Words Down 17-Jul-2023 - Ocean Vuong "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous"

SPEED WRITES

1. Memory is a choice

The things we remember

Are those that choose to be remembered.

...

I did not say it was YOUR choice.

Life chooses your memories for you.

You can exert mental pressure to change the choice

It rarely works

But it is noble to try.

2. The porch lights turn on

Triggered as usual

By an unknown car

driving past to an unknown destination

containing unknown people.

After a moment

They realise that they do not care about those people

And the darkness returns.

3. I wake to the sound of an animal in distress

I turn on the light and can spot no animal

I walk out of the room onto the landing

And no creature greets my eyes

I head downstairs, flicking switches as I go

Each fresh room I illuminate reveals no living things

Except for me. I realise.

I am the animal in distress.

4. The woman walks forward

That is, after all, much easier than walking backwards.

The child with her chooses not to have an easy life

And instead skips sideways, clutching her umbrella in one tiny fist

And the strap of her teddy-bear rucksack in the other

Her bright yellow raincoat a contrast against the greys of the city street

5. When the door opens 

a breeze rushes through and an open window at the back of the house slams closed with a bang. I'm distracted and it makes me jump.

I was not ready for the noise.

Jack is very apologetic but I should have closed that window as soon as the sun went down, so I smile, treating it as a timely reminder.

I lock the window as Jack closes the door. 

"Listen" he says, that eager look on his face that he always gets when he has what he thinks is an amazing plan. 

"I have an amazing plan." 

THE BIG WRITE

Write a letter, in character, possibly starting with "There is so much I want to tell you" or similar, to someone your character is close to / has a level of intimacy with.

-------------------------------------

I have so much I want to tell you. Since I was with you, things have changed a lot. I've not seen most of my friends or family for a long time, I'm not sure how long, but it's getting so that their faces are starting to swim like the koi carp in the pond in my new home, never quite clear, and getting more distorted when I reach out and try to touch them. Yours, so far, remains sharp and clear, partly on its own, partly through the imposition of my will on my own memory It's colder here then it was where you are. Of course I'm only assuming you're still there, and if not, that someone arranges for this to reach you. It's not easy to find someone when you leave first and then you don't know if they have also gone.

Very unfinished. Idea is that it's from a dog that's been rescued from somewhere overseas to one of his friends in the kennels.

Words Down 23-Jun-2023 - Amy Acre Week

 1. Notice the sensations on your scalp. 

The familiar tingle moving around betwixt the hairs.

Allow yourself to fully relax as the enormous grey spider decides where to nestle.

Move your head slightly to keep her exploring.

Soon she will lay down her egg sac and shortly you will have so many more sensations.

You are so lucky. 

Move your consciousness to your arms. Be aware of the straps restraining them.

Similar to the ones on your ankles. So soft and padded and comfortable.

They are there to protect the spider from any accidental movements.

But also to help you to enjoy the stillness, 

and to allow you to savour a full month of peace and quiet and relaxation.

2. Notice your jaw. Why are you holding tension in your jaw?

"Well, mainly, it's because I'm pissed off." she retorted. "I've never been asked for something so stupid before in all my life, but you're in charge, you should know what you're doing, I have to try to make it happen, but it's really bloody stupid."

David looked affronted.

"And what's that you're doing with your hands?"

She grinned. "Funny you should ask, as you're about to find out."

3. Notice the fabric of your clothes against your skin. What does that feel like? 

How about now, as I pour warm sweetened milk on your shoulders, and release a bag of raccoons into your pants? 

4. You are running because 

I am chasing you.
Why am I chasing you? You already know. It cannot be explained in mere words, but you are aware.

What did you do to me? Nothing. As you know, you've never even seen me. The reason for this pursuit is nothing so trivial as worldly offence or misfortune. It simply IS. There is no further need to justify it.

What will happen when I catch you?

You already know that too. Let's not talk about that right now.

5. When I elbow you in the neck

You'll tell me I'm a snek

When I punch you in the throat

You'll think that I'm a stoat

If I bite you in the thigh

You'll consider me a fly

But when I sieze your foot

I'm probably just a mutt

Long Write based on Eazysleep Podcast Volume 2 by Amy Acre

Write a podcast/meditation.

