POETRY

Microfiction Monday, ABC Wednesday, more prompts below
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BLOGGER BARD

Microfiction: Little Angel’s first
party. Long white dress so boring
though. Add pointy hat, broom,
black cat. Preacher will love
the Baptism.

POETRY

I’ve been writing for over a quarter century and only tried poetry about
three years ago, so I’m a writer who also writes poems. I’m totally
untrained in any writing form so I don’t always follow rules. And to me
this is good, especially for poetry, for to me writing is simply a matter
of communication and expression. As long as something is expressed,
and someone wants to read it, you’re a poet.

I’m now on Facebook

WORLD NEWS: The disclosure by
WikiLeaks of the reality of the Iraq campaign
makes painful reading, with the Pentagon ignoring
torture and lying about not having records of deaths. I
usually worry that disclosures can put forces in danger, but this
is dependent upon authority being honest.

BRIT NEWS: The term ‘social cleansing’ is being used to describe
the govt’s bonfire of the benefits as it will drive the poor
into ghettos away from the affluent. The Lib Dems
are already traitors to their ideals and the
Tories are confirming the ‘nasty’ party.
They both risk the electoral
wilderness, leaving the
UK a one party state.

RATTLER’S TALE

A Voyage of the Imagination

One Single Impression
Friday Flash 55 – Writer’s Island
One Shot Wednesday

FANCY

What do I fancy writing today?
What fanciful ideas will waylay,
The thoughts buzzing around my mind,
What fanciful fancy will rise from behind?
Poems are often reality based,
Yet a fancy is illusion, contradiction chased

FLASH 55 – BLOCK

Fiction: He lived for his writing. So when writers’ block began to strike,
it was obviously serious. At first, it lasted only a short while before an
idea came, but then it seemed another idea would never come. But
just in time, a spark! So he put the gun down … would keep his brains
… for now.

MASQUERADE

Halloween can be great fun,
Dressing up daughters and sons;
Sending them out to have a lark,
Reflections of what once was dark;
But are we glad those ways are gone?
A time when man and Earth were one

© Anthony North, 2010

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

ORACLE

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GURU TONY

Microfiction: A sickening sense of
humour they had at the Drugs Rehab
Clinic. Come to the 1940s retro party
– free coke! At least it quenched.

ORACLE

The Oracle at Delphi once foretold a great victory. The recipient went
off to the battle and came back defeated. He should have asked which
side was to win. This is the problem with Oracles. The information is
always incomplete – which suggests just exactly what ancient oracles
were. Rather than some supernatural process, they can better be seen
as think tanks. And even today, the success rate hasn’t improved.

I’m now on Facebook

BRIT NEWS: Universities will soon
be able to charge students up to £10,000
tuition fees. The days of anyone going to uni are
over. It was just a blip of affluence, with the upshot that
now, only the rich will make it. Amazing how 13 years of so called
social mobility reversed social mobility.

BRIT NEWS: So the defence review leaves holes in our defence. Two
carriers will be built but will be aircraftless for a decade. The first, HMS
Queen Elizabeth, will be mothballed when the 2nd, Prince of Wales,
comes into service. Prince Charles please note – this may be as close
as you get.

BRIT NEWS: Half million jobs to go (and the rest); BBC budget cut
16%. Most govt depts cut by 19% over 4 yrs. Retirement
age up. Welfare cuts deep. And that’s just the start.
Small govt is maybe preferable. Bu there was
a definite feeling of glee in the Tories
that they can do it so quickly.

READ WITH MUMMY

The Magazine Post with a gentle hint of horror

One Single Impression
Friday Flash 55 – Writer’s Island
One Shot Wednesday

GRACE

How graceful it was to see her there,
Perfect beauty, loving stare,
Taking away the sadness within,
Seeing her ghost cannot be a sin;
And then she was gone without a trace,
Yet reinforced memories interlaced

TATTOO

Fiction: It was that simple. He put a tattoo of a beautiful blonde on the
guy’s arm and that night he met the love of his life. How it worked, the
tattooist had no idea, but suddenly his tattoos made things happen.
He never liked one guy, but knew he’d love a tattoo of a snake.

EMERGE

Trying to think; can’t get out,
Need a voice to scream and shout,
Be a person just like you,
I’m gonna be there in a moment or two!
Lots of experience on which to be fed,
From the clutter inside your head

© Anthony North, 2010

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

NATIONHOOD

Microfiction Monday, ABC Wednesday, more prompts below
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POLLY TICKS

Microfiction: As the builder bricked her
in, she realised she really should have
paid the bill – especially as his name
was Poe.

NATIONHOOD

Nationhood is often frowned upon today. After all, nations make war,
don’t they? Yes, if we think only of nation in terms of politics. But a
nation is more than this. It is also about culture – and it is often here
where the person finds meaning in life. Perhaps we should remember
this, for there’s an adage that if you don’t love yourself, you can’t
love others. I think this is also true of one’s culture.

I’m now on Facebook

BRIT NEWS: Human Rights
Commission finds inequalities in
British society. Of course it does. A fully
equal society is not possible. Everything we do
disadvantages someone. This is why we developed
compromise; an attempt to find balance. The only way to
be fully equal is for no one to do anything.

BRIT NEWS: The Guardian claims Met Police want to make it harder
for public to take legal action against officers. As officers of the law
they should understand the law, its safeguards and dangers. This kind
of attitude in our senior police chiefs makes me shudder and worry
about my freedom.

BRIT NEWS: GCHQ warn that critical services such as the
power grid and emergency services face threat of
cyber attack. This has always worried me. Is
our dependence on computers a matter
of putting too many eggs in one
basket? Should the machine
stop, so do we.

