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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Boot Camp January Blast: Prompt Set 21

.
.
.

.
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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



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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

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...

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.

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

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

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

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

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.