Sep-Oct Ramp-Up 01 1851-1875 21-Sep 08:45 Monday

Sep-Oct Ramp-Up 01 1851-1875 21-Sep 08:45 Monday

1851 Where I was born. Not where I lived. Not who I am.

1852 The Dead Centre

1853 The taller soldiers with the deeper march

1854 When meadows shone

1855 Once for others, now for myself

1856 We wait still, patiently, for the promised blood

1857 Deaf

1858 No longer under sky, no longer looking out to sea

1859 Dumb

1860 Beneath my bedroom light, outside, where dark creatures shuffle

1861 Avocado and Bacon

1862 Trees left, trees right, some dark, some light

1863 A Gorge, Cold Water

1864 Once we were all young and easy, never believing this

1865 Apollo 13

1866 Where Billy and I used to go

1867 Tea, then out with the wick

1868 How the cold breathes art upon the leaves

1869 Naked

1870 There is a moment when darkness changes

1871 The finality of a certain kind of no.

1872 A snuffle, a tired knock at a door, a bottle rolling

1873 CORK

1874 Driving slowly to eke out their time

1875 This is what we disremember

Mayhem Prompts 007

Mayhem Prompts 007

1751-1775 

04-May 11:35

1751 He may have been great. He was still a bastard.

1752 I wonder about my father's desires

1753 Like passers-by on a wild, windy night.

1754 How these windows glow

1755 Once I told you of my dreams

1756 The darkness deep in the forest

1757 The C-Word, obviously

1758 The less I say, the better

1759 How hate should be released slowly

1760 Trying every kind of tea except the stuff that tastes like shit

1761 The intricacies of a dry-stone wall

1762 Blood, feathers, the stink of dying

1763 The rumour is more or less verified

1764 AEROSOL

1765 I need a reason to go out

1766  Poems About Bears

1767 GARLIC

1768 Fiddler

1769 My incomprehension takes years of dedication

1770 Let's go to an island

1771 Cleaning Out the Spare Room

1772 SOCK

1773 The outside sound of throbbing diesel 

1774 TINSEL

1775 Just for the exercise, imagine me with a soul

Mayhem Prompts 006

:
:
:
Mayhem Prompts 006 

1726-1750

02-May 08:30

1726 Learning to Like Green Tea
1727 Tram
1728 PLAY The Birdie Song on repeat, listen four times then write white screen
1729 She probably deserved it
1730 The Selfish Gene Wears a Blue Tie

1731 Negotiating with ex-wives
1732 Ping-Pong
1733 I am making things square
1734 Some seek out thorns
1735 Do you remember, how in the past ...

1736 Yesterday I ran a mile
1737 Low fat something or other
1738 Going forward, with my sister, towards my father's body
1739 Jesus Loves You, but doesn't give a fuck about me
1740 Learning to make dragons 

1741 You cannot always see the blossom
1742 Now University costs £19,000 per term...
1743 CHEESE
1744 The Unnecessary Existence of Gravity
1745 The Solution to Pollution is Dilution

1746 I will learn to live without you
1747 If I could rise from here I would smite you down
1748 BLACK
1749 I hope to come back as a parasite
1750 Various Incidents Concerning My Penis