FUTURE ZONE

What’s ahead … and Beyond!!!

One Single Impression
Friday Flash 55 – Writer’s Island
One Shot Wednesday

CHAMPION

He’s the champion of humanity,
Survived disaster, all decree,
While stellar wars and chaos raged,
He conquered it, unfazed;
Now he has all he can receive,
Except …
New Adam needs an Eve

FLASH 55 – HYPER

Fiction: The drive worked! It really did!! It took me right out of the
universe – allowed me to travel anywhere, instantaneously, and then
back in again. We had been freed from spacetime. And, man, what a
buzz! It was just soooo incredible! Fantastic! EXHILERATING!!!! And I
was so incredibly high …. No wonder they call it hyperspace.

UNLEASH

Nowhere and everywhere, interlaced,
Non-dimensional, not even space;
‘Twas a singular event when it sang,
It became a huge Big Bang!
Which set in motion a future that thinks,
Hurriedly before Heat Death sinks

© Anthony North, 2010

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

MIND MODELS

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PROF ISAAC GALISTEIN

Microfiction: She’d scared all the
passengers away. After all, trains
crash don’t they? She knew this
from the first time she’d died.

MIND MODELS

I play with mind models. I construct ideas in my head and see how the
world would operate if they were true. It is not belief, for at heart I
accept that the only truth is there isn’t one. Rather I use reason. It is
a discipline that is dying in the modern world. Things either have to be
due to belief or science provable by data. It leaves a conflicting gulf
where mind models should be.

I’m now on Facebook

SCIENCE NEWS: Google has launched
a prize for lunar exploration. Great idea. Get
private enterprise involved as much as possible.
But I like companies like Google for another reason.
They’re big, certainly, but they are not so much producers
as facilitators. This is what Big Biz should do – provide a blank
canvas and support for small biz to thrive.

BRIT NEWS: Child Benefit for high earners to be scrapped. The idea
of universal benefits for all is gone. I hope this isn’t the beginning of
getting rid of all such entitlements. As long as it is only high earners
who lose it, fair enough, but a word of warning: keep off the State
pension! There’s a pact between governed & leaders in the UK.
Don’t break it.

RELIGION NEWS: The Druid Network in England & Wales has
been given charitable status by the charity Commission.
This does, in effect, give Druids official status as a
faith. Could we finally see other minority faiths
accepted? This is a very good move, if a
couple of thousand years too late.

THE CRIME POST

It would be criminal not to read it

One Single Impression
Friday Flash 55 – Writer’s Island
One Shot Wednesday

LONELY

No one wants him, I suppose it’s fair,
Always shunned by those aware,
His life is misery and nothing more,
No one to love or adore,
Got plenty of money but he’ll end up beneath,
That’s the price of being a thief

FLASH 55 – THE PLAN

Fiction: There are no super crooks – just lots of petty villains who get
together for a big job; hence the incompetence. But Bellamy had to
get this one right. That’s why he kept suggesting changes to the point
that they’d missed the window for the job – which was why he was
such a good undercover cop.

ENVISION

He sees a life beyond these bars,
But might as well go to Mars,
Entrapped behind their sturdy form,
In a nightmare room that is his norm,
Trapped through the years, tingling nerves,
No matter how much booze they serve

© Anthony North, October 2010

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

LEADERSHIP

Microfiction Monday, ABC Wednesday, more prompts below
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BLOGGER BARD

Microfiction: He threw his daughter’s
fantasy book off the balcony. ‘Flying
horses don’t exist,’ he said. Later a
flying Daddy was spotted.

LEADERSHIP

Don’t we just love our leaders! Well, in most cases, no. We live in a
world where we vote for them and we still can’t get it right. Why is
that? Maybe it’s to do with the caliber of people who go forward for
leadership. They all seem to think they know what’s good for us. This
is what leadership should NOT be about. It should be about asking
what is needed, and then trying to provide it. A leader should
facilitate, not dominate.

I’m now on Facebook

BRIT NEWS: Left wing Ed Miliband
just wins the Labour leadership over his
older brother, David. The unions sealed it. The
parliamentarians won’t be happy. And Britain lines up
for an old style ideological battle with the Coalition but with
no stable sides. So, Kid Brother, we’re watching you.

HEALTH NEWS: Scientists identify a genetic defect that could cause
migraine. So many breakthroughs coming, but I often wonder if we’re
placing too much in our genes. Culture, environment and upbringing are
being left behind. But also our free will to choose. Does genetics
absolve us of blame?

GREEN NEWS: Comprehensive study of plants around the world
shows 22% of species are at risk. From societies to ideas
to nature we are destroying diversity. Yet only by
having plenty of options does evolution
continue. I guess that means
we’re devolving.

RATTLER’S TALE

A Voyage of the Imagination

One Single Impression
Friday Flash 55 – Writer’s Island
One Shot Wednesday

***TRY

We always do it to gain entry,
Thrive as we can in our country,
Indeed, it’s all quite elementry (?),
It even works writing poetry;
We don’t really need to ask why,
It just always ends when we try

FLASH 55 – THE WALK

Fiction: He always walked tall. It was his way. When he met his love
he walked even taller. Work did, of course, interfere with their
relationship. But even after returning from the war, wedding plans were
made. It took six months to walk tall again for the wedding – and so
different with prosthetics. But he prevailed.

SOAR

Do rocks soar in space?
No atmosphere – negative grace;
They certainly soar coming through the sky,
This you definitely can’t deny,
Crashing more violent than any war,
Terrible to see what Dino saw

© Anthony North, October 2010

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel