The Long and the Short of It...

Stuff that doesn't fit in the other ones... what did you think?

Rant

A self-justificatory rant... ill-justified, no doubt... but they all teach the same kind of writing... don't they?
Cherry

Bloom

This started life as a complicated flash-back format piece with the clunky device of a ferris wheel joining the present sequences with the past. This is more linear.

Take Care

A giant left yesterday... not many get an adjective named after them.
Cherry

Duet

A concrete type effort probably won't work...
Cherry

A Quantum of Sonnet

Effort at a Sonnet...

The New White Punks

I think if the band had been British and had seen the riots this year, they might have changed the words.
Cherry

'I Don't Know What Goes on in your Head, Sometimes.'

No song titles in this one either... Yes, it was spelt incorrectly in the comic.

(T)haiku

what it says...
Cherry

10 Things (IP)

Born Valladolid, 1420, Died Avila, 1498.
Cherry

21°C

a short piece about nothing at all...

3 Character Sketches

Just another exercise...
Cherry

3-6-9

just a story... Photo is PD

A Damp Squid

A rant...

A Haunting

Roermond, Holland circa 1966...
Cherry

A Lunch at the Ivy

How it works... no, really!
Cherry

A Modest Proposal

hmm... as well whistle down the wind.

A POEM OF GENIUS?

NOW I think we all know who this one is dedicated to/inspired(?) by...

A Polysyllabic Spree

One Salim Meghani posts a lot of computer-oriented (i think) factual/academic/for-all-I-know-extremely-learned pieces on ABC. I just love the titles. So this one is for Salim... Image is from Slideshare and is free for non-commercial use. Owner: Ssankett Negi

A Quiet Drink in Mobile

Sometimes you just want to be alone with your beer.
Cherry

A Serious Talk

"talk, talk, talk, it's only talk"
Cherry

A Suitable Case

IPOW (hope I´ve got the right week):-)

A Whitby Notable

IPOW... a silly poem for the silly IPOW
Cherry

A Winter's Tale

a tale...
Cherry

Alice

Are you sure about what you know?

Alone is the Hunter by Boatyard Kindling

More deathless, deadly verse from Boatyard Kindling
Cherry

American Gothic

IPOW http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheldonnalos/3846186992/

An Invitation to Dinner (after Catullus 13)

He wrote some good stuff... I haven't! Picture is of the bust of Catullus at Sirmione. Source is Wikipedia Commons.

And Dickens Danced at Midnight

There's a new bio of Dickens out, I hope he'll be rehabilitated soon. Re-punctuated 3/10/11

Arab Spring

A more correct villanelle: with a modern subject and idiom.

Autumn Comes

what it says

Babbacombe Fair

Old-fashioned. Perhaps pointlessly so.

Barrowland

Hope this doesn't qualify as a foreign language poem.

Beating the Devil

The Mighty Hunter, serial numbers have been changed to protect the guilty. http://www.spyflight.co.uk/nim.htm

Beatle Love

Apparently you can't copyright a title, I didn't know that...

Bigger Brother

A SCI-FI Story, no, really!
Cherry

Biter Bit (Gregg)

Could only get a 1500 or so worder out of him. Sorry.
Cherry

Blessed is his Name

in another man's shoes... or sandals, perhaps

Blocked

Well, I think you'll work it out...
Cherry

Blue Rondo in the Murk

a kind of blue...
Cherry

Blue, Blue, Electric Blue

What is life? Flash Fiction

Bob's Your Uncle

you can choose your friends...

Boredom

feel free to argue....

Brand New

A new start, back to work

Bread on the Waters

Ephraim Lightwater B17 Montevista Coin Spain umbung2@yahoo.co.uk Syneham & Dunholme Literary Agents Cashew Building Bent Street London WC1 2ED
Cherry

Buddy

His name was always Buddy.... Steal part of a lyric... make up a story...
Cherry

Bugis Street

just another poem...

Café Aphrodite

Many a weathered skin hides a romantic soul

Character Plus Conflict Equals Plot

I don't think this is what they meant... Minor edits 17/07/2011

Cindi

do you believe in fairy tales?

Cold Encounter

IOPW 14/03/08 Edit 8/12/17 Middle stanza inserted minor edits elsewhere. Image used in acc/w CC-SA 2.0 Source Wiki commons: author Alan Wilson

Creative Overspill

parvum in multo...