Mayhem Prompts 003

Mayhem Prompts 003

1651-1675 

27-Apr 23:06

1651 You're never alone with a Strand

1652 Not even slightly naked

1653 It is important that you hear my voice

1654 At night, in Mayfair

1655 Father Maloney

1656 Letter from Bengal

1657 A Flax Hacker from Washbrew Lane

1658 700 Loaves

1659 I would prefer to be beautiful

1660 Something is moving in there

1661 We live in ruins, as quietly as we can

1662 BALLOON

1663 Thomas McLintock's Will

1664 My Angry Shadow

1665 Afterwards, we would not speak on Sundays

1666 Her favourite word was "undulate"

1667 A sky ablaze, a wind on fire

1668 USK

1669 Have you seen this already?

1670 Big Jim Potato 

1671 In Praise of Pyjamas

1672 The Distance Between Friends

1673 The third and fourth child are sub-standard, the fifth defective

1674 Window Shopping, Babycham, back for 11.

1675 That'll Be the Day

Mayhem Prompts 002

Mayhem Prompts 002

1626-1650 

26-Apr 23:13

1626 Bathsheba Evans and the boy Jenkins

1627 The C-Word

1628 I am feeling a little queer

1629 Green Glass

1630 Three years we waited, always on our guard

1631 It's because you live in a council-house and eat margarine

1632 Various wild creatures

1633 I didn't know they were my friends

1634 Any old iron?

1635 We grow old, we grow old

1636 In the spaces between seconds

1637 CUCKOO

1638 The fire-escape clangs with boot-falls

1639 The wives of Senghennydd

1640 HOVIS

1641 From the hill I saw a slated tenement

1642 They have come a long way to die

1643 Mountbatten's Boys

1644 Run it under a cold tap, love

1645 BAYONET

1646 Folded flags and white gloves

1647 Spectacles, Testicles, Wallet & Watch

1648 Cheese and Conversation

1649 And for their sins, a fine, twenty-four pounds

1650 The echoes of old love

New Blast "MAYHEM"

Mayhem Prompts 001  

1601-1625 

26-April, 08:38 Sunday 

1601 Muesli, with a sprinkle of gunpowder

1602 To stand alone, quiet, barefoot on grass, listening to a warm, fat night

1603 When the world was two-thirds red

1604 Treacle

1605 Deserts, mountains, bloated rivers

1606 The first time, blue snow

1607 If the sea was impossible, if daylight burned us

1608 China, Australia

1609 The sadness of discarded clothes

1610 Now, after a storm, while the world is fat and electric

1611 Jane Cliche and Alex Stock

1612 Basalt, Granite

1613 To be swept up into the magnificence

1614 Whatever is in wind, it isn't joy

1615 Tragedies become footnotes

1616 There is something about islands

1617 Colander

1618 No truth is hidden

1619 The happiness behind the painted smile

1620 Take advantage of our half-price offer

1621 You wore red, always red, and the world was monochrome

1622 There is tangential love or you can have sets

1623 Cauliflower

1624 The first time you fell down, you laughed

1625 Storms always subside

More March Madness Prompts (Sex)

March Madness

 2015-0064 

 (Mar 15 2015) 

 07:50 Sunday

1576 Tin-Baths and Satellite Dishes

1577 God told me to kill the child.

1578 Greeks fighting Serbs fighting Croats, Bulgarians

1579 The homeless under sacks, the coughs in alleyways

1580 A woman in perfect beige on a horse shining black

1581 Apparently we have things called hormones

1582  New Year's Eve, 1913

1583 They are putting sawdust down, then mud, feathers

1584 Bulletinss from bigots

1585 The dirty smell of stale beer and men

1586 Well, officially it was a war, but only 10,000 dead

1587 It will be better with SKY and European Games

1588 Those conceived with neither love nor hate

1589 Beautiful women carry great sadness

1590 Whistler, Gaugin, Monet, Pissarro, 1903. Picasso

1591 A swell time, fat steaks, good beer, the lads

1592 Slate is never clean

1593 A page of news tumbling over in the wind

1594 Fucking in his Rediffusion Van

1595 McDonald's from two hundred yards away

1596 There's an Italian bloke down on Lavernock Point

1507 Renting furnished for quicker getaways

1598 All we have is rugby and fighting sergeants

1599 The fag-end of a Tuesday night

1600 Except, accidentally, about once in ten years, someone gets out

63 and Counting

2015-0063 

 (Mar 12 2015) 17:42 (Thursday)

1551 Everything that has been gathered will be ungathered

1552 Think of it like surfing on the biggest ever fucking wave

1553 Dec 26, National Suicide Day

1554 A box, they long, they wide, any old shit

1555 It is the smallest things we miss.

1556 Before something, nothing, then a growing something

1557 There's somewhere else to visit

1558 When the field is fallow it disgusts

1559 Do not stand at my grave and pee.

1560 Turn off the internet, pause. Make the television dark.

1561 Not weeping. Jump in and party!

1562 Cold gravy, a solid skim of fat

1563 I do not welcome sky, not welcome stars

1564 Spirit to substance to spirit with echo.

1565 I'll think about it, especially on cold, rainy nights

1566 Culmination, Celebration

1567 How can her absence swell in the room, how?

1568 This is a poor, dull thing, and we are less because of it.

1569 A little pain, OK, but just a little

1570 This diminishes us

1571 Denial, Anger, Blah-blah-blaah, Acceptance

1572 Six feet, no make it eight for safety

1573 Lovers, sail to us, from us, but love is the wind

1574 You'll remember me. I'll make sure of that,

1575 The dead depart, or is it us moving on?

Prompts 062

March Madness

2015-0062 (Mar 10 2015) 11:42 

(For Wednesday Morning) 