Could be about sleeping

or

to alleviate stress, 

to relax, 

to commune with your higher self, 

to stop smoking, 

couch to 5k, 

mindful eating, 

to believe in yourself, 

deep kindness

or whatever

-----------------

You are in your garden. 

Sit comfortably, close your eyes, allow yourself to smell the clean air.

Feel the sensation of the wooden bench on your back and legs.

Settle into the seat, resting your arms on the table.

Enjoy the clean, fresh air, breathe deeply of it.

Take a sip of your water. Savour the pleasant freshness.

You do not want a cigar, or a glass of whisky. Or a bag of chocolate.

Your day has been bad, but you do not need those things to relax.

There were moments when you wanted to karate chop people in their windpipes,

But you are working remotely, so you couldn't get to them.

And now you're in your garden. The working day is over,

You have survived another day. 

You can relax completely.

Listen to that noise. It's your work phone

bleating impotently about yet another failure caused by the incompetence 

of the people you said we shouldn't hire in the first place.

It can wait. You have time. Breathe deeply. The air tastes of nothing.

The water tastes of nothing. You cannot taste the warmth of the 

excellent bottle of scotch you have in the kitchen, 

as it tempers the bitterness of the remnants of the smoke from that Cuban

that you've been saving for a special occasion. Or a shitty evening.

You do not need the smooth chocolate no matter how much of a perfect 

counterpoint it would be to the savoury earthiness of the cigar 

or the fire of the spirit.

The noise grows more impatient. You are not impatient. You just know 

that you're not paid enough to care this time. Consider Bob. He's meant

to be on-call tonight. Why are they contacting you?

Consider it a compliment, you can fix things he cannot.

Or maybe he's just better at ignoring it than you are.

He's better at most things than you, is what your mind tells you.

It's objectively not true, but you do like to torture yourself with such things.

Maybe you'll be fired. Maybe you should attack someone in the office.

Pick up the cigar. Sniff it. You do not need to smoke it.

You are in control of your own destiny. You can reject it and enjoy the clean air.

Feel the weight of the exquisitely engineered cutter in your other hand.

The satisfying snick of the razor sharp blades cleanly removing the cap end.

The reassuring click and fizz of the jet lighter and the first few wafts

of leaves grown on an island thousands of miles away

being burned in a garden in Wigan.

Open your eyes and go get the whisky and the chocolate. 

You deserve it. 

They're all twats.

Specially Bob.

Words Down 12th June 2023 - Grace Paley Short Story week

All prompts based on the short story "Wants" by Grace Paley. An unusual week given that it focused on prose rather than poetry. The  speed writes were based on gathering ideas rather than on producing anything creative per-se.

Speed writes

1. Bad advice my dad/mum gave me about aging

My parents were convinced that the right thing to do was getting on the housing ladder ASAP.

In early 2007 they were pushing me to buy saying that the price was only going one way.

I held off, not believing that the growth was sustainable, then the credit crunch happened.

I bought my house in 2010. It's the only time I've made a genuinely good financial decision.

2. 5 things you want

Me and my wife to live forever

An ADHD diagnosis / medication or just for it to go away

A chinese takeaway

To get some points in the writing competition I did over the weekend

To be paid a good wage to do something I'm passionate about.

3. Wrong reasons only – why did the relationship end

The cat didn't like them

They had opinions which were TRASH

They were part of the royal family and they got ordered to get rid of me before I spoiled everything

They hated my knees

They broke my camera

4. Awkward places to encounter an ex

At their wedding

At your wedding 

At the GUM clinic

In a police station (where one of you is the police and one is very much not)

In your wardrobe

Main Writing Exercise

20 mins to write a short story / scene about someone bumping into their ex somewhere awkward and having a conversation

-------------------------------------------------------

"Well! Of all the gin joints in all the world!"

The voice came from behind me. I was standing by the desk. Well, I was standing behind the line in front of the desk, while the heavy set woman with the stern face listed my possessions on a form and dropped them into a bag. One wallet, brown. One bunch of keys on a carabiner. One small folding knife, one cigar in a tube, one lighter. I turned my head to look towards the words and there she stood with a smirk on her face, her uniform as ruffled as it always had been after a long day at the station, the handcuffs glinting on her belt in the sickly green artificial light.

