Sunday Scribblings "For richer or poorer"

Written for Sunday Scribblings

For richer or poorer prompt:

NICE

LIFE

wife knife

trouble strife

bubble bubble

double trouble

muddle muddle

rouble rubble

golden token

kitchen wife

richer poorer

nice life

SS030109

RWP #59 Collage..

written for Read Write Poem Collage prompt
I used all the given titles and represented them as American sentences.

MARRIAGE CAN LAST
What Sylvia meant, what letters are made of next door to Dorothy.
This isn’t a poem, say thanks that the money hasn’t gone somewhere else.
How the biscuit breaks, Miss America hot blueberry afternoon.
The musical a rare double bass and silver flute bones against clay.
Minneapolis skyline, insoluble essential minerals.
Splash of colours on dirty scraps of paper, this is my map of you.
The crows at Stirling castle, dinosaur bones, loving warm and gentle.
Degrees of separation, or how she moves softly are what remain.
030109

Monday Poetry Train Revisited #8

Written for Monday Poetry Train Revisited
CHRISTMAS NIGHT 1993
It was Christmas night about fifteen years ago I didn’t shout help.
I didn’t have a phone heating water or electric in that squat.
It was flummin’ freezing that night just like it is right now ice and snow.
The last candle had died and I had no matches left to make a fire.
I pulled the newsprint blanket over my head and tried to get some kip.
But there was no sleep to be had that night in that old ramshackle gaff.

The rats and roaches put paid to that and then there was one massive crash.
I looked through the crack in the boarded up window, it was just some drunks.
They were kicking empty crates on their way home from the rub-a-dub-dub.
Smashing them against the steel shuttered shop fronts on the parade outside.
They staggered on shouting and swearing and soon they were out of my view.

As I watched another character came by, a Rastafarian.
A blanket over his left arm and clutching a brick in his right hand.
Without a second glance old Dreadlocks dashed the padlock off the shutter.
Rolling the freezing cold steel cover up to reveal a plate glass door.

Like a bull at a gate he charged with the blanket placed over his head.
Leaving a Rastafarian shaped hole in what used to be the door.
Just a few seconds later, he came skipping out onto the cold street.
He was carrying a heavy blanket, full of cigarettes and booze.
He had already disappeared out of sight when the alarm went off.
MSC301208

RWP Image prompt & TOP Cinquain (attempt)

SECRET SEAT
slippy
scarlet seat sleeps
shoeshine stall smells socky
shoppers shopping still stop sometime
shoes shine
301208

Sunday Scribblings "I Believe"

Posted for Sunday Scribblings I Believe prompt.

CHRISTMAS

WITHOUT

CHRIST

I believe I wouldn't want

Turkey without cranberry

Prayer without power

Cake without candles

Good without God

Sex without satisfaction

Time without Eternity

Presents without sacrifice

Smoke without fire

Carols without choristers

Word without spirit

Crackers without toys

Belief without fact

Pudding without brandy

Faith without imagination

Flocks without Shepherds

Christmas without Christ

261208
You can visit my new blog post Speaking Mancunian at: Hive Magazine

Sunday Scribblings "Late"

Written for TotallyOptionalPrompts

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Sunday Scribblings

TOO LATE

(I FEEL FOR YOU)

I hope it's not too late for you

I feel the pain you’re going through

Sometimes you really have no clue

The hoops those clowns project at you

You paint your face but you’re still blue

These are the things I feel for you

If I were twenty-five oh yeah

With ice-blue eyes and auburn hair

If I could only be your man

I’d never ever let you down

These are the things I feel for you

I wish that you felt ten-feet tall

Then maybe you could scale that wall

It’s no consolation to you

But don’t you know I’ve been there too…

051208

TOP prompt

Two different versions of my Cottonopolis thingy!

Posted to TotallyOptionalPrompts

LITTLE MISS

Little Miss Cotton Cottonopolis

rocks her baby at the factory

in the cradle of industry.

It’ll soon be noon in boom and bust

And she’s just twenty-four hours ahead

She knows that by this time tomorrow

that the whole world will follow

every single word that she said.

And she said:

We’re going to build a canal to bring

coal to town and to link us to the sea.

At noon the next day

the whole world laughed

and said that she was daft

but they waited and they watched

and they copied her by half past three.

And she said:

We’re going to build about

two thousand mills each one eight floors high

with chimney stacks that scrape the sky

we’ll power the looms in boom and bust

with the new technology that we trust

and we’ll fuel those steam engines with coal

that we’ll cart up the Bridgewater canal and

the finished goods we’ll send across the sea.

At noon the next day

the whole world laughed

and said that she was daft

but they waited and they watched

and they copied her by half past three.

And she said:

We’re going to build a passenger railway station

and lay tracks to every city in the nation

and build new dormitory towns to house the hoi polloi.

At noon the next day

the whole world laughed

and said that she was daft

but they waited and they watched

and they copied her by half past three.