1526 My leg comes off on Monday

1527 I was older than this, a few years ago

1528 Father Maloney's Glass Eye

1529 TURKEY

1530 She has a new zimmer frame

1531 My heart shall be replaced by granite

1532 I will be stuffed and behind glass

1533 His dick gunmetal, waiting to be polished

1534 This is the time of the wolf

1535 Jesus, Jesus, Mary and somebody else

1536 A Darkness of Sisters

1537 Morning light stretches, Evenlight swells

1538 CUCKOO

1539 I would like to be a Jones, with three initials

1540 I am wounding time

1541 It's not long until four; this is the time of the sad

1542 CHEESE

1543 Yes, Geese, about two hundred, like bombers

1544 He woke in an Algiers brothel, his pockets empty

1545 Body Bags, but pretty colours

1546 Here they come, the exiled smokers, poets

1547 BRIDAL

1548 At the edge of my desk, a thousand-foot drop

1549 DIESEL

1550 Play with honour, finish with pride

2015-061

March Madness

2015-0061 

 (Mar 09 2015) 10:29 (For Tuesday Morning)

1501 I woke early enough

1502 There's a man I hate, talking on the radio

1503 Last Post

1504 The Next Forty Years

1505 A dozen mechanics, but never enough

1506 I am not present in the list of Welsh Poets

1507 John William Jones, Postman

1508 PORTER!

1509 The Invisible Gentleman From Yokohama

1510 Late of this parish

1511 The Scarlet Pimpernel

1512 Mother, Mother, I have tried my best

1513 It is cold on this corner, often wet

1514 JUNE!

1515 Power But Very Little Glory

1516 If anyone will listen, I will relate my adventures

1517 It is with great regret that I have to inform you...

1518 Meeting Evan

1519 It was the last day in August

1520 At some point the voice will change

1521 The nearest description would be "blob"

1522 Turnips, Turnips, Turnips

1523 I approach the problem with grit and determination

1524 Cheerio, old chap

1525 We met up by the reservoir

More March Madness

March Madness

2015-0060 

 (Mar 09 2015) 07:01 

1476 Doves, pomegranates, peacocks

1477 Once I imagined having ethics

1478 There should be a patron saint of wankers

1479 I climb from my book and taste the dull world

1480 I remember he wore a white shirt and had difficulty breathing

1481 The distant murder of the great guns

1482 You're not dead, but I wouldn't call you healthy

1483 Books full of dead poets, well forgotten

1484 I am in love with Sarah Palin

1485 Singapore Burning

1486 In the New Yorker

1487 Bakelite

1488 The White Heat of that moment

1489 Honey, money (a fiver, apparently)

1490 Being bad is not the point; doing my best is.

1491 Family, Modernity, Consumerism

1492 A Graphics Issue

1493 Bluebells never ring

1494 In all a quiet affair, but an affair, still

1495 The love that was love yesterday

1496 The red-headed women of Dinas Mawddwy

1497 Sacrament

1498 If I'm not there early, I'll be late

1499 a fact confirmed by a jury of married women

1500 We are here to watch the battle, and later bleach their bones

More Prompts

After you have used these prompts you may wish to read how I got them!

2015-0059 (Mar 08 2015) 

11:31 (Sunday 1451-1475)

1451 What Ray said

1452 Swans, Geese, Ducks, a sky like silver paper

1453 The passing bells

1454 “Welcome to the Pleasure Dome”

1455 RED BUCKET

1456 Remembering, Owls, Pussy-cats, dirty British Coasters

1457 Whistling in the shower

1458 I need to rest for a while. Call me tomorrow

1459 You may call me Tom but my name is Tomas, no H

1460 RELAX

1461 Shirley Temple

1462 I would suggest the time is upon us

1463 Dropping as death upon the smallest life.

1464 Henrietta insists she will not come.

1465 You call this a storm? Try harder!

1466 Point A

1467 This is less elastic than I hoped

1468 I do not want my father to go gently, the rage is mine

1469 A straight line is not always the shortest way

1470 A Friendly No

1471 Spiders, Flies, Crocodiles, that sort of thing

1472 Dirty Call Service

1473 May we borrow your wife?

1474 The sea is quietening, it will be calm soon

1475 Bread Rising and my Sunday is filling up

March Madness

Prompt Set

2015-0056 (Mar 04 2015) 12:01 

(Wednesday 1376-1400) 

