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NaPoWriMo Day 29: Cathleen Davies – Singer/artist

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Write a poem inspired by a singer or artist with this prompt from Cathleen Davies on the penultimate day of NaPoWriMo.

Opportunity

The Opportunity Rover died
On Mars
Alone
While it was getting dark
And his batteries were low

And at the time,
I was reading
about Ziggy Stardust:
The man who fell to earth
And sacrificed himself
In reverent crucifixion

And at the time
I was grieving
a beautiful young boy
who wrote stories about Catholic guilt
repressing sexualities

And I thought about how much this boy liked David Bowie
And I thought about the Spiders from Mars
And I thought about rock and roll suicides

But mostly I just worried
about Opportunity
because it is
so scary
in the dark.

For more NaPoWriMo tips and writing prompts check out the book Poetry Non-Stop.

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Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast, are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

NaPoWriMo Day 28: John Osborne – Supermarkets

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Picture: Katie Pope

In this prompt from the archives Norwich poet and author John Osborne invites us to explore the poetic possibilities in the aisles of the local supermarket. Here are some tips from John:

  • Visit a supermarket you don’t usually go to or go at an unusual time
  • Make a list of words associated with supermarkets
  • Write down memories, observations and other experiences associated with supermarkets
  • Think about how these experiences relate to other parts of your life

You can find the full episode here.

John Osborne writes stories, poems and scripts. His poetry has been broadcast on Radio 1, Radio 3, Radio 4, BBC 6Music, XFM and Soho Radio. You can purchase A Supermarket Love Story here with illustrations by Katie Pope.

www.johnosbornewriter.com

John’s latest show is Norwich: A Love Story

Norwich: A Love Story by John Osborne

For more NaPoWriMo tips and writing prompts check out the book Poetry Non-Stop.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast please consider showing your support with a donation via ko-fi.com

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast, are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

NaPoWriMo Day 27: Alex Blustin – Direction

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Alex Blustin returns to give the directions for today’s NaPoWriMo prompt. He says: The prompt is Direction, but not as we know it from Patrick’s book Poetry Non-Stop. I won’t be talking about the cardinal points, but about the direction supplied by bosses. Love them, hate them or ignore them completely; line managers, directors and CEOs are as inevitable a feature of life as death and taxes. Choose a boss you have known – or even dare I say a boss you have been – and write a poem about them.

The following is dedicated to anyone who has ever worked in a team on a creative project. A lot of us have known this person; and, sadly, a lot of us have been this person at some time in our lives. The poem first appeared in issue 59 of Lighten Up Online.

The artistic director

He knows the way that he wants it to go,
Until he’s convinced that he wants something else –
Don’t doubt him! The Master is just in the flow;
He knows the way that he wants it to go;
He vacillates, wavers and bluffs like a pro,
But how does he even believe it himself?
He knows the way that he wants it to go,
Until he’s convinced that he wants something else.

First published by Lighten Up Online, Issue 59, Sep 2022:
https://www.lightenup-online.co.uk/index.php/2022/issue-59-september-2022/interval-three-nine-eights

For more NaPoWriMo tips and writing prompts check out the book Poetry Non-Stop.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast please consider showing your support with a donation via ko-fi.com

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast, are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

NaPoWriMo Day 26: Christina Thatcher – Fire

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Another one from the archives for today’s NaPoWriMo prompt. Christina Thatcher challenges you to write a poem inspired by fire. This could be a literal fire (like a bonfire, campfire, home fire, wild fire, etc) or a metaphorical fire (like the fuel for passion, love, determination, etc). Whatever sparks your interest! 

For more NaPoWriMo tips and writing prompts check out the book Poetry Non-Stop.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast please consider showing your support with a donation via ko-fi.com

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast, are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

NaPoWriMo Day 25: Andy N – Nostalgia

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We welcome back recent guest Andy N who invites us to use a bit of nostalgia in today’s Napowrimo prompt.

Homage to Bagpuss in Hove

Was it the third or fourth night, Sarah?

during that month, we lived in Hove
when my agent paid for us both to
move there temporarily,
that second summer, we were together,

and we stumbled onto that singer
playing alone beside the coastline
at the start of dusk.

Do you remember him asking, Sarah?
pausing in between songs
can either of us play an autoharp
or a mandolin
at the edge of the beach
a cup of hot chocolate
barely keeping
his aged fingers warm.

I’d grown up watching it like you
although I couldn’t begin
to name any of the songs
he played one after the other,
rather the names of Bagpuss’s friends
from Professor Yaffle to
The Mice on the mouse-organ
to Gabriel the Toad and Madeleine

.

I see the singer’s face even now
harmonica in his mouth
playing a melody of Song of the Flea
and Charliemouse Weaving
before eventually finishing with
the bony king of nowhere
opening up the curtain
to an unexpected love.

You didn’t get it, I should have seen
in the ash-coloured light
finding the nostalgia too strange
pausing for a few minutes
as if you were listening to something else
before hurrying on as before
underlining the differences between us both
that I only realised after you had gone.

Andy N

For more NaPoWriMo tips and writing prompts check out the book Poetry Non-Stop.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast please consider showing your support with a donation via ko-fi.com

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast, are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

Napowrimo Day 24: Terry Griffiths – Old trait

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Write about a trait that is now less prominent in your personality for today’s NaPoWriMo prompt from Terry Griffiths.

New Exercise Book

My science book is running out of pages —
As lovely as my teacher is,
Needing to put up my twelve-year-old hand
Is spinning around my twelve-year-old head.
Perhaps I shall make my handwriting
Even more shy instead.