And she said:

We’re going to build a university

and a new town hall

a free library and art gallery

and public parks for all.

At noon the next day

the whole world laughed

and said that she was daft

but they waited and they watched

and they copied her by half past three.

And she said:

We’re going to build a ship canal

so ships can come to us

thirty-five miles from the sea.

At noon the next day

no one laughed

or said that she was daft

but they waited and they watched

and the ship canal officially opened in 1894.

011208

-->

First free public Library, Manchester 1653

First real canal (not river assisted)

The Bridgewater Canal Manchester 1761

First steam powered mill Arkwright’s, Manchester 1783

First passenger Railway Station, Manchester 1830

Manchester Ship Canal officially opened May 21^st. 1894 by Queen Victoria

First Red Brick University, Manchester 1824

-->

http://www.manchestertourguides.com/tours_industrial.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester

http://www.webbaviation.co.uk/

WHATSIT?

Little Miss Crochet

up from Whatsit?

queues outside the

monastery gates for

bread and honey and

her baby cries for the

milk that she’s not got

and across town the

dark satanic mills

rise up eight floors

above the cut and

the phallic chimneys

tower one hundred

and eighty foot into

the air belching smog

that hurts your eyes

and the bargees down

below are blindly carting

coals to fuel the loom

in bust and boom

and even as the tracks

are going down for the

worlds first passenger

railway station

across the road she still

shares half the basement

with eight children and two

drunken and abusive men

there’s no sanitation yet

they dump and hit and miss

in the river and kill the fish

almost next door to the

Italianate warehouse fronts

of the Nouveau riche that line

in eighteen twenty nine

the streets of Cottonopolis

301108

Cottonopolis = nickname for Manchester UK in the nineteenth century

Bargee = boatman on a canal barge

Cut = canal

Whatsit? = the countryside

READER AWARD!!!

SEXY READER AWARD

My friend Anthony North at Beyond the blog! has passed on the following Reader Award:

Rules: Pass it on to five other bloggers, and tell them to open the nearest book to page 46. Write out the fifth sentence on that page, and also the next two to five sentences. The closest book, not the coolest, or the one you think will sound the best. THE CLOSEST.

The closest book to my desk is called I'm Saying Nothing by Eric Topp ISBN 1-903160-07-3. Eric was a friend of ours from the Manchester Writers Group, sadly he died when he was 34 having completed thirteen novels. Three of them are in this collection.

"Nice to hear from you, can't hear you, sorry. Bye!"

There is an earthquake: I thought it was imaginary, a sympton of my over indulgence. But actually it's Janine, slamming cupboard doors.

"Shit!" She goes, "Shit, shit, shit!"

Please don’t feel pressured to take part, I'm not going to pass this on to you, but you can have a go if you like!

Hey Anthony, I'm putting a link to you in my sidebar because I'm sick of looking you up all the time...

Writers Island - Memories

For the Writers Island prompt: Memories

DYLAN
LENNON
AND LOU
Honky-tonk talk
New York
Sidewalk

You can do it
and they can
do it and we
can do it too

New York talk
Manhattan
Don't Walk

He can do it
and she can
do it and Noel
and Liam too

But we can't
do it like they
can do it

Like
Dylan
Lennon
and Lou
271108

Kyrielle for TOP & (not) following The Rules for RWP#54

Kyrielle (attempt).
Written for Totally optional prompts.

JIB GIBOLSKI
Do the jib, man
do the 'spare rib'
take the short cut.
Do the jib, Gibolski!

Jib, jib, jib.
Okay, yah!
I'll do my best. To,
Do the jib, Gibolski!

They've got sat nav!
Sat what? They'll be
sat there 'til Sun. or Mon!
Do the jib, Gibolski!

Amber Gambler?
Jump the light...
flash the sensor.
Do the jib, Gibolski!

Don't just sit there;
make a left...
take a right.
Do the jib, Gibolski!

251108

Written for ReadWritePoem #54

I WISH!!!

I wish that you

could come to

visit and never

go away.

'cos you know,

I love you so,

I told you

yesterday!

I wish that you

would stay

forever, much

like once before.

I wish that you

could come for

crimbo, not just

Christmas day.

'cos you know,

I love you so,

I told you

yesterday!

I wish that you

would stay for

New Year, and

never go away!

Don't you know,

I love you so?

I told you

yesterday!

241108

Sunday Scribblings "Grateful"

Written for the Sunday Scribblings prompt - Grateful.

GRATEFUL
Grateful for greatfruits...
What are greatfruits grateful for?
Not being eaten!
231108

TOP prompt

Written for TotallyOptionalPrompts

THAT’S ME!

Looking at life thru the bottom

of a bottle, blue green glass, that’s me.

It’s midnight late; I’ve been waiting

for my date, since half-past eight, that’s me.

The bars in motion, music’s a commotion,

a kafuffle, that’s me.

I’ve been eighteen for nearly eight years now

and nobody knows that that's me.

