Kingfisher Song . . .

pearlz — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:11:58 +0000

OBJECTIVE: Write a song for this Kingfisher. What is it thinking about? Who is watching it? What does the Kingfisher mean to him or her? Where is that Kingfisher off to next? If you like have a go at a haiku or a string of haiku about birds! Or maybe free verse tickles your poetic fancy.

(c) Prompt June Perkins

More Prompts 2: CLARA AND TROPICAL PLANTS

pearlz — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 07:48:40 +0000

(c) June Perkins, Prompt

OBJECTIVE: Clara comes across some unusual plants in her travels. What does she make of them? Do they have any magical properties? Write about Clara and the Licuala Palms. Maybe you can think of some other tropical plants for her to come across.

Clara came across some Licuala Palms – This is what she made of them ………………

To see the start of this story go to CLARA’S STORY

More Prompts: Eagle Boy

June — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 01:48:07 +0000

OBJECTIVE: Write a response to this image it can be in any form you like, short prose, micro story, or poem and share in the comments under the post. Keep the post short.

(c) June Perkins, Prompt.

Haiku… submitted by Dave Delaney

A boy and Eagle
their spirit now joined as one
soar the hights of life.

Her Spirit

I saw the wild young Indian boy
So lean and proud of face
Bareback on a wild Palouse
And eager for the chase

They gathered around the base of the ridge
Some twenty or thirty braves
All keen to prove their horsemanship
Or go, to early graves

The sun burnt red in the desert sky
As White Bear made the call
Today there would be, but one true brave
The one, that would not fall

Red Fox, dug his heels in
And grabbed the ponies mane
And with lightning speed they began the climb
Of death, or maybe fame

For he had ridden here before
But not, in this time or space
His spirit had been here a thousand times
In the visions of his race

His pony climbed and scrambled on
As others fell behind
This little mare, would do him well
She’d climb, then slip, then climb

Her heart was beating faster now
So strained, so tired, so bold
So he called upon the eagle spirit
To help her keep her hold

They reached the top with one great leap
His face just filled with pride
Never had he felt such joy
And never such a ride

With joy all over his proud young face
He slowly turned around
To see his beautiful pony mare
Fall slowly to the ground

She’d given him, all of her heart
And even some of her soul
She’d leave him now, but not for long
Because her spirit lives on in her foal

The prize, though won, was worthless
The price of fame too high
The real prize, now, lay by his side
He lived, he learned, she died…

(and more to come from others)

STORY FOUR- FAVOURITE FOOD

melissaintherainforest — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:20:01 +0000

Life is a box of chocolates - without the description to tell you what they are!

OBJECTIVE: Write about your favourite food, your most delectable morsel.

Without the “map” to tell you what each delectable morsel has to offer, you select based on appearance. We make choices every day, every hour, every minute based on the presumptions we have gathered from our life’s experience. Each one is a mystery waiting to unfold. You can love it, cherish it, relish it’s flavour and the surprise it brings. And there is no way you can stop at just one. It becomes addictive and the surprise element is the motivation to keep trying again and again.

Oh for the ever allusive, pure Belgium gourmet smorgesboard of flavours. And yet so often we have to compromise and accept the Cadbury’s version of life.

Let’s raise our hot chocolates to LIFE and all its wonderful mysteries and pray we will always have the choice of our choosing.

My choice is always the carmel toffee – as opposed to the syrupy kind. But then again there is always the Turkish Delight!!! Hmmm, do I really have to choose or can I just eat them all. A glutton for the mystery!

What is your favorite delectable morsel flavour?

(C) for Prompt Melissa Robertson

Bitter sweet, crisp dark chocolate makes me think of those people who really have their lives ‘together’ they are the sophisti-cats of the world.
Strawberry cream and Turkish delight are those emotional people – who if you scratch their surface, all the filling runs out and you get more than you bargained for.
White chocolate people are those who often surprise us with hidden talents. Most of us are dairy milk looking for an exciting inner self or an exciting external event – so exciting it gets us out of our box!
Boxes:
little boxes.
People and boxes.
People in boxes.
Little people
in Boxes

Sticky mangoes
Translucent orange dripping down face and hands
expensive in the shops
better from friends
and drive by spaces where people sell them out
front
so many names when you come to know them
oh how I love sticky mangoes!

Blonde Bananas
A dribble-free fruit
without stones, pips or seeds.
Whose skin will peel off
with the greatest of ease.
Revealing a pillar of
creamy-white pulp
which squashes to slime
that’s rewarding to gulp.

Potassium, Calcium
Vitamin C.
No trace of cholesterol.
It’s mostly fat free.
You have to admit that
it’s simply no drama
to scoff your way through
any Queensland Banana.

The fat sizzle of grease, meat and caramel onions—spitting hot on the charred blackness of the grill. Sauce on children, sauce on grass, sauce on the dog. The women chatter like birds, spilling white wine on white plastic chairs. The men have beers and an ancient TV—clustering around the aching ember of the barbeque like cave men, hiding in the sausage smoke.

At first they chase flies from the buns and coleslaw. Then mozzies from their arms and ankles. The screaming gaggle of children tear up and down the yard, from the bananas to the trampoline. Already there has been tears from grazed knees and unsharable toys. Sooner there will be another—but that is okay. As long as they’re screaming, they’re not planning anything.

This steak will be the best steak. These onions the sweetest—even if they are charred and soggy. Food, the best food, is never lonely.

It is family. It is friends. It is sharing.