"Hello Joanna", I said. "It's been a while."

"It has hasn't it. I did not expect to come across you in here. Well, I suppose I did given all the stuff you were into back in the day, but given how much time has passed I figured maybe you'd given up all that stuff. Is that what they've got you in for? Possession?" 

She walked around behind the desk and squinted at the monitor screen.

"Ooh drink driving. That's classy."

I looked down then met her gaze. "I only had two. I'm sure the blood test will clear me. I'll be out of here before you know it."

"Well good luck. We don't enjoy having guests in here. To me, an empty nick is a happy nick. I assume you're not a happy Nick right now though."

I managed a wan smile. "You would be right on that."

The desk sergeant finished checking me in and Joanna said something to her that I couldn't hear but she nodded and told her that "five is free". Joanna came round to my side and put a hand on my arm. "OK let me show you to your suite" she said, still smirking. I'd always hated that smirk, almost as much as she hated my knees. They used to gross her out and I never quite understood why. They were just normal knees. I suddenly wished I was wearing shorts so I could watch her shudder as I did that twisting thing with my legs that she used to dislike so much.

"How have you been anyway? How's the cat? Is she still a dickhead?" she asked.

"Yeah she told me to pass on a message, what was it now..." I gave her the finger. "Obviously she did it a little differently."

She laughed. "Yeah that little shit always hated me. That's probably why we didn't work out."

I shook my head. "No, we didn't work out because my beliefs didn't align with your hatred of everything and everyone. That and the knees thing. Plus I'm secretly heir to the throne and got ordered to get rid of you."

"Excuse me! I dumped YOU!" she retorted.

"Indeed, but I engineered it."

"Anyway someone will be here shortly to take you for your test. I hope you find the pillow selection to your satisfaction, and please help yourself to the minibar." She stepped out of the cell and closed the door.

Words Down Writing Prompts - 5th June 2023 - Kae Tempest week

Words Down 05-Jun-2023

Kae Tempest Week

This week was a good week. Often I find I have to really dig to pull something out of the speedwriting prompts but this time they all just sprang almost unbidden to mind based on what was provided.

Speed Writes

1. They crest the hill at last

The engines wailing as the wheels spin

Then it's all downwards

The race for the finish

Skittering sideways like possessed crustaceans

Chasing the last shrimp in the world

2. Jasmine on the wind

Or is it honeysuckle?

I was never very good at identifying

floral scents. Particularly overpowered

as in this case

by petrol and cordite and smoke and death

as the troops advance and we retreat

and our dreams fall around us.

3. All night I lie awake with it

This pain in my mind that taunts me

The things I will never achieve

The things for which I will always yearn

The things that they have, but which I cannot.

The pain sometimes drops

but overall

the increase is linear

It will take me eventually

4. I just woke up and it was here

An unassuming box in brown corrugated cardboard.

I do not know what is inside it,

Nor how it got here.

The sender label says simply "Schroedinger".

Do I hear intermittent quiet meowing,

or did I imagine that?

5. I feel you like a threat.

And yet I know you are the source

of all safety.

Perhaps my fear is of losing your shelter,

of you deciding to take your protection

elsewhere.

Deep inside, I know you are mine forever

but the primal chimp in my brain

fears you turning out to be 

someone I know you're not

SOURCE POEM : Sequence by Kae Tempest

Empty street beside the railway at night,

Spot-lit pigeons pecking at dropped bones,

Low houses lean in like a family

Portrait. Clapped-out van pulls up, the music

Playing loud. Drunken laughter from inside.

Woman clambers out with swollen suitcase

And goodbyes them all. She stops at her door

Looks up for a moon she can't see. Her eyes 

Rank milk. The good times cling to her shoulders.

Long features, like a stretched mirror.

