Tag: dailyprompt

You can’t wait for the perfect space

You get to build your perfect space for reading and writing. What’s it like?

I’m writing in an airport

Waiting for a flight.

Tapping as per usual

On my trusty phone.

More often I‘ll blog from my bed

Or soon as I am up

Anywhere there‘s time and space

And I won’t be disturbed.

If I wait for inspiration

It’s likely I‘ll not write

I knock stuff out quite quickly

And hope it is alright.

So waiting for the perfect space

Just wouldn’t work for me.

Sitting in the perfect place

No creativity.

So all you get‘s this silly verse

My novel‘s still unwritten.

The only time my words spill out

Is when they are unbidden.

I used to want the perfect desk

A perfect book filled room

The very best equipment

For jotting ideas down.

You can’t wait for the perfect place

It never will quite come

And if it does well writer‘s block

Could be the sad outcome.

You’ll still stare at an empty screen

Despite your working place

So never mind the perfect time

Just get those ideas down.

Just a car that gets me round

What is your all time favorite automobile?

I don’t get the obsession

With what we like to drive.

Just a car that gets me round

And I can stuff things in.

We‘re often hauling plants

and produce round

Or going to the tip

Giving lifts to friends or kids

Or off for a weekend.

We don’t need flashy vehicles

That cannot take a scratch

Just something that’s reliable

And just does what it’s asked.

I do not need a supercar

I‘m fine with what I‘ve now

You may sneer if into cars

But I love my Peugot.

Have a Merry Christmas- hope you’ll find creative ways to spread a little joy.

How are you creative?

Have a Merry Christmas

A festive Christmas Day

Hope you‘ll find creative ways

To spread a little joy!

Creative in the kitchen

Or breaking into song

Spread a little merriment

Join the happy throng.

Capture the enjoyment

In a young child’s face

Ripping off the paper

Presents wrapped with love.

All the favourite ornaments

Gathered on the tree

Each one with a purpose

A favourite memory.

If it’s not your custom

I hope you’ll play along

Join our celebration

Join our happy throng.

Who is there to take the blame?

Who are the biggest influences in your life?

Who’s my biggest influence?

I couldn’t really say.

Who is there to take the blame

That I turned out this way?

Some would blame my parents

I get it all from them

But they had four different children

And no two are the same.

It could have been my teachers

I had a few of them

But I went to so many schools

You can’t pin down the blame.

Maybe television

Or all the books I read

Or just the times I lived in

And the things that people said.

I’m fundamentally Christian

But somewhat a la carte

Of mixed denomination

There’s quite a few I’ve tried.

The Jesus of the Gospel

Cannot be denied

So critical of religious folk

Who are not always kind.

I’ve always loved the Quakers

The guiding inner light

Their Advice and Queries

A favourite book of mine.

As to literary influence

Well I love Wendy Cope

Don’t take myself too serious

Just love the stuff she wrote.

A little touch of Kipling

Some Hardy here and there

Taking off John Betjeman

MacNeice and thirties fare.

There’s no one quite responsible

I guess I am just me

I have to take the blame myself

And act responsibly.

Everything was black and white in 1952

Share what you know about the year you were born.

Everything was black and white

A new Queen on the throne

She heard the news in Kenya

And had to travel home.

The Olympics were in Finland

The place that we’ve just flown

It was Paavo Nurmi

Who took the world by storm.

At home we still had rationing

Of eggs and butter, meat.

It also covered sugar

And sadly children’s sweets.

It was a cold, cold winter

They had most awful smog

And earlier in Lynmouth

They had a dreadful flood.

Newcastle in football

Won the FA Cup.

Arsenal in the football league

Topped division one.

The only cars you saw were black

There weren’t too many planes

And if you were a baby

Then you’d have a great big pram.

Not sure bout the bearded chap just across the aisle

Are you a good judge of character?

Flying to Helsinki

on a Finnish flight

Not sure bout the bearded chap.

Just across the aisle.

Says he’s bound for Lapland

Then to the North Pole

But something odd about him

And it doesn’t quite add up.

It’s awful hard to read him

He’s wearing funny clothes.

Something odd about the beard

His face all covered up.

He likes to visit children

Creep about at night

Seems a little odd to me

Something’s not quite right.

He didn’t like the menu

Reindeer in a roll

Nordic speciality

But he turned up his nose.

I know you’ll think it rude of me

I really shouldn’t stare

But I’m not sure about that man

Who’s sitting over there.

There’s a lot of little things…..

When are you most happy?

I’m never totally happy

I don’t deserve to be

I can’t forget the flaws in me

Or how things ought to be.

But there’s lots of little things

That make the heart feel glad.

A welcoming, impromptu smile

Forbids you to be sad.

Enjoyment in a young child’s face

The world seen through their eyes.

The things that we find commonplace

Delightful, a surprise.

A look caught in my partner’s eye

That tells me she still cares

A small show of affection

That takes me unawares.

A family come together

That don’t meet up enough.

The thrill of clever grandkids

Showing that they’re smart.

The thrill of entertainment

That passes through a crowd

When someone scores a goal or try

Or hits a special note.

The hit of morning coffee

Perhaps a special meal.

Meeting an old friend again

Knowing love is real.

