translators
0460 Sing if you like

0461 Where did you come from, time?
0462 St-st-st-stammer
0463 Walking the aisles, for an hour or two
0464 We could go chasing squirrels!
0465 She painted fruit, then ate them

0466 Almost all her arm
0467 Like a dog I feel you coming home
0468 Staring through cafe windows
0469 The children have been taken inside
0470 When visitors come, add water to the soup

0471 A Man called Peach
0472 Like a light gone out
0473 Was there ever a time when everything was possible?
0474 She swallowed a fly
0475 One Palm Tree, Two Palm Trees, Three Palm Trees...

Tuesday, January 06, 2015

2015-0018 (Jan 06 2015) 10:45

Boot Camp January Flash

2015-0018 (Jan 06 2015) 10:45


 0426 To walk outside in the rain
0427 Grapefruit
0428 Like a snake swallowing a rabbit
0429 This is a story about endurance
0430 Watership Down

0431 The lake that drowns you
0432 Stars sing. They sang before they could be heard
0433 The moment the needle goes in
0434 Why are you screaming?
0435 Scraping black toast into the sink

0436 How trivially happiness begins
0437 The great-grandson of righteousness
0438 REWARDS
0439 Somehwere, a long way away, in a dusty corner
0440 Olive Oil

0441 I guess you could say it's raining, Noah.
0442 Found underneath a poem, crushed
0443 A First Communion
0444 SUBJECT
0445 Self-contempt needs to be nurtured

0446 The primroses are gone.
0447 It is happening now, somewhere
0448 Corpus Christi, Rhododendrons
0449 Selfie
0450 OK, that will do, goodbye.

Monday, January 05, 2015

Forty and Counting

January Flash Blast


We should see our fortieth flash/poem today.


OK Start...

2015-0017 (Jan 05 2015) 08:05



Boot Camp January Blast

2015-0017 (Jan 05 2015) 08:05

0401 My husband is on fire in the living room
0402 A New Jersey Glass Finisher
0403 We should be enemies, damn youI
0404 Consarn it, yer durn tootin' persnickety female! !
0405 You have kept us from bright colours for too long

0406 I am not always acting
0407 BLINK
0408 Here is certainty: the smell of baking bread
0409 There are ghosts, zombies, and fathers
0410 They remained together till her death 

0411 Some of us are tired and some of us are mad
0412 It's about a lady and a mirror but it's in Chinese
0413 Please pardon my tiny female input
0414 Men in Sports-Jackets and open-necked shirts
0415 Is there anything more honest than a potato?

0416 Men with knotted hankies on their head
0417 What rhymes with bigger, snigger, digger?
0418 There are no Sundays any more
0419 I move between tables, couples, men with a hand beneath the cloth
0420 Sand, sand, sand.

0421 I'm just popping up the - errr to see Father O'Flaherty
0422 Coyotes, Gabby Hayes
0423 He disremembers, quietly smiling
0424 Circling the Wagons
0425 I sometimes think of cabbage at the worst moments

Sunday, January 04, 2015

2015-0016 (Jan 04 2015) 08:00




Boot Camp January Flash Blast


2015-0016 (Jan 04 2015) 08:00

0376 The tide is full, swelling agains the quay
0377 Nazareth
0378 The far coast shines against the night
0379 How trains rush oblivious
0380 Consider how a thought weighs on the soul

0381 The sea is sad, lowing
0382 A poem built by committee
0383 The way women contain
0384 Begin, pause, then begin again
0385 Genuflect

0386 My counterpane is soft as silk
0387 Various beauties since, but meaningless
0388 Driving beneath the limit to make the night last longer
0389 National Gate-Leaning Day
0390 PROMISE

0391 Now the fat woman won't stop singing
0392 Delay, Consider, Linger, Reflect
0393 BRAMBLE
0394 "For you tread on my dreams"
0395 Every man should spend time staring at water

0396 You may be tired, but tired is good
0397 There are sunrises swollen with Heaven
0398 My father, his father, my father's father's father.
0399 POPE
0400 Nothing is ever gone

Saturday, January 03, 2015

2015-0015 (Jan 03 2015) 12:10

Boot Camp January Blast

2015-0015 (Jan 03 2015) 12:10

0351 Sometimes habit is all we have. The next thing waits and the gap becomes smaller
0352 We are pyjama'd, unbreakfasted, waiting for a reason to drink
0353 Furnace
0354 I am just Dad. My father was more than that.
0355 Lake a patient on a gurney

0356 The moon has no chains but cannot leave
0357 Your Junior, surely?
0358 My parents were childless
0359 My name is Smith. I live alone and death's a way away
0360 Let us just undress, walk in, and see how far we get

0361 The Dean was upset now Johnson was dead
0362 An era, and the end of an era, and the start may be the start of one, or waiting to become
0363 In their turn, they were screwed
0364 I feel or like to say I feel, a sense of calming.
0365 Yes, get out early

