Author: Sue Young

My Pixie Boots

At my local Writers Group, part of the session involves an improvised writing exercise. We are given a writing prompt and then we have approximately ten minutes to write something and then have to read it out. Last time, we had to write a poem or story on boots or shoes, that were important to us in some way.  I’m in awe of people who can write improvised poems, or indeed any creative writing that is ‘off the cuff’ and under pressure. Also, people who can just take out a notepad on the bus and start writing. I normally need a good comfort zone and lots of time to write, with no time limits or restrictions. I’ve done improv acting but never impro writing, until lately. I’m learning in that sphere and it’s interesting. Didn’t know I had it in me to be spontaneous.  It’s scary but I think practice is the key.  If you keep doing something, you get better at it and one day, hopefully, it’s not scary at all. So here’s an impro writing exercise I did on boots. My first ever impro poem!

 

Pixie Boots

I am but a thimbleful

I roam in strange hours

I sip from buttercups

And abseil from flowers

I climb to the top

Of the ivy on the wall

There’s not many pixies

Who can do that at all

I saddle a slug

And we ride the soil

Jump over cabbages

It’s not much of a toil

I’ve not lost a feather

I’m full of spice and pep

My pixie boots

Have lots of mileage yet

And when the sun is tired

And I feel sleepy too

I snuggle in the moss

And say goodnight to you.

 

 

 

 

Autumn Tints

She’s just slipping into

her sophisticated gown

It fits like a glove

Lays a train all around

The neckline is green

And the colours on the bust

Are chestnut, coffee, hazel

Auburn, tawny, rust.

We see the seasons fashions

Start to unfold

The waistline is burnt orange

The skirt is copper gold

The hemline is yellow

With warm and earthy tones

Embellished and bedecked

With pink and purple stones

Now she’s dancing on the ground

And it is her sole duty

To be the belle of the ball

This graceful autumn beauty

Quote Of The Week

‘I was born with a happy nature and a happy heart. I was born with the gift of understanding people and loving them and I’ve never been unhappy. I’ve always seen the light at the end of the tunnel.’

Quote Of The Week

‘Our intentions are what we produce in this life. I didn’t realise that your dreams can come true. I used to think it was coincidence but now I believe it’s the concentration of your thoughts, over a long time, that bring your dreams to fruition. You draw your own destiny towards you.’

Margi Now You See Me – Memoirs Of A Working Class Diva – Margi Clarke

 

Transformation

Me yesterday

blonde 1

Me today

444_IMG_20180802_185658brighter tartan pic

It’s the Blackpool Punk Festival.

Rebellion Festival Blackpool 2018

Interesting, exciting and intriguing four day event with a great atmosphere. I hang out but I don’t go to the ‘festival’. It attracts a lot of Europeans, including Dutch and German punks. They are all sweet and lovely and polite. A lot of local punks don’t go to the festival, they just hang out by St. John’s Church or around the Winter Gardens. People want to bond or socialise or relate with like minded people. I had a chance to see P.I.L who are headlining on Sunday but I turned it down. Why would I want to see John Lydon in the flesh? He would only disappoint me. I have no interest in seeing my ‘heroes’, I would feel that it would be a let down in some way. I had a chance to see Theatre Of Hate tonight, but I have C.D’s and videos of them.  Plus I’ve seen Kirk Brandon before. I don’t really get the ‘live’ thing. I just don’t get it. If I could have a decent, lively, intelligent conversation with these people instead, then I’d prefer that. What I’m concerned about though, is the young punks who are so drunk (by 9 p.m) that they can’t walk straight and are dropping their money and hairspray and lighters….and I’m wondering how they are going to get through the night.  And I worry about them. I suppose I’m getting old and mothery.

There was one guy tonight and his mohican was very flaccid. He staggered over to the glass window of a shop (one of those behind me in the picture) He used it as a mirror and put hairspray on and kept dropping it. He was very drunk. He looked over at me once or twice and I wish I’d have just gone over and helped him put his hair up and sent him on his way. I really regret that because he was all alone and seemed a bit vulnerable. I hate it when I wish I’d helped people and didn’t because I dithered or procrastinated or was too slow.

Oh, well, there’s always tomorrow.

The Way Things Are

Murphy’s Law says, ‘If it can go wrong, it will go wrong’. As Thomas Hardy highlights in some of his work, Sod’s Law, in comparison, is all about the little ironies of fate, that torment us throughout our lives.

You’ve likely heard of them before and have been a victim one time or another. For example, you’re expecting a delivery man but when he eventually calls, after hours of waiting in, you will either be a) in the bathroom b) popped out for five minutes or c) a combination of both.

Your toast is always landing butter side down. But, would you still eat it, even if it’s landed the dry side down? Whichever way you look at it, it’s been on the floor. I suppose it depends on where it lands. Also, the butter could be weighing it down. Are you slathering it on? Are you putting it on with a trowel?  Heavy butter could be the culprit in this circumstance.

That’s why cats land on their feet. They’re unbuttered. Butter their backs, theorectically and I’m sure we’d see an entirely different story. Although, don’t try this at home folks. I’m not advocatng putting butter on your local ginger tom, just to see if he lands butter side down.

After an hour of waiting at the bus stop, of desert wasteland and rolling tumbleweeds – three buses will all come along at once. Mummy bus, daddy bus and little baby bus. If you have a car, on a day when you have all the time in the world, the lights will seem to be permanenetly on green but when you desperately need to get somewhere, it’s red all the way. And if you wash your car on Friday, it will rain on Saturday. And after the rain, seagulls or pigeons, or some other wild bird, will find your car the most attractive perching post in the whole world. And it does rain more at the weekend. It’s been proven. It’s just the way things are.

Quote Of The Week

”There is a sort of curious success to be derived from what appears to be failure, that if you end up doing something that brings you great happiness, as I have, you have achieved this, as much as the result of your perceived ‘failures,’ as of your perceived ‘successes.’

–John Peel – Margrave Of The Marshes

Do Not Touch

Valuable things have labels

In expected places

Somebody picks up an item

Carelessly

Let’s it slip through their fingers

Nobody hears it smash

Or sees them kick the mess

Under the counter.

Fragile things

And delicate things

Have labels

All over the world

‘Do Not Touch’

But somebody always does.