1376 I have often wondered, then forgotten

1377 TINKLE

1378 Sinew, Spleen

1379 What drips, what floats, what stutters and coagulates?

1380 Yes, Mrs Blenkinsop.

1381 Ice-Sugar mountains, dark green below

1382 The Distillery

1383 Mature manure.

1384 Eating like Romans

1385 Slow things ache, and will crumble. Just wait.

1386 My bed had a blue headboard, a transferred galleon

1387 Red Kites, Magpies

1388 Leaves, the randomness of gold light

1389 Write from the side of your mouth, use the corner of the eye

1390 Moth, butterfly

1391 Recalled in a dream

1392 A shit I will not give.

1393 The child falls

1394 Demotic, Idetic, totemic etcetera

1395 Put an LP on the turntable, pour the wine

1396 Just say whatever doesn't pop into your head

1397 Ice-Cream, Blood

1398 Consider this an anchor

1399 Write, or preferably, bleed

1400 How can day be darker than the night?

More Jan-Blast Success

A flash shortlisting takes BC to three hits pieces written in the January Blast (with more to come!)

And we have a winner!!

You may recall the Boot Camp January Blast


Well, we have already had a £75 Third Place for a poem
and today we announce we have the winner of £700

First Place in the Sentinel Annual Poetry Prize.


Well, that is us ahead for the year and everything to come will be a bonus.



Folk, it works.

March prompts 4

Boot Camp Keegan March Do

PROMPTS

 2015-0055

 (Mar 03 2015) 10:07

1351 They say depression is a physical thing
1352 What if weather is the world talking?
1353 The wonderful dust
1354 Coming down the middle of the street, brazen
1355 Howitzer

1356 Make me some mash and mint-gravy. Fuck the rest
1357 Let me be blunt, being old is shit.
1358 When night spins and cries
1359 I feel a poem not coming on
1360 We expected her on the hour or shortly thereafter

1361 Eany-Meany-Miney-Mo
1362 There is a certain grammar to our mutual hatred
1363 Wall Street burns
1364 Counting dead stars
1365 Jim Bowie, and the man with the racoon-tailed hat

1366 I will marry late, or perhaps be a monk
1367 He may have been called Franscois
1368 Let us call this an exercise in revenge
1369 A White Rolls-Royce
1370 Peter Piper Picked a Fucking Pepper

1371 When Colin Hicks lost an eye
1372 Fold the flag slowly
1373 I may learn to like The Independent
1374 Scrumping on The Thousand Acres
1375 Sudoku in the centre-spread, bile everywhere else
.
.
.

March Prompts 3

Boot Camp Keegan's March Thing

2015-0054 

(Mar 02 2015) 08:07 

1326 Morning cinders, the small rituals
1327 TIN
1328 The clock in great granddad's house
1329 Coal-house, out-house, alleys
1330 Please don't turn around

1331 Brass tools, scuttles, gas-pokers, chilblains
1332 You are both eight, swimming together
1333 Love can choke too
1334 Chestnuts, crumpets, ash, a focus
1335 The terrible memory of older pains

1336 Rolling beneath dispassionate light
1337 QUIVER
1338 There was something about coal
1339 Pantry, sink, milk on the doorstep
1340 When your mother was a virgin

1341 God is a little unwell
1342 Your closed frontiers
1343 The debris under cliffs
1344 Smaller, quicker than a ferret's dick
1345 Twigging

1346 Behind us, waiting, was a small TV
1347 The day geometry failed
1348 Coke Joke
1349 For no particular reason, I think you should suffer
1350 When telephones were black and waited for news

March prompts 2

Boot Camp Keegan

March "Do"

Prompt Set 2

015-0053 (Mar 01 2015) 

09:45 

1301 Beech, Birch, Spruce
1302 Hey, Mum, guess what I named after you!
1303 Flashbulbs, Hyenas, waiting sheep.
1304 A few small steps
1305 Pearl Harbour, Iwo Jima,