0366 Canals, back-yards, what is the dirt of life, drifts by
0367 Broderick
0368 What exactly happened last night?
0369 Why dirty Northern towns appear in jokes
0370 I would probably clean and tidy before popping the pills

0371 He said that sex began in 63. It may have done, but not for me.
0372 Not since could I use the word innocent. Before I was merely uninformed
0373 We all had Chatterly, and there was That Was the Week That Was
0374 Farthing
0375 Don't for a second think my umbrella takes two

Friday, January 02, 2015

2015-0014 (Jan 01 2015) 13:37

2015-0014 (Jan 01 2015) 13:37

0326 It's like a train you know is coming, but not when
0327 TRIGGER
0328 Stick together. It will work out
0329 CHAMELEON
0330 When you're not here I get sad.

0331 Help me make my fortune. I won't forget
0332 BIKE
0333 But first we need to get out of here
0334 LEATHER
0335 Roses are OK but thorns get a raw deal

0336 I'm at my saddest just after the fifth pint
0337 Shot at Dawn, twice a day for a week.
0338 BLUE
0339 Yes, I'm like that, a thumping crook
0340 Sad songs on the juke-box, hoping a fight will break out

0341 If I could tell you, do you think I wouldn't?
0342 MARBLES
0343 Like they say, "Send in the clowns."
0344 BERWICK
0345 How do I love you? Seriously? Hundreds of fucking ways!

0346 What do we talk about when we can't mention sex?
0347 We could bake bread and warm each other's oven...
0348 She said her name was Carmen. Or Smith.
0349 The various ghosts we call our childhood
0350 Your hair is queer.

2015-0013 (Jan 02 2015) 08:27



2015-0013 (Jan 02 2015) 08:27

0301 I get up at five. You're already there
0302 Mall Olympics
0303 I see Kathy married again, in 77
0304 Phlegm
0305 I was once called Helga and could do the splits

0306 I want to be in front. just once
0307 PEANUTS!
0308 Throwing pennies to the kids
0309 Like finding a phone in the desert
0310 Cheeky Chappie, Serial Killer, it's all the same

0311 Day Two Dry
0312 I plan to dress like an arsehole and hide in a bank
0313 Mummy's gun is shiny!
0314 Designer
0315 Playing Doctors and Nurses

0316 A cacophony of arseholes
0317 SILENT Lambs? Where?
0318 The shit that gets published called "story"
0319 Hermit
0320 Father forgive me, even though it's bullshit

0321 I am a house with boarded windows accumulating webs
0322 The Bowel Habits of the Famous
0323 A Sharper Light
0324 How lucky that you should run into me
0325 How to choose

Thursday, January 01, 2015

08:38

Boot Camp January Blast

 2015-0012 (Jan 01 2015) 08:37


0276 Sympathy for the Devil
0277 Merry Christmas, Joe
0278 The Earth was flat until some checked
0279 Am I too judgemental?
0280 The Stove is Dead

0281 Polio
0282 One side of her face red
0283 We sang in disharmony
0284 We walked through streets in the rain
0285 You prefer Love films or War films?

0286 Beetroot
0287 Rows of White Crosses
0288 Certain memories of parents
0289 Yeah, right, fly me to the fucking moon
0290 He was cycling, rode in to the German Army

0291 Weapons Check here. Any Sarcasm madam?
0292 We gathered in the theatre
0293 You taught me to breathe. I had always been gasping
0294 I have been avoiding me
0295 It was a sort of secret joke between us

0296 Endless like pi.
0297 Two cups of oats, five of water
0298 Miss! Miss!
0299 Outside the window, a Robin, freezing
0300 How many buckets for a pound?

New Year's Day 06:28

Boot Camp January Blast

2015-011

New Year's Day 06:28


0251 My mother, swimming slowly
0252 She was funny, high-voiced, a little awkward, but she loved like Jesus
0253 They are wrapping up babies in Gimbals 
0254 A Boy Called David said he Loved me
0255 The funny way, sleeping, you breathe

0256 Frankly, I could do with a proper fuck
0257 In this one he drops back, his legs out, so those behind are seen
0258 We were all singing. I thought people liked me
0259 OK, Good, now push the bayonet in.
0260 She says, Lie on your back, stare until it blurs

0261 That ridiculous scarf
0262 "Always-Look-on-the-BRIGHT-Side-of Life"
0263 Let me know where I can reach you
0264 The Birdie Song
0265 A story beginning, "Thank-You for choosing to pay your bill by direct debit."

0266 We should practice losing lovers, like Monday Morning Fire-Drill
0267 I lay in the bath, willing the phone to ring
0268 The Terrible Disease Called Old
0269 Racing for the door, bruises
0270 It is National Don't Pay the Rent Day.

0271 Fat, ugly planes, swollen with bombs
0272 I need to watch The Maltese Falcon
0273 Ball-Bearing
0274 Forget everything you heard
0275 I am ready to go.