Crossing The River

http://www.bryant.edu/wps/wcm/connect/Bryant/Divisions/Information+Servi...
Cherry

Da Capo.

odd...

Dear Stephen

It's a very good book, really, but you can't give a computer to a duck and expect it to get online. Copyright information for image is inside the cover of the book, I'll look it up later.

Getting Out

New starts aren't easy.... Image is used in acc with CC-BY-SA 2.0 Photographer David Lally

Madrid

Tuesday 18 October, 1730 pm
Cherry

Disputed Waters

Navy Larks
Cherry

Sunshine

Jimmi Patel left the house at an unaccustomed run. Not quite out of condition yet, he thought, but bloody near it.

Number Six

six

Ode To The Umbung by Boatyard Kindling

Little known poet based in Kallibar

Passion Cooled

after the thrill is gone...

Nostalgia Comp

I remember it like it was yesterday. Only I can’t remember yesterday. Or five minutes ago, come to that. Got to write things down. So much paper, around the house now. I think. Or was that before?
Cherry

Greetings from Inner Space

Greetings from Inner Space: Writer’s Blog Stardate 2412/2007 time 1915 S.F.T.*

Dollars in the Bathtub

an urban-myth in Buenos Aires says a high-ranking politician was arrested with half-a-million dollars in his bathtub. He said it was petty cash. Last couplet edit 18 June 2011 Image from pIxelhere.com 2023

Ploughshares into Swords.

it's about words.

Kings of the Last Frontier

Book seats on the apocalypse wagon train. Image by Themightyquill - Souce wikipedia commons, licence : CC BY-SA 3.0
Cherry

Every Word?

200 words that don't count
Cherry

Parallel Heaven

Dialogue with the dead? A drink with someone that's all.
Cherry

Presents of Mind

A 200 word sort of IPOW story thing.

Holding Hands

A Chemical,Chymical,Comical Wedding

The Answer is 8 Down

Think about it... Yes, it's an acrostic!

Page Found On A Tube Station Platform

It looked like it had fallen from a well-thumbed book; at least it hadn't been the last page of a commuter's escape route. I wonder what the rest of the novel was like?
Cherry

The New Confessions

IPOW - May offend, possibly.
Cherry

Oh no it isn't!

What's in a name? IPOW, inspired to such nonsense as this.
Cherry

February Morning

Not postmodern, not didactic, not navel gazing. Just a bucolic, blundering lonely as a clod, poem.

Fishing for Compliments

150 words. A little thing, but mine.
Cherry

Four Corners

I never could make up my mind if I like the States or not.

Freeride

WIP: a freewrite mutated

Last of the Woad Blue Lovers

some sound advice

Script for an imaginary short

hmmmm.... are all critics bad poets or the other way round?? Image author's intellectual property, created at site shown
Cherry

Love Conkers

boys to men...maybe not

Losing

I hate losing things...

Escape to Literature

What did you read? Why?

Dreamboat Danny

By the rivers of Babylon

Epitaph

IPOW 21/03/08. A seven-minute special so judge it by those lights... please

History’s Details

Can anyone really change anything?

Who Do We Think We Are?

bad mood today...
Cherry

Legal Fees

Could almost be a plot-line for a Victorian novel...

Factory

Anytown? Your town, my town...

Sunday Post Mortem

I don't suppose they were ever any more reflective of society than Lord Snooty and the Bash Street Kids....
Cherry

No More Than 10 Words.

I should be so....
Story of the week

Sand and Glasses

Not like the girl in Dr No... No,no.

Stigmata

just a character...
Cherry

Humble Pi

ok it's a bad pun... but the haiku are ok-ish..

The Universal Backlot Wedding

I just love the golden age of hollywood... Very minor edit 30/11/11 Image is from 1930s. US copyright law would put that in the Public Domain.
Cherry

September

IPOW based on a very fine poem: (HINT) :-) http://www.abctales.com/story/capoeiragem/gone apologies for what I came up with inspired by a lovely poem: a 250 worder.

Hameln

an old poem revisited

Monologue

V. You should have been a poet! E. I was Beckett

This Savage Life

with age comes shame....

Give over, Ray!

'Get in, get out. Don't linger. Go on'. Raymond Carver on why he wrote short stories and poems and not novels in "On Writing," it is included in "Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories" (Harvill Press) .

Ghost Readers

Eat your heart out Frankie Laine.... No, don't bother reading this, it's too silly!

Mean Spirits

Writers eh? Who'd love em?

Strange Beast

Oddity...
Cherry

Half Time

Dialogue... well, triologue only.

The Little Sister

Hey, why leave Chandler out?
Cherry

Gone

If 'All writers are masochists' is a canard... why is it called 'Submission'?

Welcome Back Peter

Prince of Darkness? Don't make me laugh...

Poet as Bot

Lovingly dedicated to 'Writing Fella', '"Writing"Careers' and 'Bite-Sized Essays'. Are you all bots? Toshbots?

The Case of the Possessive Pronoun

The Great Detective at work...

The Master of Bafflegab

Bafflegab. p87, New Fowler's Modern English Usage, Oxford
Cherry

Niki

CW exercise for course. It's supposed to be a dramatic monologue. Not sure what that actually is.
Cherry

Happy Hour in Hoboken

short and sour... like some drinks...

Honey Trapping

Straight into the write story box... no edits, 20 minutes work... and I bet it shows.

Dusting

winter
Cherry

Waiting for Haiku

Please don't go overboard and treat this seriously... it's just a bit of fun!
Cherry

Nothing Like A Dame

Competition Entry Prose
Cherry

Return of the Mac

you work it out...
Cherry

Haiku

This is cheating and, actually, I quite enjoy them... but it's a great word isn't it.
Cherry

The Singer Not The Song

just a poem about an object...

Zis

...
Cherry

Koan

Koan?
Cherry

Seven Layers

I can never get more than 3. Stef, Footsie: it's not about hens.

The Indefinite Particle

A Light Hole..

Howard

hmmm... the subject of cleanliness came up a week or so ago, and provoked this...

Palimpsests (Edit)

Palimpsest: an early consequence of recycling? A paper with a memory, perhaps? Maybe all paper is palimpsest, should we always use it more than once?

Questions

?

Free Advice

What it says.

What a Word's Worth

Short, breaks most rules, so what?
Cherry

Free Write

What it says...best way to tell your dreams, I reckon.
Cherry

The Son of All Fears

Quite odd, really...

S.S. Great Britain

Short and sour...
Cherry

Special Delivery

Work produced for OU CW course... all marked now so posted for further mockery :-)
Story of the week

If Only

"If only. Futile words in any language. If only I had asked. If only I had wanted to know." OU work: don't worry if you can't work it out, it's the writer's fault.

The Ramsbottom Pigeon

Not autobiographical... not a falcon . Minor edit and illustration added. Created at the Pulp-O-Mizer.com

Dirty Words

IP : ≤30
Cherry

Muhammad Dali

Bagatelle... Or not?
Cherry

Destiny Calling

It could happen to you...

It is just one more word...

IPOW 22/05/09 113 words... too many, never mind.
Cherry

Lunch for Two.

this one is quite dear to my heart...
Cherry

Just So

Mister Kipling revisited... it's not about cakes...

Your Name is No Accident.

I keep seeing the title on Google Ads: it's to do with some bollocks about numerology. This isn't.

Gun

What it says... image source is wikipedia commons.
Cherry

Geek

I guess you either believe the voice, or you don't...
Cherry

For Love or Money

Modern Love... but I never wave bye-bye..
Cherry

Same as the Old Boss?

Sorry Pete, it ain't necessarily so...
Cherry

The Silent Treatment

IPOW 9/10/2009 200 words
Cherry

Such a Little Man

beware the little man ...
Cherry

George and Fred

I'm sure you'll work it out.
Cherry

Richard III

IPOW
Cherry

Lenore

This was one of my earliest successful pieces on ABC. It's been on its travels through the slush piles and now I've brought it home. Treat it kindly, please.

Journeyman

Early Experiments with POV... feel free to send brickbats. :-)

Mistaken Identity

hmm... oh well, it was sort of like this...

Vinyl Memories

nothing really...

Telling

All tell and no show. Ha ha ha.
Cherry

In a Perfect World.

Welcome to the Cheap Seats... A vignette...
Cherry

No Accounting for Taste

Disqualified entry for AlibiTV competition (UK Residents Only!) The first sentence was obligatory. Thought I'd post it here instead. Altogether now, "Patrick McGinty, an Irishman of note.."

