Lance Greenfield's Blog, page 13

Thursday Topical Verse Day

Thursdays bring you the chance to share a short verse on a topical subject. It could be a haiku or a limerick or a sonnet or a free form of your own choosing. Your aim is to entertain those who follow this thread.

Keep it short and light. Good humour and even a little naughtiness are encouraged.

Post your efforts in the comments on this post and please feel free to comment on and appreciate the contributions of others.

A Poem For Friday

Geoff Le Pard is a kind, sensitive human being. It shows in this beautiful poem. He has captured the story of Ruthie Henschell and her mother perfectly. At the same time, his poem connects with the stories of so many people around the world during these difficult times.

estherchiltonblog

Many of you will know my guest poet this week. It’s the talented Geoff Le Pard. Before you read his powerful poem, here’s a bit about him:

Geoff Le Pard started writing to entertain in 2006. He hasn’t left his keyboard since. When he’s not churning out novels he writes some maudlin self-indulgent poetry, short fiction and blogs at geofflepard.com. He walks the dog for mutual inspiration and most of his best ideas come out of these strolls. He also cooks with passion if not precision.

On Loss

By

Geoff Le Pard

I wrote this after I listened to actress, Ruthie Henschell describing being allowed to visit and hold her mother one year after lockdown started and how her mother is now speechless and incapable of walking, all lost during her enforced isolation; a cruel death-in-life.

I’ve lost you to Covid.

In March we held hands. Shared…

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Thursday Topical Verse Day

Thursdays bring you the chance to share a short verse on a topical subject. It could be a haiku or a limerick or a sonnet or a free form of your own choosing. Your aim is to entertain those who follow this thread.

Keep it short and light. Good humour and even a little naughtiness are encouraged.

Post your efforts in the comments on this post and please feel free to comment on and appreciate the contributions of others.

Personally, I love the style of Stanley Holloway, Max Miller, Paddy Roberts, Noel Coward and Flanders and Swan. Who do you enjoy?

To start you off, here’s a limerick that I wrote in response to a recent news story.

I entered your narrow, tight passage
In my ship far too big to manage.
Now I’m blocking the way
And I can but pray.
For to sail back out will take courage!

I look forward to reading your submissions. Have a go!

Book Review: The Book of Human Skin

I’m re-posting this review in response to many recent questions about this book.

Write to Inspire

The Book of Human Skin by Michelle Lovric
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Difficult to put out of my mind

★★★★

Michelle Lovric has obviously put a huge effort into the research that she weaves into a carpet upon which the story can walk and play. This story is shocking, yet, in places, amusing. Without giving too much away, I can tell you that any reader would agree that the conclusions are satisfying.

This story is so cleverly written, and the publishers have helped the author to present a unique style. There are five, very different narrators. The author gives them their individual voices, and the publisher has added to the effect by giving each of them a different font.

The narrators include Minguillo Fasan, who suffers from persecution mania and spends his vengeful life making the lives of all those around him as miserable as…

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Nights in Suits – Stuck in Suez

As a follow up to my recent post, Motivation – Limericks and Shorties, I just wanted to share with you that I had a ball with Esther’s challenges this week.

The one word prompt for limericks was SUIT. Every week, she also always asks her followers to submit a limerick of their own, ignoring the prompt. With the hilarious story of the massive container ship stranded in the Suez canal featuring on the world news every day, I couldn’t resist a limerick to match the occasion.

Here are my two attempts at SUIT limericks and one for SUEZ.

She starred in a series called ‘Suits’,
Fell in love with a prince in big boots.
Soon after they met,
In a castle they wed.
Sun snappers were there for the shoot.

Lenny so fancied his tutor,
He wished he could be her life suitor.
He gave her a rose
And then he proposed.
“Top marks for your try. On your scooter!”

Ship Stuck in Suez

I entered your narrow, tight passage
In my ship far too big to manage.
Now I’m blocking the way
And I can but pray.
For to sail back out will take courage!

And hear are my five-word stories featuring the word NIGHT

I had better explain that Esther also introduced a new word, which wasn’t part of the challenge but I used it anyway. It looks like this.

Credit: Esther Chilton

Tonight brings my first BEDGASM!
Overnight success takes a lifetime.
Days without sunshine are nights.
Nightshirt worn outside birthday suit. 
Join me for a nightcap? 
Nightingale sang in Berkeley Square.
Vincent painted The Starry Night.
Twenty-twenty was a global nightmare.
Lancelot was Arthur’s favourite knight.
Brightest dawns follow darkest nights.
Black knights in white satin.
Silky nightdress arouses amorous desires.
Night of the long knives.

‘Allo ‘allo. Nighthawk calling London.
Hello! Are you Deadly Nightshade?
Write to Inspire: Night Writer
Just one secretive night together?
Nightstick: an American officer’s truncheon.
Night-sight lights up sniper’s target.
Cricket team needs a nightwatchman.
Luminous night frogs taste horrible!
Bump in the night. Scary!
Pyjama party includes midnight feast.
Summer nights, driftin’ away. Oh-oh!
Gladys Knight had the pip.

Over to you. What do you think of my attempts?

Can you do any better? Submit your limericks and five-word stories in the comments.

Better still, hop over to Esther’s blog and have a go.

Motivation – Limericks and Shorties

In this strange new world, I often find it hard to motivate myself in the ways that were second nature to me in the past. Having been made redundant by ASG Technologies in December 2017, I spent two years looking for a job before I became a delivery driver for Ocado. It was an awful period of my life. Then I had two lovely dogs die on me and my amazing father died too.