STORY THREE – YOUR TOWN

pearlz — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:10:59 +0000

OBJECTIVE: Above is June Perkins’ home town, your job to write about your own town with a series of pictures/images in mind.

My Town is……………………………

My Town

My town, my original town is an old town. i remember it as a child: buildings blackened by the coal dust from the fires and heavy industry. I remember the decision to stop burning coal then the clean up began. Buildings covered for months on end as the men slowly worked around the town cleaning off the thick soot. The tarpaulins and scaffolding came down and bright beautiful georgian and victorian buildings gleamed clean. i saw my town in its newly washed state. it marked the end of an era. no more coal meant fewer mining jobs and then they brought in open cast that meant men could be replaced with machines. in my town the people were hurt so badly parts of my town died and never recovered other parts with more resourceful people set to work making silk purses out of sows ears turning the mine head workings into museums to celebrate what was once great about my town.

My town is wet. The air is thick with white—an unceasing mist of winter rain. When the patter of rain stills, the trickle of runoff takes up the daily song, running down eaves, down drains, down leaves and walls and tree trunks. Creek beds chuckle, housing shrimp and small fish, hiding amid the endless tumble of bronze leaves.

The sun breaks, lighting up the crystal dew, burning a rainbow across the sky, but for mere moments. The rain sweeps across again, the mist settles and rolls down the steep green walls of mountains to touch the edge of my town.

My town is wet all over again.

STORY TWO: Sunbirds

pearlz — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 00:03:49 +0000

OBJECTIVE: To write your own poem to go with this series of images.

Click on comments below to see some poetic responses to these images.

Click on Sunbird Story if you’d like to see what I wrote with these images.

(c) June Perkins for Prompt

Oh sun bird, can you hear my voice calling out your name?
You take not, what you want but, only what you need.
And your heart beats so fast, and I’m wondering how you do that..
it’s a slow evolving song which make me think it will be something special

(c) Submitted by Jeremiah

STORY ONE – CLARA

pearlz — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 00:15:00 +0000

OBJECTIVE: Develop a story about the adventures of a little girl in pink gumboots.

This is the story about the girl in the pink gumboots…

(c) June Perkins, Prompt

So Clara finds herself at the edge of the banana fields wondering how many snakes and spiders and scary animals are peering back. For a moment she hesitates… then yells, “I’m not scared of you, silly animals!” The little girl looks defiant, determined, and proud, ready to take on the world and it seems she will, instead Clara stands quietly, continuing to look towards the banana fields.

(Mick Bromage)

A sticky silence comes back at her on the sweet, dessert-scented air. Clara lifts an eyebrow suspciously. She breathes in, digging the toes of her beautiful new boots against the soft earth, edging deeper by beetle and caterpillar steps into the plantation, when suddenly… “We’re not silly!” A shrill, nasaly voice screams thinly at her from a behind a splay of leaves off to her right. “Yeah,” comes another voice further ahead, this one pitched so high Clara fights the compulsion to plug her ears. Silly boys, she thinks, rolling her eyes and stomping forward heavily.
“Leave me alone!” she hollars, sending her voice through the arches, marching recklessly through the lines of plants, pressing determinedly forward. She hears snickering, and a crack of branches behind her. “Ouch!” David grumbles. “Stupid bananas,” he says. He was always complaining about the bananas. She doesn’t look back. Probably he’s cut his leg on one of the green shoots, or stood on something sharp – he’s such a sissy, she thinks, and he always wears those useless, comic hero flip flops. Clara glances proudly down at her beautiful boots, fuschia and silver in the sunlight. Now those are good boots for an adventure, she thinks, smiling and lifting her chin up into the valley before her.

(Anne Clarke)

Clara feels brave in her gumboots. A feeling she could take on anything – even the biggest spider. As she moves on through the banana plants a passing cloud begins to cover the sun, a dense raincloud – the air feels heavy, a drop of rain lands on her bare shoulder – quickly followed by another and another … the heavens open and she runs. Instantly she is wet and cold not knowing where to run for shelter but her gumboots seem to know. She feels them lifting her feet making her run fast skimming the grass – she’s hovering above the ground – she’s not in control. Her gumboots are taking her away…

(Diane Finlay)

She is on her way over the banana fields, over the cane. The cane has tiny birds, flying in
and out of the fluffy white tops.

She is heading for an adventure and looking behind her to see if David is coming too.
Will he see her. Will he put on his boots? Does he believe enough or is he too grown up now?

(June Perkins)

Clara couldn’t see David following her. Would he be worried about her? She called out his name as loud as she could. She tried to spot him by peering harder through the banana leaves. Her voice startled the tiny birds and they flew away from her, deeper into the cane they had been playing in. She would have liked to have their feathers, she felt cold suddenly, flying high above the bananas and cane. She should be warmer she thought, she was closer to the sun.
As she looked down at the banana fields and cane she glanced at her beautiful new boots, they had sugarcane fluff on them. She blinked. The fluff was moving, little arms and legs seemed to be emerging. These arms and legs held the fluff to her boots. As the fluff held on, it slowly moved, climbing higher and higher up her legs. It kept climbing… she wasn’t scared. The fluff was kind of tickley nice. It was warm too.

(Jacque Duffy)

JOIN IN WITH THE TROPICAL WRITER’S GAME

June — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:45:23 +0000

1. Pick a story from the menu options
2. Read the story objectives
3. Add to the story by contributing your comments (keep comments short)
4. Encourage your friends to join in.
5. When you have completed the stories from the menu, scroll down this page or pick more story prompts from the menu. These have been provided for you by our writing team.