Flawed Judgement

I.P. Microfiction.

Eye

Inspired by a discussion about POV. What's it about? No I-dea. 300 words +/-.
Gold cherry

Happy Ever After - A Fairy Tale Adventure

A topical fairy tale: shouldn't they be timeless?

El Planeta del Tesoro (Treasure Planet)

Too long: do not read. "Avast there! Ye Planet-lubbers!" Image is from Pixabay : "Free for commercial use, no attribution required" but the artist's/creator's name is Reimund Bertrams.
Cherry

Live at the Gaumont

Wop-bop-aloo-bop-alop-bom-boom
Cherry

Once Upon A Time

Not quite what was up before... Π = Pi
Cherry

Mad Woman Running

This is not poetry...
Cherry

Sofia

Warning, contains poetry and prose.

Jimmy Blue

a promise is a promise...
Cherry

Packet

Just imagine if it did happen....
Story of the week

The Offer

you would too, wouldn't you?

On the Corner of Plaza Baja

Small town Andalucia. One word edit. (Very OCD behaviour). Image added 2020. used in acc. w/CC BY 2.0 Mario Mancuso -- Elderly women in an Italian market
Cherry

Sunbirds

they're the opposite of snowbirds...

On the Roadkill, with Jack (and Bill and Neal).

IP or not IP, that is the question... Regarding Sean Penn 's writing efforts... I think he's read the same Kerouac piece as me. Edited for picture.
Cherry

Hopscotch On The Beach

Candas, Asturias: 20 Aug 2011.
Cherry

Photograph

Spain 20 Aug 2011 Photo CC2.0. Mario de Biasi?

Last Men Out

It might have been like this, the last time the RAF were in Libya... Picture from RAF El Adem memories website.

You Don't Know, Jacques*

Iconoclasm 101

Ici, Les Petits-Fils du Paradis

It's about... 14 lines long
Cherry

These Dreams

This is a Pantoum, I hope it is more successful than the Sestina* was. * http://www.abctales.com/story/ewan/babbacombe-fair

Deliver Us Not

A Villanelle: I find these forms (perhaps due to the repetitions involved)tend to produce the ritualistic and the arcane, like some litanies from the church. Or perhaps I've just no imagination.

Eastern Promise

A confection.

Fool

poem

Murder By Numbers

Far from the best poem ever written..

Pantelegraph

Never invent something before its time has come.

The Equivocal Heart

ah me...
Cherry

On The Tanner

The Germans talk about an Ohrwurm, when they get a tune they can't get out of their head. This poem might help me get a Tom Waits tune out of mine.

Wordsmith (IP)

IP, off to read the Nobel winner now.

Mr Kölski Pays A Visit

you figure it out...

Jigsaw

Puzzle
Cherry

Stan

Guess which book I've just re-read. No prizes, but have a go anyway.

Fence Posts

poem 13 12 11 (looks good like that the date, doesn't it?) That's nothing to do with the poem by the way.
Cherry

Leadville

You'll work it out

I Stand Outside

another poem
Gold cherry

Playing Scales

I preferred the English title... I knew it wasn't a second sequel, you see.
Cherry

The Road to Celestial

it is, what it is...
1 likes
Gold cherry

Kissed Her Where She Said It Hurt

Flash Fiction. This is never justified...
1 likes

The Appliance of Science

No. 1001, if you don't like the story perhaps you can use it to clean a big, big carpet. I won't charge half-a-crown. NB Not about carpets.
Gold cherry
Story of the week

The Everlasting Pie

A folk-tale from New England... (well, no, I made it up.) Warning: 'The Everlasting Pie includes nuts doggerel.
1 likes
Gold cherry

One Thin Dime

The heavy doors at the entrance were wedged open. Paul's father was looking out into the rain. In the wooden seats to Paul's right, his mother was...
1 likes
Cherry

Kharkov Girl

Chain story, each narrator hands on to the next, there are only three and it returns to the first narrator in circular fashion. Now stop reading...

Warszawa

Flash fiction, it's about this and other things.

Third Person Singular

Flash(y) fiction... haha.

Northern Dream

This is an old one... Sometimes I think I used to write better than I do now...

Now We Are Sick

...
Cherry

Grave Dancer

Yes, well, you'll work it out... I hope.