Even though I should have had more time on my hands, I felt less inclined to run and to write, two activities that I have always enjoyed. Even now, I am only running a couple of times a week and I have lost my mojo when it comes to writing.

Esther Chilton

Recently however, I have been motivated by a couple of challenges that I discovered on Esther Chilton’s blog.

On Mondays, she posts a one-word prompt for limericks. Those of her followers who take up the challenge are very creative and entertaining with their efforts.

On Thursdays, Esther posts another one-word prompt. This time, the challenge is to write a five-word story that includes the prompt. Once again, the creativity of respondents is wonderful.

The challenges are not difficult but they are enough to set the cogs of my tiny mind into motion. I love doing them and it is encouraging to receive a bit of feedback from Esther and from the other participants. It is fun.

You should give it a go!

Here’s an example of one of the limericks that I’ve recently submitted. This one is in response to the prompt ‘Shower.’

It’s terribly wet down on the Gower,
Where the forecast is always so dour.
It may appear to be fine
When the sun, it doth shine,
But we’re sure to be in for a shower.

You’ll find a few more to enjoy on my limericks page.

And here are a few examples of five-word stories that I churned out in response to the one-word prompt ‘Eyebrows.’

Caterpillar eyebrows become beautiful butterflies.
Stencil with an eyebrow pencil.
Bond arch-eyebrowed his arch enemy.
Bushy eyebrows imply bushy bush.
Eyebrows: hair of bare? Hair!
Barbie and Ken are eyebrowless.
Fingernails and eyebrows comprise keratin.
Helena Bonham Carter: highbrow eyebrows.
Her eyebrows are Cupid’s arrows.
Saucy, smooth, sensual, suggestive eyebrows.
Dirty Bertie had flirty eyebrows.
I’ve a thing about eyebrows.
Baron Denis Winston Eyebrows Healey.
Racy eyebrows light my fire.

For more entertainment along the same lines, take a look at my five-word stories page.

Book Review: The Glamourist by Luanne G Smith

Rating: 4 out of 5. The Glamourist by Luanne G. Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Glamourist picks up where The Vine Witch left off, following the magical stories of Elena, Yvette and Sidra. Who would have thought that there was such a variety of magic among witches, genies and fairies? Not only that, but within each group there are conflicts that would rival many mortal societies.

Yvette and Sidra find themselves trapped in the city, which is obviously Paris although never named as such. Sidra is furious as she blames Yvette for their entrapment because it is her curiosity and desire that has drawn them to the city. It takes most of the rest of the book to discover exactly why and how they became trapped.

Elena is there with her mortal husband, Jean-Paul, to meet her mother-in-law to be, Marion. The legislators of the witching world, the Ministry of Lineages and Licences, block Elena’s right to practice as a vine witch and insist that revert to what they see as her birth line, potions and poisons, unless and until such time as she turns in Yvette, who they believe to be a convicted murderer.

Although Elena is desperate to return with J-P to their vineyard in the south of France to continue with the production of fine wines, she has other ideas and wants to support Yvette in her quest to discover her true family and magical powers.

In the meantime, J-P, a qualified and experienced lawyer determines to learn the laws of the witching world so that he can fight his fiancé’s corner.

Until you read this book, you can only just begin to imagine the storylines that evolve from that point and the endings are far from predictable. The imagination and creativity of the author amazes me. There is more than an element of magic in her writing and I am convinced that she is either a witch or a genie or a fairy. She has cast a spell on me and I demand to be released!

I recommend this book. It kept me gripped from beginning to end and was thoroughly entertaining. I can’t wait to read the third book in the trilogy: The Conjurer.

View all my reviews

Olive

“Answer one more question correctly and you may go. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

Olive turned on her heel and made for the door.

“Stop! Where are you going?”

“You made a rule. I complied. I am going home.”

“Are you stupid, girl?”

“Is that relative to yourself or on the universal scale of stupidity?”

Miss Frame was aghast. Speechless. She had never known such impudence.

As Grace closed the door behind her, she added, “By the way, Miss. That was three, two of which I answered correctly. The third remains unanswered.”

Scatter my Ashes

It’s almost exactly 22 years since my Mum died. She was only 65 years old, which is the age that I have reached now.

Today is St Valentine’s day, a day when love high on the agenda, so I thought that it is an appropriate day on which to reblog this post as an expression of my love for her.

Write to Inspire

This is a poem that I wrote last year and recited during the Poetry Open Mic Evening at the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School 2018. It is about the scattering of my Mum’s ashes.

I posted it on my blog, but it has had no hits. That is probably because it is hidden away under my Titbits tab. If you’d like to read more of my poetry or you are ready for a few COL (chuckle out loud) moments, you should take a few minutes to explore some of the short items in the Titbits section.

Please leave comments to let me know what you think.

Hint: You’ll “hear” it better if you read it out loud.

The Bonar Bridge Rockincorporating lines from Elisabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 43

Scatter my ashes on my rock,
On my rock where I played.
With Grandpa at the back of our croft,
On…

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The Old Mill – Released!

Intriguing! Added to my TBR mountain.

Trent's World (the Blog)

A stench lies on Avebury, New Hampshire. It isn’t something that one can smell, it is more of a psychic soot polluting everybody’s mood. No one recalls when it arrived, but there does seem to be a connection with the Old Mill and its mysterious new owners.

*

Following the trail of the local legend, the ghost of Martha Goode, Gill Baxter is driven to discover the truth behind the events of 1821 and, hopefully, prevent another “time of dying.” That trail, though, leads directly to The Old Mill.

***

The Old Mill was released today! You can find it on Amazon with the links below:

Kindle
US
UK
France
Canada
Australia
India

Paperback

US
UK
Canada
France
Germany
Italy

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