Tag / Poetry

by Colette

Sheffield Steel

Written by Elanor Rose

sunset

The sun set, flame red, there was no delay.

We met on the day that the world would end
and clasped fingers in the dark, unafraid.
As the steel sheets of Sheffield tumbled down,
fell beneath our feet, fell into pierced ground,
we stepped amidst the debris side by side.

As the red brick of Birmingham crumbled
we fumbled to find something lasting and new.
We remembered the cities that forged us,
now gone – and struggled to salvage the dust
unnoticed by the ruins around us.

And when then the rain came, we were ready.
The sun set, flame red, there was no delay.
We watched it sear through the thunder-clap clouds,
no longer humbled, no longer content
to allow our origin to be lost,
to admit our time together was spent.

Sheffield Steel marks Elanor Rose’s first poem published in Inkblots. Her inspiration was based on a challenge she set herself: to write romantic poetry without referring to the traditional romance tropes found in poems, such as flowers, forever afters and fairy tales. 

by Colette

October’s Content And The Return Of Fiction Frenzy

Jack_o_lanterns_group

Time for some late night pumpkin or Jack O’Lantern carvings? We think so!
Image Courtesy of irishcentral.com

Hey Inkblotters and welcome to October!

We’ve arrived at the turn of the spooky season once more, so it’s time to start penning those ghost stories. Who knows, I may even write one up myself for the Fiction Frenzy we’re hosting this month! But I digress, let’s talk about October’s content and what goodies you’ll be able to dig your teeth into this month.

The beginning of October’s content brings in another one of Dice’s Alexander episodes – he’s churning these out like there’s no tomorrow! But I guess that’s only fitting for science-fiction, right? We’ve also got three new contributors this month; on the 8th is Elanor’s “Sheffield Steel” with references to a few British cities, Miss Smiley’s prologue of “Death’s Mistress” on the 16th, and Dizzy Dazzle’s poem “The Humanitarian” will be coming up on the 20th. Plus, there’s a couple of surprises wiggled into this month’s content too, so make sure you keep checking back throughout.

In other news, we’ve got the return of the Fiction Frenzy, formerly known as the Friday Frenzy. Our writers and readers loved the concept, but sadly just couldn’t resist a Friday movie evening or a night out on the town. And who can blame you? So, the Fiction Frenzy now operates for the entire month. Starting from today until October 31, the Fiction Frenzy will be in full swing with the delectable theme Trick or Treat. There is, however, a twist, which you can read more about in our forum post, here. If you think you’ve got extra inspiration, don’t just sit on it, write about it! We want as many submissions from our readers and current contributors as possible – after all, it’s a Frenzy for a reason!

And to wrap up this long post yet again, (I’m good at waffling on aren’t I?) the theme for this month’s Half Hour Challenge is “Where Angels Fear To Tread”. The theme was thought up by our own Lilith and comes from the full quote: fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Remember, you can email your Fiction Frenzy and HHC entries to creativewritinginkwell@hotmail.com, or follow us on Twitter with our username @inkblotswriting to get all the latest posts straight to your feed.

Have a spooky one! 🙂

– Silver, Inkblots Editor

by Colette

Fudge

Written by Silver

Creamy, smooth and oh so sweet –fudge_in_a_box
the temptation to eat is all but a treat.
Bending and stooping he hands me just one,
and taking the chunk, I nibble for fun.

Dun in colour but delightful in flavour,
I gobble the piece with nought left to savour.
When I ask for another he chuckles and smiles,
“There’s one left for later,
but we can’t ruin your dinner.”

I sulk and pout all the way home,
but Daddy is driving, taking me to Mum.
He drops me off at the door, waving goodbye,
placing the final piece in my hand with a sigh.

“I love you sweetheart, but it’s time for me to go.
You should give the last piece to Mummy you know.”
Shaking my head I plead, “Daddy don’t leave,
here’s my last piece ‘til I see you Christmas Eve.”

Bending and stooping he gives me a hug;
I don’t want to let go and start tearing up.
He ruffles my hair and gets up once more
as I traipse through the house, mucking up the floor.

Mummy shouts but I don’t really care
as I find the perfect place to put my share
of half-eaten fudge, split with the Daddy I love.