There, on the doorstep, she has the flooding

Sense that she is nothing but a sequence

Of events remembered differently by 

Everyone involved. What she does not sense

Is the queue of silhouettes, stood behind,

Who pick up their right hands when she picks up 

Her right hand and kick out their left legs when

She kicks out her left leg. when she calls out

To a great power she does not yet believe in

And asks to be opened, they raise their

Voices in solemn chorus behind her.

Exercise: Set a scene like this, build a picture and add detail, set up anticipation

I started this then ended up turning it into a throwback to my "I just woke up and it was here" prompt above, imagining this as the unseen route to how it just came to be there.

Title : Undefined, Uncertain, Unseen

A liminal space. Grey tarmac, dark buildings.

Shutters closed, no movement other than when wind blows

Through the discarded wrappings and cigarette packets

Scattering them slightly, then gathering them back up

Into dense heaps. The sound of an engine approaching

Before the motorcycle comes into view

And stops. The rider dismounts, looking around

For something. They appear bloated, stuffed into their

Leathers and their armour, and their helmet

Which they now remove, their breath forming mist

in the cold night air. Steam rising from their 

Sweaty matted hair. Taking the key, they open

The plastic luggage carrier and remove a normal 

Cardboard box. It does not look heavy

But it does seem sturdy as the rider places it

On the pavement. One label adorns the top

Surface. "Property of E. Schroedinger."

The street lights form multiple images 

Of the rider on the road surface, all identical, 

All moving as one,

Facing in different directions. Of the box, 

There are fewer shadows as if half of the lights

See straight through. There is, 

And simultaneously is not, the sound of an animal.

A pedestrian walks out of an apartment block,

Picks up the box without a word

And is gone back into his building.

Or someone's building.

Words Down Writing Prompts - 24th October 2022 Unfinished

Most of the prompts this week were inspired by a letter from Rainer Rilke to a Mr Kappus, in Letters To A Young Poet.

1 Minute Prompts

I suppose it must be Autumn (check)

Something something about your mother (check)

It began as a meal

But the chicken reawoke,

The fish all swam for freedom

And we thought it was a joke.

When the eggplant started laying

We decided to retreat

To a place with less enchantment

So to get something to eat

And about hospitality... (check)

The thing about clocks is... (check)

20 Minute Prompt

The long prompt this week was to write a letter as part of a chain of correspondence between yourself and someone else, real, fictional or imaginary, alive or dead, inspired by an except from Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Rilke.

Explain what you have been doing since you got their last letter.

Say something about the physicality of writing. 

Imagine the person has shared with you some doubts about their something or someone in their life. Reassure them. 

Start a paragraph with ‘And about ___________” offer them some wisdom or advice. 

Finish by attaching a poem.

Words Down, 20th Feb 2023

Inspired by works by Charles Simic

"The purpose of poetry is to return that which is familiar to its original strangeness" - Charles Simic

The above points to quite a surreal week as it turned out.

Speed Writing Prompts

Prompts were taken from various poems by Simic. 

The prompt for each is also the first line.

Spider on the wall, 

sitting,

your many legs gathered tightly

around you, your attention

focused

arrow-like

on the signal strand. Waiting.

Still.

Waiting.

I appreciate your service.

Gods disguising themselves as

mundane items.

My chair a god of inactivity,

My desk a god of industry,

My pen and paper

the gods of communication in vain.

Over a darkening plain

flies the remnant of my motivation

destined for distant climes,

or for oblivion, who can tell?

The shadow passes over others

and robs them of their momentum.

Time to sleep now. Tomorrow

Is a new day.

The woman opening a red umbrella

The man beside her

brandishing a black patent briefcase

as if it were a talisman.

A flurry of activity from the hyenas

and their camera flashes

and into the leathery interior

and away.

On their sofa

sits the creature.

He sips his tea, finger extended

like Maud at the church coffee morning.

"You see" he says in his deep voice

"It matters not at all, 

that you did not intend it.

To summon me is its own reward

and punishment

like so many things in life and death."

15 Minute Writing Challenge based on "Fork"

Brief: Start with "This strange thing must have crept", come up with a metaphor to represent an everyday item, and lean into it.

Hairbrush

This strange thing must have crept

out from a long forgotten lair,

Its head both spiked and rough haired,

Its tail dragging along behind it.