Spinning around in my nineteen-year-old head
Is how I just served an American guy at Primark
Who was emphasising his yeehaw accent,
An accent I’m always tryna do at home.
Sadly, I didn’t join in.
The lady he was with said he sounded ridiculous.
Ridiculous it is how in public I have had to psych myself up over the years
And still often plummet
Back down to my Year Seven self,
Yet I want to be famous.

Famous is something I have all my life to become, though,
And being just a tad well-known would be okay, too.
It’s fine that I don’t perform my new-found confidence
In every single thing I do.

Terry Griffiths

For more NaPoWriMo tips and writing prompts check out the book Poetry Non-Stop.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast please consider showing your support with a donation via ko-fi.com

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast, are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

NaPoWriMo Day 23: Patrick Widdess – Triolet

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Patrick Widdess invites you to write a triolet for today’s NaPoWriMo prompt. A triolet is an eight-line poems with only two rhymes following the rhyme scheme below where capital letters indicate a repeated line. you can find a full guide here.

A
B
a
A
a
b
A
B

The key is to make sure you have a strong opening couplet because it shapes the poem and has to be good enough to be worth repeating. Writing a triolet is a satisfying puzzle to crack and you can write on any topic serious or humorous.

Never again

Remember, remember and never again
The fighting, the killing, the loss of young lives.
We solemnly vow to allow peace to reign.
Remember, remember and never again
But they say we must fight for the good to remain
And the soldiers march on until once more we cry
Remember, remember and never again
The fighting, the killing, the loss of young lives.

Patrick Widdess

or more NaPoWriMo tips and writing prompts check out the book Poetry Non-Stop.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast please consider showing your support with a donation via ko-fi.com

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast, are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

NaPoWriMo Day 22: Steve De La Salle – Everyday object

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For today’s NaPoWriMo prompt from Steve De La Salle take a closer look at an everyday object so familiar you don’t usually notice it. Explore it until you find a poem.

Frying Pal

In this gem-pit, walled and round
Flavours of all types were found.
As the sizzles and the hisses
As the near-eye fat-spit misses
Took charge, fragrance filled the room,
(At times: smoke alarm would boom!)

As this tummy gurgled, grinned
Sad thoughts, bad day vibes were binned
And tunes were sung merrily,
Frying Pal – both you and me
Tossed those pancakes! Fried eggs, large!
Simmered curries, (spice barrage!)
Cooked beef burgers, browned lean mince
Brekkies that would make some wince:
Bacon, mushrooms, eggs once more
Sausages – thick – and, for sure
Fresh tomatoes and black pudding,
All those years we did our “great thing!”

But now, sadly, we must part
And, in truth, ache does this heart…
I would hang you on the wall
So those mems we could recall
But, I’d get told off – no lie;
So, dear Frying Pal, goodbye.

Steve De La Salle

Steve says: “I started writing in March 2014 to help deal with mental health issues. The Page became my stage. A place where I could let cocktails of emotions pour.

“I’m a big fan of nonsense and silly verse too, plus comedy in general, and believe that creating things opens doors to corridors new.”

For more NaPoWriMo tips and writing prompts check out the book Poetry Non-Stop.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast please consider showing your support with a donation via ko-fi.com

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast, are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

NaPoWriMo Day 21: Holly Marie Shakeshaft – Summer Of The Swift

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Spring is in full swing and summer’s just around the corner. Look back on memories from a previous summer and write a poem for today’s NaPoWriMo prompt from Holly Marie Shakeshaft.

Summer of the Swift

First went the swifts.

Their swooping screams eloped
To places far away.
Away from my head
And the rooftops
The swifts left.

You stayed for a week.

Sea salt clung to my skin
Lingering like the echoes
Of comforting cries,
Stinging sun-kissed lips.
Blue eyes
Blue skies
Cheap lager and laughter.

Old Polaroids
Scattered across my mind
Strewn like the shadows of birds
Asleep on the wing.

Avocets and pink sunsets.

August days,
My bed
Left, unmade

You left
Like the swifts.
I stayed.

The photographs fade
Yet still they remain
Like,
The promise of summer;
The return of the swifts.

Holly Marie Shakeshaft

For more NaPoWriMo tips and writing prompts check out the book Poetry Non-Stop.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast please consider showing your support with a donation via ko-fi.com

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast, are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

NaPoWriMo Day 20: Jeremy Langrish – Poem from a poem

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For today’s prompt from Jeremy Langrish take an image from another poem and use it to create a narrative for a new poem. For this poem Jeremy started with the line: ‘dancing in the beam were motes of dust’.

Domesticity

I thought I’d woken:
there was a spotlight
illuminating a pizza.
There was a-chewing and a-swallowing,
sustenance with a downward trajectory,
and an outward trajectory,
to skin, which was a-flaking and a-flying.
You were there too,
and dancing in the beam
were motes of dust –
us – mingled, settled, contented.
The next day, you wiped us both away.

Jeremy Langrish

Jeremy Langrish is a graduate (2016) of the ‘Writing Poetry’ MA course offered by the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne / Poetry School collaboration. Over the last few years he has self-published several poetry collections (Jeremy Langrish | Lulu ), and his poems have appeared in numerous anthologies. However, for some 15 years his favoured mode of publication is stage ( he was part of a
collaborative duo called ‘Ambigram’), and ‘Open Mics’. This enables him to describe himself as ‘an
Itinerant Poet’. He lives in in Maidstone, Kent, home for the last fortyish years from where he
schemes how to rebel to avoid extinction.

For more NaPoWriMo tips and writing prompts check out the book Poetry Non-Stop.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast please consider showing your support with a donation via ko-fi.com

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast, are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.