Month: April 2021

NaPoWriMo Day 10 – Trust

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Today I’ve opted to use the Local Gems Poetry Press prompt.

I’m in somewhat of a fractured yet healing place right now. I’ve no idea where this journey is taking me. I just know I’ve become much more sensitive lately, and that I’m finding no humour in mockery, derision or malice. A knife edge between sanity and salvation.

For many years I’ve been guarded,

a mound around my heart

commemorating lost hope.

Yet as I work on showing kindness to myself,

this vault contains a trust

where I may also place the kindness of others.

NaPoWriMo Day 9 – Letter to a Healing Soul

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Today I’ve opted to use the official NaPoWriMo prompt.

1. Acknowledge your pain.

2. Understand that time would have changed you even if pain didn’t.

3. Figure out who you are, were and wish to be.

4. Reconcile those selves.

5. Be kinder to yourself each day until it becomes second nature.

6. Enjoy the fruits of your labour: a self you are proud of.

NaPoWriMo Day 6 – Winter is Coming (to Manchester)

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Today I’ve opted for the official NaPoWriMo prompt.

Winter is coming

in the middle of Spring.

Fire up your hearths

and your wolf pelt skins.

Barring that try a hoodie,

a jumper that’s fluffy.

With a cup of hot cocoa

that helps you feel lovely.

With Bojo as Joffrey that’s ruling the realm

whilst Cummings like Tywin is truly at helm.

But I’m King of the North and I say stuff em.

Whether it’s bread cake, barm cake or oven top muffin…

We can all agree the weather here’s shit,

But we’ll never complain, nope not one bit.

NaPoWriMo Day 5 – Maybe

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Today I went with the Local Gems Poetry Press prompt of beginning each line with the same word.

Maybe I haven’t achieved all I wanted.

Maybe roadblocks were mountains as I were pedestrian.

Maybe perseverance is the lesson.

Maybe everything really is random.

Maybe serendipity is broken clocks ceasing in unison.

Maybe trying to understand is another game we play.

Maybe I’m afraid of maybes.

Maybe the guttural chords of regret are echoes.

Maybe echoes are a blessing for those who can hear.

Maybe rumination is a sign that you’ve lived.

Maybe allow yourself to live once more.

Maybe greatness is your heart’s gilded armour.

Maybe splinters see themselves as grand oaks.

Maybe is the space between ideas and experiences.

Photo credit: Edited version of an original image by Woohyuck Jang operating under a royalty free licence.

NaPoWriMo Day 4 – Neon Draconis

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Today I opted to use the official NaPoWriMo prompt of using an image from SpaceLiminalBot on Twitter to inspire my writing.

I am the unknown entity

that lurks beneath

a grungy neon cityscape.

Ancient magicks

and cyberpunk dystopia

collide like Hadron’s incantations.

Sacral wings,

cybernetic tendrils…

that soar, spread and replicate

Malevolent manifestations.

Though I keep my lair

in the forgotten places

I exist within all spaces.

Obsidian flight shines ominously.

NaPoWriMo 2021 Day 2 – By Design

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Today I’ve opted to use the official NaPoWriMo prompt of The Road Not Taken. When I was 19 I had a graphic design internship with the Lesbian and Gay Foundation but I found myself pulled more into the performing arts opportunities that Contact provided as part of Contact Young Actors Company. I recently pondered what would have happened if I’d continued down the graphics and web design path rather than my love of the stage after booting up Photoshop and seeing so much has changed in the last decade.

Here is today’s effort By Design:

It’s easy to ponder the road not taken.

Scuppering speed-bumps,

Calamitous collisions,

Punishing potholes…

… All littered the life I’ve lived.

Yet I’ve found friendship,

and embraced opportunities.

Song, script and stage

made man into mage.

Weaving fantasy and reality

Into an arcane tapestry.

Though I replaced

brushstrokes with keystrokes.

I did so by design.

NaPoWriMo 2021 Day 1: Jerry started it!

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First off, let me apologise for not updating the website in awhile. I’ve been more active creatively in the past year than I probably have been in the entire last 5 years.

I’m involved in some incredible opportunities such as Fringe Factory Films, many things with Disabled Artists Networking Community, and the Beyond program with Graeæ theatre company and Bolton Octagon.

Uni is going well. I’ve decided to major in creative writing and philosophy.

I’ve also been doing standup comedy since deciding to get into it last year and while it was a bizarre first year to choose I’ve made some excellent friends, especially those at International House of Comedy.

But without further ado here’s some poetry!

NaPoWriMo 2021 Day 1.

Today I used both the Local Gems Poetry Press prompt (any poetic form – I chose Tanka) and official NaPoWriMo prompt (animation).

This one’s called Jerry Started It!

A feline cherub
babied, bullied, babied some…
forgotten mischief.
Hero or instigator?
Gaslit. Vermin charred whiskers.