Fudge was written on behalf of The Inkwell’s Summer Writing Open Review Day (SWORD) and was inspired by Silver’s love and adoration of fudge when she was a child. She would often be given fudge if she’d been particularly good, or received a great result in school, and sometimes her dad would say that she could pick a couple of pieces of fudge in the cinema, even though it was expensive!

by Colette

Calling Fiction Writers and Poets: The Bill Overton Memorial Fund

loughborough_university_signAs our readers know, Inkblots is dedicated to finding new talent, often searching through pools of content in order to pick out the best, but tonight’s post isn’t about our content, it’s about something a little more special.

In September 2012, I was hit by not one but two deaths that affected me in different ways. One was a family death, of which I loved him dearly – a great Uncle masquerading as my Grandad in many ways – and the other was a former lecturer at Loughborough University who both taught and guided me in the form of poetry and Shakespeare. Bill Overton was a large part of the English Department at the university and gave us a real kick up the bums if we were not reaching our full potential! Sadly, he passed away after suffering from a period of illness. Hearing this news from my former students, lecturers and friends was a real shock. It was something that none of us could even process, so I can’t imagine how hard it would have been for his family and friends.

But since Bill loved both teaching and reading Poetry, Loughborough University has set up a memorial fund, which will support an annual poetry prize, giving the opportunity for new talent to pave their career in writing. It’s a fantastic opportunity for emerging poets but the university, in combination with the Loughborough University Charity Trust, needs your help. They are looking to raise £6,000 for the prize and are already on their way to achieving that goal. Currently, they’ve raised £480 and, though that may seem small at present, every little bit helps. You may not have known Bill Overton personally, you may even be on the other side of the world, but even if you can’t donate we’d love for you to help spread the word. So if you can take two minutes to either reblog this post, tweet about it, or even share it on Facebook, it would be a wonderful gesture.

To donate to the Bill Overton Memorial Fund, you can visit the page at: http://www.justgiving.com/BillOverton

To all those in advance, thank-you.

– Silver, Inkblots Editor

by Colette

Happy One Year Anniversary To Inkblots!

Anniversary 1

Doesn’t it just look scrumptious?

Hey Inkblotters,

It’s a wonderful time of the year at the moment as Inkblots and Typing Spots Magazine has officially been publishing content for one whole year! Although we did have a sneaky two months publishing breather, we have been organising content on a weekly basis for all our lovely readers for the past year, and we’d like to thank you for sticking by us, as well as our writers. So if you’ve been following our magazine from day one, week one or just yesterday, we’d like to personally thank you. It means a lot to us that we can publish our fabulous writers’ work, but it’s even better knowing that we have people who read their lovingly crafted poetry or fiction too. We’ll celebrate in style later, but you’re probably interested in what we’ve got in store for you to read this month.

August’s schedule brings many pieces from opposite ends of the scale. Readers will be pleased to know that Dice has written a sequel to Alex, so make sure to look out for “This One! An Alexander Episode” on the 5th. And since he’s such a great writer, Dice is featured twice this month with a piece about Writer’s Block – it’s comedic gold. We’ve also got some great poetry for you to get all teary-eyed over; one from our regular Haiku hero Blue-Eyed Devil called “You’re Home”, a touching story of a little boy, and another from writer Bobartles about a medical ward.

The Half Hour Challenge last month was ‘Serendipity‘ which proved to be quite popular among our writers, so we’ve got some stellar choices on the way for you reflecting that theme. But if you’re looking to write this month in our HHC, then make sure you submit a piece on the cute-as-a-button theme ‘Wishes‘. I’ve got something tucked away for this theme that I’ve been meaning to write for quite some time and, of course, we’re looking forward to receiving all your responses. Remember, you can send your entries into creativewritinginkwell@hotmail.com.

Thanks again to all our followers and have a lovely August!

– Silver, Inkblots Editor

by Colette

The Tawarkelion

Ankou

Ankou ‘The Legend of Death’ – his presence is near.

Written by Eruantien 

Within Arachnos does darkness rise
And Ankou shall watch as hope dies
For in his lands his power shall fall
And lo they shall roam, not one but all

No more shall light the dark hold back
And no safety shall be on the track
Five shall leave to tread on wood and stone
With one to pass through fire alone

Now on the fields shall they be arrayed
With the hosts of hate against them played
Arms of steel to their aid shall come
Yet through pain of loss are lips struck dumb Continue reading →

by Colette

It’s July And Inkblots Is Back!

july

Happy 4th July Everyone!