Being out in greenery

Enjoying the fresh air

A spring allotment fresh prepared

All its crops fresh sown.

The special feeling runners get

And call a runner’s high

When everything falls into place

You flow and touch the sky.

There’s no one thing makes happiness

You take it where you can

I try to make the most of life

Not dwell on being sad.

Sing a song of sixpence – here’s a silly verse

What was the last thing you did for play or fun?

Sing a song of sixpence

Feet are made of clay

None of this is serious

This is how I play.

They should have made me Laureate

I’d have made it fun.

Just write silly poems

Here’s another one.

Should have been a Carol

But Mighty Tom was there

Snow is in the very sod

But there’s no winter fuel

Cousin Rachel’s she’s in charge

She says the cupboard’s bare.

Must have been the other folk

They left nothing there.

Tinsel in the manger

Twinkle little star

Kings can’t get to Bethlehem

They’re old it’s way too far.

Santa’s stuck in traffic

All the roads are jammed

Reindeer mightn’t make it

We hope that Amazon can.

All the girls just blame the boys

The boys all blame the men

Santa’s in his grotto

And it all comes round again.

Hark the Herald Angels

Shepherds in a field

Not much time for all of that

But keep the glasses filled.

This is tripe and nonsense

Silly, senseless verse

It’s my excuse to play around

It doesn’t get much worse.

Spurs are up at Arsenal

Palace down the road

The King is in his castle

The Queen in borrowed robes

Musk is in his counting house

Counting out the money

Down comes a blackbird

And pecks Kier Starmer’s nose.

Stuff your face with Turkey

Lovely roasted spuds

Parsnips, extra gravy

Who wants Brussels sprouts?

If you’re turning vegan

Do not tell your mum!

Baby in a manger

No room at the inn

How’d you dare not stuff your face

We’re celebrating him?

What you doing Christmas?

Will you be away?

They’re slaughtering the first born

So we don’t think we’ll stay.

We’ll head on up to Egypt

Out of Herod’s way

All the world loves refugees

So we’ll be on our way.

Come all ye faithful

Come to Israel

Away in awful danger

They are bombing infants there.

But hey we all recycle

And some stop eating meat

We’re attacking climate change

So guess the world is safe?

So here’s to merry Christmas

Everyone have fun

Forget about the future

The time to play’s begun.

We are all wassailing

And full of Christmas cheer

Forget about the serious stuff

The best time of the year.

I don’t know where this gets us

I just set out to play

I tried to switch my left brain off

And just to have some fun

Here we go round the mulberry bush

It’s just a silly song.

All of that is in the past.

The future’s just begun.

Call me stupid if you like

List your top 5 grocery store items.

Call me stupid if you like.

What kind of question’s that?

Who would shop for just five things

Unless they had run out?

We’d seldom shop for just five things

We do a bigger shop

Most things can be stored and kept

We might run out of milk.

We seldom need much fruit or veg

We mostly grow our own

And mostly bake our daily bread

We buy the flour in bulk.

We eat a varied diet –

a lot of different food

And keep a well stocked larder

Of condiments and such.

When we’re running low on things

We add them to the list

Won’t always be the same five things

Depends what’s running out.

So why’d you ask the question

Do you find this interesting?

It won’t make for great reading

Or pull our readers in.

Footnote:

I had to look this up.

A grocery store (AE), grocery shop(BE) or simply grocery[1] is a retailstore that primarily retails a general range of food products,[2] which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, “grocery store” is a synonym for supermarket,[3] and is not used to refer to other types of stores that sell groceries. In the UK, shops that sell food are distinguished as grocers[3] or grocery shops (though in everyday use, people usually use either the term “supermarket” or a “corner shop“.)

Chris Brasher co founder of the London Marathon

Describe a man who has positively impacted your life.

“To believe this story you must believe that the human race be one joyous family, working together, laughing together, achieving the impossible. Last Sunday, in one of the most trouble-stricken cities in the world, 11,532 men and women from 40 countries in the world, assisted by over a million black, white and yellow people, laughed, cheered and suffered during the greatest folk festival the world has seen.” Chris Brasher’s article in the Observer 1979 after completing the New York Marathon the first and at the time the only mass marathon of its kind.

Brasher came to prominence

With the four minute mile

Pacing Roger Bannister

Who brought it home in style.

But was through the Marathon

He really influenced me

Opening up the distance

To ordinary blokes like me.

It was once a race for athletes

Late in their career

We mere mortals wouldn’t run

We’d just be there to cheer.

Brasher ran and was inspired

By that race in New York.

He brought it back to London

And this transformed our sport.

It was nineteen eighty one

They ran it the first time

When Beardsley and Simmonson

Joined hands on the line.

I watched it from the sofa

Recovering from bad knees

Still in slow recovery

With physiotherapy.

But I determined then and there

It was something I would do

And completed my first London

In nineteen eighty two.

Then began the running boom

The whole thing just took off

Suddenly the running thing

Accessible to us.

It became a lifestyle

A big thing in my life.

I ran London five times more

And hoped to bust three hours.

Of course I never made it

Three fifteen my best

But running makes me feel good

It helps to swell my chest.

The race grew exponentially

It really is huge now

And of course the charities

All benefit as well.

So raise a glass to Brasher

A man who influenced me

And opened up the marathon

To all us ordinary.