1306 Blood flows in us as we sleep
1307 How promises should be broken
1308 The check-list for Enola Gay
1309 The doctor is ready for you now
1310 We are made by spirits. In some the spirit stays

1311 We sit at a midnight table, cold
1312 There is some logic in that. Not a lot, but some
1313 What is left to say when love is murdered?
1314 Coiled like a cobra
1315 We are going to the zoo. They have Popes and Bankers there

1316 You can read about it in books
1317 The way darkness swells and slowly shifts
1318 VOMIT
1319 A clean nurse in a starched dress
1320 Grey shorts, pullover, grey socks, blue tie

1321 Then we heard the call again
1322 A sheepskin coat looks best on a sheep
1323 The aeroplane shines until it hits the sea
1324 How to pick a scab
1325 Your mother is waiting on the verandah

Join Boot Camp for a hard-working March?

Why not Join Boot Camp for a hard-working March?






Boot Camp Keegan March Thingee


PROMPTS 2015-052

March Shin-Dig 001


Feb 28 2015 11:15 (Saturday)


1276 It was Saturday night, Sunday, about two a.m.
1277 Write a story "driven by" a specific poem of your choice
1278 This is as good a reason as any to look up
1279 She moves towards me, cheekbones, legs
1280 A story ending: "He walks away, becoming smaller."

1281 Fish, baskets, bones
1282 We die, or we become invisible
1283 Do not trust happiness
1284 Twenty-four days behind a locked steel door
1285 The real pain in a phantom limb

1286 The case of metal in your mouth, the thoughts
1287 I just want to speak to my mother again.
1288 The widow has left us too
1289 A story beginning: "There is no need for you to stop and listen."
1290 In an old woman's dead house, webs are ugly. In morning frost, God.

1291 On the mountain, a screaming
1292 Snowdrops, Crocuses from far away
1293 Dresden
1294 Past old, past faded, somehow still not dead
1295 Pale cost-clerks with very small dreams

1296 Walking round town with "For Sale" written on my head
1297 I dream I climb trees, then leap at clouds
1298 What is left in the boot of my car
1299 How a body strikes the ground after falling
1300 Something will happen soon. It's bound to. Someone will come.


x
x

Prompts: Feb 1st

Boot Camp

January Flash Blast

2015-0049 (Feb 1 2015) 07:43 (Sunday)

1201 Who will identify you?

1202 Put a record on the juke box, my Marlene

1203 Sand pouring through the gap

1204 The smell of late night buses

1205 I would rather be scared with friends than brave alone

1206 Mine will be a small death, hardly noticed

1207 The footprints left in ash

1208 Roll up your sleeves, pull the child free

1209 I leave one arm to feed the insects

1210 I am forty-seven and forty-eight

1211 Is it my body that you want, or me?

1212 Something about ice-cream and how they make the flavours

1213 We need more cliche

1214 Let us invite seven spinsters up for tea

1215 What is not

1216 I've started, so I'll do my best to finish

1217 I would be a U-Boat Captain, with five days of beard

1218 Summer, but ticks in the grass

1219 I could have been a private dick, a shamus with a dirty hat

1220 Musician, torturer; musician, murderer; musician, you.

1221 The concussion of the unexpected blast

1222 Adrenaline

1223 Keep saying we were right: as the tanks roll over us

1224 When we fucked in my Cortina

1225 I almost rang your bell

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

.
.
.

.
.

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



.
.
.

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.

2015-0010 (Dec 31 2014) 09:05

January Flash Blast

2015-0010 (Dec 31 2014) 09:05


0251 If Bad Men Come
0252 Duck, Chicken
0253 Let me rest now. I will rise later and tend to my affairs
0254 SOAP
0255 Currently, I am not listed in "The Lives of the Poets"

0256 There are a few, my dear, but positively not enough
0257 TRINKETS
0258 To the man who stole my last book, I -
0259 A kid in a baseball cap
0260 Most theatre nights, no-one is shot

0261 Tango Fucking Argentina
0262 She followed him out anyway
0263 Use your EARS, Goddamn You!
0264 Unforgiven Delinqencies
0265 Pfft!

0266 There, there, Sweetpea... Run it under a cold tap.
0267 Larry is a bit worse than very, very ill
0268 An opportunity to converse
0269 Did Hitler really like caged birds?
0270 The price of Gleaming

0271 A dark blue mailbox
0272 This is how I love them, snuffling, dreaming
0273 Too tired to chase flies, too hot
0274 Performance Poet, Leathers, Harley
0275 Not Even Noon.