Hey Inkblotters, we’re finally back from our two-month break, have you missed us? Well, we’ve certainly missed giving you great content on a weekly basis to read, that’s for sure. And as July is setting up to be an absolute scorcher for a month – if the start of this weekend is anything to go by – then we’ve got some hot, hot, hot material to feast your eyes on. But before I get to the good part, there’s a few (possibly quite boring) bits the Inkblots team need to address first.

There’s been a few changes to the administration and editing team for our website, and as sad as we were to see Sparky go, he’s gone off to pursue his dream as a Maths teacher and will be starting his PGCE in September. He’ll still be around, but only as a writer not an editor. With Sparky gone, the position needed to be filled, and luckily Doishy was up to the job. He’ll be starting this month to upload and edit Inkblots’ content, and we’re sure he’s going to do a cracking job.

Another slight change to our regular content is with regards to The Friday Frenzy – although very successful, our writers also have very busy lives and sometimes a night out on the town is just too hard to resist! But the Frenzy hasn’t disappeared – we recognise a great concept, after all – so it’s had a bit of a name change and is now The Fiction Frenzy! The competition and its rules have changed somewhat as it’s now taking place either quarterly or tri-annually throughout the year – we haven’t decided yet! When The Fiction Frenzy does take place, however, it will be over the course of the third or fourth month, so you’ve got a bunch more time to send in those entries. We’ll update those details in a blog post further down the line.

We also have a new event taking place this weekend – short notice, we know – but if you remember back to our two-month breather post, we mentioned that a Review Day would be taking place in the summer. Well, summer is here and so is SWORD (Summer Writing Open Review Day) which will take place on Saturday 6th July, midnight to midnight. The aim of this event is to encourage writers to submit their work for review and return the reviews (or critiques) to other writers who have also submitted work for SWORD. This event is strictly happening on The Inkwell, so if you’d like to read more about it, you can do so here.

I realise this post is now becoming extremely long, and if you’re still with me, I’ve got to thank you with a virtual cupcake: *hands through the screen*. While you’re chomping that down, and before I finish my tea, Inkblots has seven posts scheduled this month. From some incredibly deep and emotional poetry from Lost in a Dream and Dizzy Dazzle, to some great and dark short fiction from both Fantasy Girl and Lumberjacktom. And last but not least, the HHC theme for this month is SERENDIPITY – as always, if you wish to enter this month just send your entries into creativewritinginkwell@hotmail.com. Remember, you only have half an hour!

Thanks for sticking with us Inkblotters, and we hope you enjoy our content this month.

– Silver, Inkblots Editor

by Colette

Three-Minute Reads: Haiku Selection IV

green-tea

Here’s some green tea to accompany this month’s Haiku Selection.

We are nearing the end of April, and also the end of the day, so what better way to spend your time than reading Haiku while drinking a hot cup of tea? And it doesn’t just have to be Yorkshire Tea or Earl Grey Tea or the classic English Tea, it could just as easily be some green tea – we like to keep our options open at Inkblots.

As always, we’ve picked an absolute stellar of a selection for all your Haiku needs, and we’ve even picked three that work together as a whole as well as individually. Can you spot the recurring theme or ongoing narrative within this selection?

So, without further adieu, you have one minute to read, another to ponder and one extra to decipher. Continue reading →

by Colette

Bernard the Dormouse

Written by Silver

Just havin’ a kip. Image Courtesy of Telegraph.co.uk

Comfortable in my teacup house – that’s me;
sleeping and breathing,
breathing and sleeping.
Comfortable in my teacup house – that’s me:
The Dormouse.

On my left sits the fidgeting March Hare;
clawing and gnawing
gnawing and clawing.
On my left sits the fidgeting March Hare,
terribly adoring the tea-party air.
Continue reading →

by marleylilith

Minor Wounds

Written by x3naurus

Memories, all drained in vain…

Few enclose my sight to words
in sync with silence, as night occurs
to send me in a wind of ice.
Light betrays, shadows suffice

Memories, all drained in vain.
Hidden smiles keep me insane.
Not with sight I cannot see,
but watching what’s in front of me.

A simple circle, falling fast;
The seeds inside all watch the past
disappear, and sing with fear
to die in light, and live in tears.

Continue reading →