Even now it lingers on the surface

waiting, for a human hand

to come close

and seize it by the neck.

Delighting in the terror and pain

of young girls

who are already late for school.

Afterwards it falls, discarded

but sated, 

for now,

back onto the dresser,

To enjoy its spoils

and await its next feed.

Words Down Writing Prompts - 12th Dec 2022

All prompts from The Wife of Willesden by Zadie Smith

Speed Writing Prompts

1. And a lot of what you said made me feel a bit

And a lot of what you said made me feel a bit melancholy, to be honest. I mean, I know you're happy with all the things you've done and all you've achieved, and I'm happy for you, I really am, but I just can't help but compare all your success with all of my, by comparison, abject failure and it just ... made me feel a bit shit if I'm completely frank. I mean, go you, but also fuck you and your perfect life.

2. You want to think you’re a saint

You know, doing a nice thing for someone does not immediately make you a good person. It doesn't make up for all the stuff you've done before that ruined lives and took away people's happiness. You've found a new purpose in your life now and maybe you've learned something but you want to think you’re a saint and you've got a long way to go before people will think of you as anything but a bastard.

3. Man owes a debt to his wife

(A dodgy sequence of dodgy haikus)

Wife gives up her job
Focuses on home making
Changes all her dreams

House is kept lovely
Man owes a debt to his wife.
Works hard, always out

Wife then gets lonely
Wife finds better things to do
Man finds self alone.

4. You’ll pay in cash; it’s the wages of sin

We have a few special offers this week, and there's a menu on that wall over there. If you take up any of the special offers of course, you'll pay in cash; it's the wages of sin, quite literally. We can't be putting these things through the books now can we? HMRC think we're a proper legit therapy studio. 

5. But then she come to

(more dodgy haikus. I struggled with some of these prompts)

But then she come to
The world all as she left it
All so familiar

Looks around the room
Decides she will slumber more
Here worse than nowhere

Unconscious again
Dreams can be terrifying
So can reality

these places take turns
At first being the escape
and then the nightmare

Fifteen Minute Prompt

Tell the story of a relationship with multiple voices telling the story, like a multi person monologue, based on a section of "The Wife of Willesden" where Zaire and Alvita are discussing Alvita's relationship with Ryan and how it went bad. 

I tackled this by imagining it was me and my partner talking to someone else about a big issue seller that I know.

K: 

So we saw her again, she was there in the square

with her big issue bag looking hopeful...

H:

                                     ... but yeah

By the time we walked past with some cash for her though

She was gone.

K:

             Her train might have been late in the snow.

When I first talked to her she looked cold as the night

So I bought her a scarf. It was fluffy and white 

And now when I see her she always says hi

H:

She's probably hoping you're going to buy

A big issue.

K:

             I doubt it. A very long time has gone past

Since I bought one of those. I just usually give cash

Or sometimes a sandwich but she likes to chat.

Her husband's a wrong-un, and his dad's a twat.

Though she'd never say so. I found out this all

from the girls on - you remember that old sandwich stall?

H:

Yes that's gone now too, which is a proper shame.

They did lovely butties.

K:

                         Cheap too, so that came

To be where I would get the sandwiches we had.

It was those girls who told me the creep was her dad.

H:

Her dad's got another pitch just across town.

Did he once ask for money?

K:

                           Yeah I turned him down

Cos he asked me for two hundred quid for their rent

I was dropping off kids stuff cos she was pregnant.

It was cheeky at best.

H:

                       That's a generous word

He's a creepy old git and a bit of a turd.

But she always seems lovely.

K:

                             She is, you'd be right

But her horrendous life makes her deal with such shite

She gets pregnant each year despite taking the pill

So she's always with child or if not she's just ill

H:

But she's been there forever, she's a fixture of town.

She's outlasted businesses, loads have closed down.

If the market is open she comes on the train

To stand there and sell in the sun and the rain

K:

She just calls me "man", she's forgotten my name

But I've known her for years now, she's always the same.

So if you see her, just by the greengrocer, looking

around just remember she has basically nothing.

Buying her mags could be the difference between

Her kids going hungry or being warm and clean.