The present circumstances can take away your working life, your social life, the places where you used to conduct both – but they can’t take away the sky. That’s your subject today.
Author Archives: Jo Bell
#9: Journey round my room
In 1790, a young French nobleman was put under house arrest for six weeks, as punishment for fighting a duel…. he wrote a travelogue concerning the only place he could travel in – his own room.
#8: No kindness is small
Day 8 of lockdown in England, and also of our online poetry community, Try to Praise the Mutilated World. The prompts are here every day, and free. Access to our Facebook workshopping group costs £10, and lasts for the duration of this lockdown. The group is a place for mutual feedback, and is private so that yourContinue reading “#8: No kindness is small”
#7: It’s the end of the world as we know it
We are one week into lockdown #2 in England, and also into our online poetry community, Try to Praise the Mutilated World. The prompts are here every day, and free. Access to our Facebook workshopping group costs £10, and lasts for the duration of this lockdown. The group is a place for mutual feedback, and is privateContinue reading “#7: It’s the end of the world as we know it”
#6: Bearing gifts
Day 6 of lockdown in England, and also of our online poetry community, Try to Praise the Mutilated World. The prompts are here every day, and free. Access to our Facebook workshopping group costs £10, and lasts for the duration of this lockdown. The group is a place for mutual feedback, and is private so that yourContinue reading “#6: Bearing gifts”
#5: The Difference Machine
Today’s subject is difference itself. Difference implies a relationship between two things; one of them is larger or older or at a higher altitude. One of them hates whistling, while the other does it constantly.
#4: Full Stop
Your prompt today is stop. What comes to my mind is that peculiar experience of eclips, but what associations does it have for you? Think about what might stop, and how.
#3: You shouldn’t have
This is Day 3 of lockdown in England, and day 3 of our poetry writing project, Try to Praise the Mutilated World. The prompts are here on my blog every day, and free: access to our Facebook workshopping group costs £10 and lasts for the duration of this particular lockdown. I thought twice about offeringContinue reading “#3: You shouldn’t have”
#2: Left hanging
In poetry, as in strip tease, you can reveal too much too soon. Think about subjects which lend themselves to a slow, tantalising build-up of tension.
#1: A world lit only by fire
If you don’t quite know what to do with this prompt, just start writing and see where it takes you. Light the blue touch paper, and stand well back; then gather round. Today we start a fire.
