On the Proof Being in Ovid's Pudding L.D. Tudge Robinson Ellis was everything asked of a teacher, several things unasked, and one or two things you avoided asking entirely, even after graduation. But it was a lesson well taught: if you asked Mr. Ellis about the Ibis, you had better have brought receipts for the Ibis, which would have proven desperately and irrecoverably Sisyphean when Ellis owned every receipt of the Ibis and had receipts for those receipts to prove it. (ap·dt) #prose #poetry #writing #vss365 #emoetry #poem

My #prose was to be on the principles of #gravity, but I judged gravity's principles to be weightier than its morals, and then things got very heavy after that.

So instead, I present a piece about a man who had some pull in the Latin department as well as the Latin Department.

#poemsabout

There's no #trickery in my #writings. The words themselves delight in a right proper paper scrap.

Tho, poor playgrounds do #haikus make, and poor playgrounds have I made—many very poorly. Those poor children.

But for the #words, I would've wasted my life studying #philosophy or #painting. #vss365

I mean no offense to residents of the Isle of Wight. My only intent was to offend those from #Lymington.

#PoemsAbout #gravity
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
#poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity #prose #verse #vss365

When I see foam, I assume it's rabies. There was a reynard in the grounds of Heythrop Park—foamier than a rabid Gladstonian. Unless it was a badger?

My memories are nearly as old as I am. When they outfox me they're harder to run to ground than either. Kindly stop hounding me about which.

#vss365

When #clouds are backed up, whither are they stored, and what precipitates this? #HaikuFeels #verse #DailyHaikuPrompt #Senryu #Haiku #HaikuSky #Poetry #MicroPoetry #writing #poem ##verse #prose #emoetry #writing

When #clouds are backed up,
whither are they stored, and what
precipitates this?

#HaikuFeels #verse #DailyHaikuPrompt #Senryu #Haiku #HaikuSky #Poetry #MicroPoetry #writing #poem ##verse #prose #emoetry #writing

Hank, I promise not to bring a date to your funeral, because a death date is not a fun date, even if they serve lunch at the event.

By Tithonus — #words. How long have I been using those? Longer than someone long in tooth, beard, and wind has cause to.

Two long minutes I held my breath—beneath the lilies with a length of broken reed—long before I could be spotted rowing along the Cherwell with another fellow's flame.

#vss365

Their #remains lie still.
Where still remains to be seen.
None who saw remain.

A mystery in fourteen #words.

#HaikuFeels #verse #DailyHaikuPrompt #Senryu #Haiku #HaikuSky #Poetry #MicroPoetry #writing #poem ##verse #prose #emoetry #writing #vss365

The attaché? Dispatched. "It's an #open and shut case," so claimed the luggage.

The attaché? Dispatched.
"It's an #open and shut case,"
so claimed the luggage.

#HaikuFeels #verse #DailyHaikuPrompt #Senryu #Haiku #HaikuSky #Poetry #MicroPoetry #writing #poem ##verse #prose #emoetry #writing

#Wisteria, man, no, not Wisteria Man. He's like, not real, man.

Wisteria, man,
no, not Wisteria Man.
He's like, not real, man.

#HaikuFeels #verse #DailyHaikuPrompt #Senryu #Haiku #HaikuSky #Poetry #MicroPoetry #writing #poem #prose #emoetry #vss365 #writing #Wisteria #flower #spring

The chambers’ new sign “Barristers - Solicitors” legally affirmed. #haiku #senryu #writing #poem #poetry #prose #verse

The chambers' new sign
"Barristers - Solicitors"
legally affirmed.

I no longer receive Decease and Desist #letters from those #lawyers mostly because they're dead.

#HaikuFeels #verse #DailyHaikuPrompt #Senryu #Haiku #HaikuSky #Poetry #MicroPoetry #writing #poem #prose #emoetry #vss365 #writing

PoemsAbout #EdgeOfKnowing @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk #poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity

#Writing chalkboard lines was one way to learn your #letters. Also a tough lesson that cramped your style.

#PoemsAbout #EdgeOfKnowing
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
#poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity #prose #verse #vss365

This #haiku smells like #Poe fanservice.

Unless perhaps, I'm flexing my Hammer.

In neither case, I #sunk no small amount of time #writing this tarn #poem. If you #read it closely, you might find one or two #literary devices buried... inside.

I apologise for the smell.

#vss365 #poetry #prose

Like Usher's House sank,
in swamp the kitchen did #sink.
Still lingers its stink.

#HaikuFeels #verse #DailyHaikuPrompt #Senryu #Haiku #HaikuSky #Poetry #MicroPoetry #writing #poem ##verse #prose #emoetry #vss365 #writing #horror #poe #literature #gothic

This #poem: a tale tooled together without toil, not #sung, but intoned.

This #poem: a tale
tooled together without toil,
not #sung, but intoned.

#HaikuFeels #verse #DailyHaikuPrompt #Senryu #haiku #HaikuSky #Poetry #MicroPoetry #writing #poem ##verse #prose #emoetry #vss365 #writing

On the Roastiness of Plump Unspeakable Birds We had walked some way down Blind Lane, which is in Dorset, as anyone could plainly see, before it occurred to either of us that the mute swans awaiting our inspection at the swannery at Abbotsbury might, at some earlier point in their institutional history, have taken a vow of silence — or at the very least, a vow of relative quiet; which is, if anything, more Benedictine than total silence. Whether St. Peter approved of the swan farming of Fleet Lagoon, he certainly knew the monks loved a fat roasted swan best of any roast.

I never developed a taste for swan. In fact, I have no swan-tasting skills whatsoever.

