Story of the Week, Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point 22 December 2023

Story of the Week

As always there are difficult choices to make. I enjoyed Justin Tuijl’s The Others, it read like silver age sci-fi, and if the lone inhabitant of a planet is a trope, well there are reasons for that: it’s a good way to create suspense or to explore what it is to be human. This story does that.

Others I enjoyed included:

• Celticman’s Hellish Heaven Pts1 & 2

• SeanMcNulty (ABC’s own worthy successor to Flann O’Brien )‘s Shrimps and Plainbreeds

However, story of the week goes to Turlough’s splendid act of ventriloquism allowing us to hear the authentic voice of an 8-and-a-half-year-old boy. Long, breathless and jumbled stream-of-consciousness sentences combine to provide wryly funny, if unwitting - at least as far as our narrator’s concerned - observation.

Children of the Absolution is our story of the week

Poem of the week

Again, some stiff competition for the accolade this week. I liked DG Moody’s Rain in Kalgoorlie which certainly transported me to the other side of the world with its vivid phrase-making.

Also in the running was socialleaf’s Nick Cave is Working. I’m pretty sure NC would approve.

This week’s Poem of the Week is Mark Burrow’s ‘6.26am Train’ – a sad reflection on/of the times in which we live.

Inspiration point is here.