The Boot Camp January Blast

The Boot Camp January Blast




To start the new Year with a bang, a rush, we "Blast"

A Blast is an attempt to write a story/flash/poem a day (more if you can manage it)

The purpose of "Blasting" is less to do with producing publishable works

than it is to "open pipes".

However, the process of unremitting, fast writing, day upon day has a peculiar mental

effect. After 5-12 days, the brain "tunes-in" and the typical Boot Camper finds a new

literary gear. The brain and heart starts to "get it" and (usually) around this time there is 

a surge in quality.

This is a case of quantity BEGETS quality.

Flashing is about writing QUICKLY, writing without pre-thought,

about letting the sub-conscious take over. flashes often surprise the writer

If you write 31 pieces in 31 days, sure, 2-3-4-5/10 will not be great.

2 or 3 may be junk.

But a dozen will be solid enough, a tweak away from publishable

And 5-10 will be really good, at your top level or beyond it.

Alex posts a set of 25 prompts at least once a day (early morning UK time) but often posts a second or third set.

You can use one prompt, two, three, ten, or all twenty-five.

You can use them directly, word-for-word, or use them as triggers.

What triggers depends on your unconscious connections, sometimes they will be breathtaking.

Join us for january. No charge

January Blast

2015-0007 (Dec 30 2014) 11:50

0151 Hold it up to the light

0152 We were immense, then

0153 I remember seeing you in a certain light and thinking, "Angel."

0154 Chappaquidick

0155 We move on brilliant silver wheels

0156 I would like her to be beautiful

0157 A Pink Volkswagen Camper

0158 Now the sky comes closer

0159 We played "pass-the-parcel" unwrapping you.

0160 Various girls who couldn't love me

0161 The you were removed and the room was fuller

0162 CORD

0163 What could you do with that kind of money?

0164 Are You Lonesome, Tonight?

0165 COBRA

0166 Well I would if I could, but I can't

0167 It is ten below zero

0168 You could always hold my hand

0169 I thought we were drowning

0170 THIMBLE

0171 I don't know how it started, only that it will finish

0172 Hail Mary, Full of Grace

0173 Save me. Stop talking and come save me!

0174 Life Support.

0175 My mother sewing, our mothers.

Boot Camp Flash Blast

Prompt Set 6

2015-0006 (Dec 30 2014) 08:00

0126 Clouds assembling

0127 RIFLE

0128 Annoying the dog

0129 MARZIPAN

0130 Putting pennies on the line

0131 A railway station. No-one gets off

0132 The darker amber streets

0133 A hilarity of Christmases

0134 The police have been called, their dark uniforms

0135 The beat of Jungle Drums

0136 Unfortunately black

0137 She had the thinnest, thinnest waist

0138 PEACH

0139 Spitfire on Water

0140 Girl on a Motorcycle

0141 Before this road was smooth

0142 Tip-toeing under cobwebs, the floor scurrying

0143 MIAMI

0144 Perhaps a Pelican

0145 How glass and steel shines in the tropics

0146 The Spinster Kelly

0147 Slow down, shut up, think, now speak slowly

0148 How a glider glides

0149 Fifty Banned Words for 2015

0150 ITCH

Flash Blast prompt Set 5

2015-0005 (Dec 29 2014) 17:20

0101 A plastic-bag, throwaway sort of person

0102 Douse the fire, be quiet

0103 He is (most probably) the one at the back, far left

0104 PLINK!

0105 The crew is busy, but it will be all right on the night.

0106 My father would like to be dead; my mother agrees

0107 SYDNEY

0108 I have various feelings, slightly overlapping

0109 Show us your husbands!

0110 The differences between soup and stew

0111 A Box of Black Magic

0112 In a conversational way of speaking, Mrs Browne

0113 She says, Don't Ever Die. As if!

0114 Will y'be staying long?

0115 McLintock's Dream

0116 I miss a baker

0117 A story beginning, "Take a seat, pour one; this is the Goddamn Truth."

0118 Swift from the traps!

0119 I could work for Sky

0120 I've come for the payment on the bed.

0121 Dark stars on fire

0122 I do it for the weirdness, the weirdness

0123 Bread does not choose to rise

0124 Puppy, Dog, Old Dog, Memory

