Friday, 7 March 2008
Thursday, 6 March 2008
Rules & Instructions 1: Avoid Writing -- by Zephirine
Here's one set of instructions to start off with. As usual you will need to click on the pic:
For People Who Don't Like Rules
... here's a little writing challenge.
Write a set of rules or instructions for doing something. Ten rules.
Ten Commandments, if you like to be biblical.
They can be funny or tragic, any subject permitted (but suitable for a family audience please)(and preferably not Rules for Blogging!).
Send them to me at barbzeph-mail@yahoo.co.uk and if I can disentangle them from all that spam promising to improve my virility and sell me a rolex watch at the same time, I'll post them on the site.
Enjoy...
Write a set of rules or instructions for doing something. Ten rules.
Ten Commandments, if you like to be biblical.
They can be funny or tragic, any subject permitted (but suitable for a family audience please)(and preferably not Rules for Blogging!).
Send them to me at barbzeph-mail@yahoo.co.uk and if I can disentangle them from all that spam promising to improve my virility and sell me a rolex watch at the same time, I'll post them on the site.
Enjoy...
Saturday, 23 February 2008
An Omen Dire -- by File
-
An omen dire in the dark palm of night
An acid truth, an open wound of light
The furnace clouds and gory shrouds, the blood
In bloom in milk and silent lava floods
A burning whisper scorching raw our ears
A rusted mirror warning us of wars
Of rape and tainted pearls, of tannic mouths
And abattoirs awash with severed vows
Of tortured saints, the violence of stars
We watched the moon annexed by Mars
-
An omen dire in the dark palm of night
An acid truth, an open wound of light
The furnace clouds and gory shrouds, the blood
In bloom in milk and silent lava floods
A burning whisper scorching raw our ears
A rusted mirror warning us of wars
Of rape and tainted pearls, of tannic mouths
And abattoirs awash with severed vows
Of tortured saints, the violence of stars
We watched the moon annexed by Mars
-
Monday, 28 January 2008
Winter Report -- by Zephirine
-
A leaf of brown comes tumbling down,
gyratory in the grey January air.
Trees lift their cold hard shoulders up
against the white congested sky.
Berries gleam red and amber
among dull evergreen leaves.
Dog-walkers plod determinedly
the single lane to the park,
then filter out across the open space
avoiding heavy fast-moving Rottweilers,
staying stony-faced but once in a while
reducing speed to exchange quick greetings.
One coughs to a standstill, then
steers himself a bench to find his menthol sweets,
his dog obliviously accelerating away.
Small birds pass and re-pass
back and forth to fetch food,
signalling to each other with swift chirps,
but people, dogs, birds are running on empty:
a long hard road till spring.
-
A leaf of brown comes tumbling down,
gyratory in the grey January air.
Trees lift their cold hard shoulders up
against the white congested sky.
Berries gleam red and amber
among dull evergreen leaves.
Dog-walkers plod determinedly
the single lane to the park,
then filter out across the open space
avoiding heavy fast-moving Rottweilers,
staying stony-faced but once in a while
reducing speed to exchange quick greetings.
One coughs to a standstill, then
steers himself a bench to find his menthol sweets,
his dog obliviously accelerating away.
Small birds pass and re-pass
back and forth to fetch food,
signalling to each other with swift chirps,
but people, dogs, birds are running on empty:
a long hard road till spring.
-
Monday, 31 December 2007
Monday, 17 December 2007
Christmas Music
The hell with it, it's Christmas, let's be conventional -
a good excuse to revisit the lovely Jean-Baptiste Maunier, with his superb voice (which he doesn't have any more) and his petit air de James Dean (which he'll have for a few years yet, make the most of it JB):
No? Too virtuous for you? All right then:
a good excuse to revisit the lovely Jean-Baptiste Maunier, with his superb voice (which he doesn't have any more) and his petit air de James Dean (which he'll have for a few years yet, make the most of it JB):
No? Too virtuous for you? All right then:
Saturday, 8 December 2007
Seriously..
..however busy you are, make time to read the extract from Doris Lessing's Nobel acceptance speech at http://books.guardian.co.uk/nobelprize/story/0,,2224068,00.html.
Just read it.
In the spirit of feeding the hunger, I've decided that from time to time I'll put a space on the site for book recommendations. Not just to say 'my favourite book is', or to review the latest books out, there are lots of other places to do that, but to draw attention to a book other people might have missed, and which you think is really worth reading.
I'm going to start off by recommending THE FARM by Richard Benson. I vaguely heard about this when it came out a couple of years ago, but only just got round to reading it, and I think it's really good. Benson is a journalist, and he uses a plain unaffected style to describe the events around the sale of his family's farm and the end of a way of life for his parents and brother. It is about the current state of farming in this country, but it's more about being a son (and a Yorkshireman). It's moving and funny, and - because of the indomitable characters - not quite as heartbreaking as you're afraid it's going to be, which can only be a good thing.
More recommendations please...?
Zeph
Just read it.
In the spirit of feeding the hunger, I've decided that from time to time I'll put a space on the site for book recommendations. Not just to say 'my favourite book is', or to review the latest books out, there are lots of other places to do that, but to draw attention to a book other people might have missed, and which you think is really worth reading.
I'm going to start off by recommending THE FARM by Richard Benson. I vaguely heard about this when it came out a couple of years ago, but only just got round to reading it, and I think it's really good. Benson is a journalist, and he uses a plain unaffected style to describe the events around the sale of his family's farm and the end of a way of life for his parents and brother. It is about the current state of farming in this country, but it's more about being a son (and a Yorkshireman). It's moving and funny, and - because of the indomitable characters - not quite as heartbreaking as you're afraid it's going to be, which can only be a good thing.
More recommendations please...?
Zeph