Enemies of the People

A tribute to the great Samuel...
Cherry

Painted Ponies

not much to do with The Circle Game... Or even Spinning Wheel...
Cherry

Not A Word

Bad people come in all forms... Image is from Wikipedia, used in accordance with CC 3.0 and by swampyank who does not necessarily approve of the story's content
Cherry

Secrets

It's about what it's about, and how easy it is... Image Source Wikipedia Commons By Jef-Infojef - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10565316
Cherry

Moonshine

This is very old, and I'm quite surprised at where I found it, between a pantoum and a villanelle, which puts it during the second year of my CW Diploma with the OU. Naturally, that shows, but at least it's not poetry, eh? Image is PUBLIC DOMAIN... hoorah. Source Wikicommons.

La Sota De Copas

As meta as meta can be... Several edits Sept 21, 2020. Image source: https://www.tarot.es/wiki-tarot/significado-de-la-sota-de-copas-en-el-tarot Revisited today because the meaning of the Knave of Cups in tarot is good news...
Cherry

Ticking

As it's nearly Samhain, Halloween, whatever... image licence CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 photographer ropphotography on instagram
1 likes

Clinical Trial

Imagine... Sci Fi. Image source is Wiki commons license CC1.0 Public Domain
Cherry

"Dear World..."

George Sanders, the cad's cad. I really tried to work in his "failed sausage investment" into this. It's not a euphemism though, so I gave up. Image source wikipedia in Public Domain as it is so old.
Cherry

Danny & The Rebel Boys

If I hadn't been walking the dog, I'd have taken a photo of the painted goal. Maybe I'll take one tomorrow. Image used is from pixabay.com and is free for non-commercial use.
Cherry

Firelight

Dystopic drivel. Image is from pixabay and is free for non-commercial use with no attribution

Apocryphon

Umm... well, odd, yes. But you can't beat a good puzzle on a Friday, eh? Oh, okay look at the image's provenance. Image is of a papyrus said to be a fragment of The Gospel of Mary. Source: Wikipedia.org Public Domain.
Cherry

"One, Two, Three, Four!"

Not actionable. Image is CC0 and in Public Domain.
Gold cherry

Bring Me Sunshine

Some may find the ending unsatisfying. An old lady I once knew used to say "the bastards would tax sunshine if they could". I'm now in complete agreement. Image Source wiki commons licence CC-SA4-Int Photographer Charles R. Benedict
1 likes
Cherry

A Street Called Hoffnung

An old one. I thought I'd posted it here, but couldn't find it. Image is free to use in acc. with CC4.0-SA It shows the Stasi Museum.
Cherry

A Home Coming

There were days like this. Home in the image is not where my parents lived, and it may be really nice for all I know. image from Flicker.com taken by Elliot Brown Licence CC BY-SA 2.0
Cherry

Move Away, Jimmy Blue

I set this week's IP so I felt duty bound to attempt something. Saw the band play this song Monday last. We can all move away, of course we can, but some of us stay in the same place even though we've moved miles. Image author's own.
1 likes
Cherry

W-E-R-E

It's not W-O-L-D, but that is one of my favourite songs. Image made at Photofunia.com by me.

A Nation of Caners*

No copyright on titles. *Del Amitri on the Writer's Den Musical Time Machine this morning. So I've nicked a title of a song from their latest album (I know, I thought they'd given up too, until I went to see them live in September). And we are... So, not about very much. You're welcome to pass by... Some of the pubs have had their names changed... And I like them all, really Image is from whatpub.com

Nomen Est Omen

It's about...well nominative determination, I suppose. "Nomen est omen" Plautus. "The name is a sign, the name speaks for itself." In other words, Mr Bunn has no choice but to be the baker... Image in PD
1 likes
Cherry

Pretending to Believe

I didn't even know people did this on-line. Image is author's own fault.
1 likes
Gold cherry

Daytime Ghost

My wife took this photo the other day... It was a trick of the light... Wasn't it?
4 likes
Gold cherry
Story of the week

The Day After

The Wellington is draped in black today. Around the windows, over the sign on the tall post outside. Look too closely and you can see they’re sheets...
1 likes
Cherry

I See Strange People

Odd. Do please ignore, if it's not for you. Image author's own, created from CC0 licenced elements.
Cherry

Book Smart

Overnight sensation? Hardly.