If you call, don’t call me small,

call me cute and dandy Andy, that’s me.

I’m the guy, straight talking, street talking,

sweet talking, pub-poetry, that’s me.

Fourteen, twenty-one, I’ve not been sober

since last October, that’s me.

You might think it’s neat, to step on my feet,

I don’t think so, but that’s me.

Looking at life thru the bottom

of a bottle, blue green glass, that’s me.

191108

RWP #53

This post has been written for ReadWritePoem.

AMERICAN SENTENCE REVISITED
Since the post a year ago on RWP #1 I have written a number of full length poems in different disguises which use this seventeen syllable sentence in way way or another. In reviewing them this morning I did notice that a few of the lines are actually fifteen or sixteen syllables here and there but anyway, if you're interested please take a look.
List of Titles.
The American Sentence RWP #1
Three to Three past Three.
Confession.
Confessional.
Dinosaurs and Fangs.
Kiss.
Foreign Lands.
King of Kingston.
Wino's Bench.
2 Girls.
And Still.
Goddess of Love.
Magic Island.
Disco Very.
Soon.
For Change Sake.
Expectations.
Kafkaesque.
For the Umpteenth Time.
The above titles are all listed in my sidebar
with a clickable link under Permalinks to poetry prompts.
I nearly forgot, here's todays offering:

BEAUTY FACE

Hello beautiful,

goodbye painted face

You look so

beautiful now!

Hello beauty face,

goodbye old ‘boat race’

You look so

Beautiful, wow!

Hello lover,

goodbye the other you,

You look so

Beautiful, phew!

201108

Sunday Scribblings "Stranger"

Written for the Sunday Scribblings prompt: 'Stranger'.

FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME

Down on the autobahn by the funny farm where the big kickers go.

I don’t give a ruck about them, but that’s where their stiletto’s get stuck.

Him in the habit said his name was Shirley but Mummy calls him Jack.

Jack, get back in the closet, ‘cos no one cares about the things you wear.

Sam drives a Rolls Can’ardly, rolls down hills but can hardly get up ‘em.

Takes the chauffer and Daddy’s limo when he goes to town to tank up.

And Matey Minedrops is just about as ginger as his wardrobe friend.

He dresses to tease, to please himself, naked, looking in the mirror.

Then the cell phone goes, ‘pronto, yeah, yo, whats-yer-face what yer want? not now!’

When the stranger walks in, the stash goes down the pan, for the umpteenth time.

161108

Writers Island - Embarrassing predicament.

Written for the Writers Island prompt - Embarrassing Predicament.

KAFKAESQUE

Ever been in a situation like this before, the sergeant asks.

Miracles only ever happen behind closed doors when you’re not there.

Before you open your mouth again I should think about your thinking.

Also, it has been a long time since you last went to church on Sunday.

Really you should write to me more often, if you want to hear my news.

Rice and rice cakes are on the menu at the masked ball, don’t eat too many.

Already it’s time to go, I know you don’t want to but that’s the rule.

Someone somewhere will look back sometime and that someone will find me out.

So what do I do now, how can I ever escape these prison walls?

Me, and my big mouth, got you into this fiasco in the first place.

Even though the situation is Kafkaesque, there is still some hope.

Not a lot of people know about this secret society, yet.

Though when they do, I will not be the first to die of embarrassment.

141108

TOP prompt "Expectations" & RWP #52 - Fears

Written for and prompted by

Totally Optional Prompts. & Read Write Poem

EXPECTATIONS

Expect the worst and when uni-ted

hits the fan, that’s when it happens.

You can legislate for these things,

they don’t just appear out of nowhere.

Someone, somewhere, makes them happen

and good style too by the look of it.

Who knows the why’s the what’s and

the wherefores, which way up do you flip out?

And is there actually something that

we all perhaps, should know about?

How long is it now since I first

confided in you and made you sweat?

My questions outweigh the

situational sense of expectation.

I have a deep understanding of

the workings of your inner self.

And I still desire to guide you through

this quagmire of doubt you portray.

From the very first day that you

came to me I knew what I should do.

Congratulations, annihilation of the foe,

crushed like a crumb!

Expectations, expectations, expectations,

banging on the drum!

131108

Sunday Scribblings "Change"

Written for and inspired by the Sunday Scribblings prompt: Change
FOR CHANGE SAKE
No matter what they
say at the soul cafe
I still want you to stay.

And I always will
'cos I love you so,
don't you know?
no matter what!

No matter what they
say at the art cafe
your music makes me sway.

And it always will
when I dance with you
so don't change things
for change sake.
081108

Sunday Scribblings "Scandalous"

S$$ $$$ $$$S
SCANDALOUS
*CANDALOU*
**ANDALO**
***NDAL***
****DA****
***NDAL***
**ANDALO**
*CANDALOU*
SCANDALOUS
$$$$$ $$$$$
011008
Written for Sunday Scribblings