Give me your hungry, your starving she said, So, I set them asail on a boat of thick bread. Thousands of beings, baked in sea, Bright orange and gloopy, more sweet than salty They teamed from their cans and swam for the coast, Towards the mountains of butter on my beans on toast.
Author Archives: grahamswords1962
God save our Ted
April 26th Today’s poetic task, to use and existing poem or song and write a parody poem of our own. In keeping with the British TV zeitgeist, I took the national anthem and wrote a tribute to Line of Duty. Plod save Inspector Ted, From an ignoble death, “God give me strength”. But isContinue reading “God save our Ted”
And breathe
April 25th. Today’s prompt was to write a poem for an event past or future. Today I pay homage to that yet to be event when thousands can gather safely in a field, listening to music, drinking cider with friends, and just feeling human again. Banish from this field the standing ghosts, escort them whiningContinue reading “And breathe”
Earth Pigs
April 24th I woke up this morning and my head instantly decided we were going to write about the fear of public speaking. I then read our prompt for the day “find a factual article about an animal… (that) repeats the name of the animal a lot. Now, go back through the text and replaceContinue reading “Earth Pigs”
Bouée de sauvetage pêche
As a writer (I still shy away from the title poet at times) I often find myself in a dilemma, one to which the vagaries of my mind tutor the torment. The unravelling of meaning of poems – is it meant to be a test that makes you feel inadequate at the best of times?Continue reading “Bouée de sauvetage pêche”
A bowler’s lament
April 22nd Today we were directed to an essay by Urvi Kumbhat on the use of mangoes in diasporic literature. As she discusses in her essay, mangoes have become a sort of shorthand or symbol that writers use to invoke an entire culture, country, or way of life. This has the beauty of simplicity – butContinue reading “A bowler’s lament”
For JCC
April 21st Inspired by the nursery rhyme, “There was a man of double deed” we were challenged to write a poem that uses lines that have a repetitive set-up and rhyming couplets. For inspiration, I used this photo of a caterpillar of the Saturniidae Moth (note, there are many references to this being a butterfly,Continue reading “For JCC”
For David, Big T, Audrey and whoever
April 20th Create a traditional Korean Sijo poem. Like the haiku, it has three lines, but the lines are much longer. Typically, they are 14-16 syllables, and optimally each line will consist of two parts – like two sentences, or a sentence of two clauses divided by a comma. In terms of overall structure, aContinue reading “For David, Big T, Audrey and whoever”
Attila the Stockbroker
Shouty, loud, anarchic and brilliant – I could go on casting adjectives around till the sun goes down when asked about Attila. His ability to blend biting sarcasm with right on the edge humour to get over his left-wing political rantings has always had me in awe of the man. Like LKJ and JCC, IContinue reading “Attila the Stockbroker”
Dr. John Cooper Clarke
For anyone who was nurtured by the punk revolution, as was I, the initials JCC are inextricably linked with the high priest of punk poetry. Along with LKJ and Attila the Stockbroker, he made poetry for me, a contemporary art form. His crazy take on life, fused with salient points about the then desperate stateContinue reading “Dr. John Cooper Clarke”
Missives & Musings 