I doubt St. Peter is #blind to my unswanly dispositions, but neither did I claim to be the patron saint of silent swans, roasted or otherwise.

#vss365 #prose #writing #Dorset #England

It was ever rewarding to receive a cheque in the mail. Better still when that cheque was cash.

Banknotes saved me a trip to Hoare's—preventing me from saving money that was better off spent. Long, hushed #bank lines left me spent, too tired to spend the money I wished not to save.

#vss365 #prose

Lo, an inner tube ambling down the River Ewe, withdrawn from its #bank.

Lo, an inner tube
ambling down the River Ewe,
withdrawn from its #bank.

#HaikuFeels #verse #DailyHaikuPrompt #Senryu #Haiku #HaikuSky #Poetry #MicroPoetry #writing #poem ##verse #prose #emoetry #vss365 #writing

An Indelible Thirst for Ink Dale Tudge O,what a drought is this that grips my hand! My quill, once nimble, lieth still and dry, The fountain of my fancy stopped at source, And every page a desert in itself. Speak, spirit — or if thou wilt not speak, then weep, That I might catch thy tears upon this leaf And call them ink, and call myself restored. And then call my dear, elderly Aunt Hilda, who I fear has taken another tumble. This time, I resolve to discover the name of this sotted aunt-tumbling scoundrel.

The southpaw adjusts the sheet accordingly, lest they trail the freshly-laid #ink — an occupational negotiation familiar to any left-handed #writer of letters.

#vss365 #prose #poem #poetry #verse #writing

I say, and I might even daresay, that this #verse sits rather less comfortably upon the ear than her usual meditations upon crickets, blackbirds, and geese. #prose #poetry #poem

Vouchsafe Me a Pot of That Ink Dale Tudge The sheets on my bureau were thirsty for ink. “O Muse, descend and lend thy gracious wit Upon this trembling hand and barren page, Pour down some measure of thy boundless store, For I am parched, and there are no words To quench our thirst.” I was eager to write, to slake, to draft and to draught, to sate my droughty sheets. However, the pot of P. & J. Arnold’s was dryer than the Queen’s amusement. Also, I had chewed my quill to the rachis. And I knew not what parch meant.

I repeat: there was no finer #writing potion than Stephens' Blue-Black. Yet the blue, the black—and the black-blue—were all of equal #inkly merit.

*I am not, nor shall I be again, affiliated with the inky proprietor of 191 Aldersgate Street. I swear it on my own Stephens' crimson.

#vss365 #prose

My Answers to Correspondents submission — a curiosity item on the particular thickness of London fog — came back bleeding with editor’s remarks, a penny #ink certainly, the aniline red of uncertain provenance, smelling of coal-tar and dye-vat as one smells standing downwind of Hackney Wick on a fog-free afternoon. The marginalia had bled through to the verso, where Alfred’s bloody second thoughts had leeched through to the recto in turn. My copy came back looking more Whitechapel victim than stretcher. A house that will not spend tuppence on its own marginalia is unlikely to spend little more on its contributors. (ap·dt)

An #ink could stain a reputation as readily as a page. But when you spotted Stephens' Scarlet or Diamine upon your copy, you knew the business was as serious as their #writing fluid.

#vss365 #prose #poetry

As it so happened, bike, pitched over dyke, into water most brackish.

The woman emerged in a dripping jacket, #arms carried damp to the elbow. The legend on her sopping tee-shirt read I LOVE CANALS, though not in its entirety.

#HaikuFeels #verse #DailyHaikuPrompt #Senryu #Haiku #HaikuSky #Poetry #MicroPoetry #writing #poem ##verse #prose #emoetry #vss365 #writing

If you're visiting #Mars, start with Olympus Mons. Then head north along the Vas Deferens to where red #sands bridge the Omar Shaw Reef.

Skip the Matt Damon crater—it's much smaller in person. Basically a shallow pit.

#vss365 #scifi #writing #poetry #prose #sciencefiction

Robin Williams recited a Martian #haiku about red #sand, although the regolithic #poetry concerned his summer vacation in outer space.

I can't totally recall, but it was at least twenty Mars years ago.

#writing #poem #prose #sciencefiction #vss365 #scifi #scifisat

Red #sand 'tween my toes barefoot stroll on Martian soil up Olympus Mons

Red #sand 'tween my toes
barefoot stroll on Martian soil
up Olympus Mons

#HaikuFeels #verse #DailyHaikuPrompt #Senryu #Haiku #HaikuSky #HaikuChallenge #Poetry #MicroPoetry #writing #poem #reading #verse #prose #inkmine #emoetry #blueskypoetry #vss365

There are no #poems about for #poemsabout. I'm prone to compose a #prose, but I have doubts about what I should #write about.

If my #pen bleeds out—not knowing what I'm supposed to be #writing about—will it bear the same notes I would've #written had I known what the poem was to be about?

#vss365

Stephens' blue-black has never failed me. The #pen has, when the nib was not equal to the fluid. The paper has, when it bled or feathered under good ink honestly applied. The order of blame is always the same, or never the same, if I'm #writing in blood, or pencil.

#vss365

Reminds me of my good friend, Annette, a risk-taker; a RISK player—always pushing the boundaries. One had to pretend not to notice when she discreetly slid her wooden, yellow armies into Yakutsk.

Annette played on the edge—without a net—which made retrieving footballs complete bollocks.

#vss365

If the wine is talking, then the wine is also sitting in the garage smoking cigarettes, smoking marijuana, drinking, and posting into the void.

Listen #man, at some point someone needs to sit the wine down and have a quiet word about what it's drinking.

#vss365 #prompt #prose #writing