0125 Is it hot in here?

January Blast: Prompt Set 4

2015-0004 (Dec 29 2014) 09:20

0076 Two men, a tree

0077 The gladness of animals

0078 Bags of parsnips, 3 Fucking p

0079 Spike Milligan

0080 He was a hard case but she tamed him

0081 The simpler pleasures when I was young

0082 DOVE

0083 Poet and Australian 

0084 Assembled in the forum

0085 You will tell me you love me

0086 We could row out on the lake, picnic on the island

0088 Pots, Kettles, Saucepans

0089 The men are walking home

0090  The path through that wood is long since overgrown

0087 Say something dirty

0091 OMG, LOL, You WON'T believe this!!!

0092 Brownlee has fucked off

0093 She is beside herself and I prefer the other one

0094 Everyone has a favourite child

0095 Prime Minister, Pig, decent TV...

0096 You can kiss me once or twice, but don't get into the habit

0097 NAIL

0098 The annual child-cull

0099 Precious

0100 Now the saucers have landed

Blast With Us

Join us in Boot Camp for the Dec-Jan Blast


Get your 2015 Writing off to a great start.

Dec-Jan Blast Prompt-Set 3

2015-0003 (Dec 28 2014) 09:05

0051 Why money is dirty

0052 PLUM

0053 It begins early, planes in the sky

0054 AXE

0055 A long, lazy street

0056 I think I'll go up the hill

0057 The kitchen shaking

0058 The bed not made, the room dank

0059 All day it's rained, and women are crying

0060 Brass bands but no homosexuals

0061 At the foot of the stairs

0062 That cruel, cruel month

0063 I would rather lose an arm than a leg. I would rather lose a finger.

0064 September. Sing!

0065 The train does not slow down

0066 We huddled together, not sure why

0067 Half a league, half-a-league etc

0068 THRUST!

0069 Rickety Bridge Ahead

0070 Like a wolf upon the fold

0071 I have met some at dusk, as if they were walking home

0072 I was so great a lover

0073 Let me see, take note. There was -

0074 How the fox metes death for the joy of it

0075 I tolled you so.

January Blast, Prompt Set 2

January Blast


Prompt Set 0002





0026 They were away at 06:30

0027 She had no idea that she made the world work

0028 Banana-fish

0029 On a cloud I saw a child

0030 Weep!

0031 This should be funny

0032 Let's go to the lighthouse

0033 Explosion

0034 A Picture from Cardiff

0035 A Flux of Circumstances

0036 This Building is Alarmed

0037 How to Spring-Clean the Heart

0038 My Grandfather Looks Quite Sweet

0039 Five Hundred Sheets of A4

0040 On an Airfield in Italy

0041 In 1928, when I was nine.

0042 The Cruelty of Mirrors

0043 Trying to Swim the River

0044 The Formal Term is Consequential Loss

0045 I am tempted to say Friday passed without incident.

0046 More room in the kitchen

0047 The air swells like an anger containing

0048 I give you a book, you give me a book

0049 Walking towards me, you stoop now, walk like an old lady

0050 I have a new bookcase, the dogs have been walked

2015-001 Prompts

2015-001 Prompts


(We always start the New Year on 26/27 Dec...)


0001 That hour I was mostly who I thought I was

0002 I'm back again, I may be back again

0003 I will be milder, and then I will disappear

0004 This woman ate something

0005 Do You Eat Pie?

0006 No, of course it wasn't expected

0007 How lucky that we ran into each other

0008 So, Ghandi, mate, what do you do in your spare time?

0009 It always seem to be uphill, the wind always in your face

0010 She removed something from her hair

0011 I would like to be Japanese for a day

0012 Don't laugh, but people in 2014 thought they were free.

0013 I'd quite like to be a patient on House, coughing blood and stuff

0014 This is what I would write if I kept a diary

0015 There are mornings when you would like to fall downstairs

0016 Mama says NO!

0017 Sex is tyranny

0018 Think of me as a grapefruit, too long left on a shelf

0019 You were slowly edged out

0020 Billy Collins is OK, but prompts he doth not make

0021 Cold Monday morning, six o'clock, November

0022 The year looks too long, too big, too dark

0023 Fuck This!

0024 Or it might be about Badgers

0025 My Wife's Lover