Weds Poetry Prompt: ‘The Screen Generation’

This week’s prompt: Write a ‘generation’ poem.

This one ended up being quite cynical…and yes, I realise the inherent irony of posting it to social media…hope you enjoy at any rate, as you read it on your screen…

The Screen Generation

We live in a generation
That expects instant gratification
Not only expect, in fact,
But claims its God-given right to it
When in reality, any creator would cringe
At this self-obsessed state we’re in.

Where photography is merely vanity,
Imperfect beauty cruelly edited,
Music is stripped of its tangibility,
In favour of cold, stark accessibility,
Stories and endings revealed thoughtlessly
By reckless and selfish stupidity.

This is the age of fabled technology
Where children below a certain age
May not know the precious days
Of simple pleasures, and rougher play
In the great outdoors, seen in wondrous gaze.

Now, it is merely backdrop
To forced smiles in staged shots
And slowly slipping away from us.

Like this poem? Read more in my first poetry collection, ‘The Awakening’, avaliable NOW!

Paperback – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Awakening-Selection-Poems-Stuart-Peacock/dp/1911476335

eBook-: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017BZBH6M</a

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Weds Poetry Prompt: ‘The Lost Light’

This week’s prompt: Write a ‘heart’ poem.

The Lost Light

My heart is hardened
To endure the worst
And ignore the light
As it tries to catch my eye
In vain, to a face down
Staring at the floor
Unable to see hope anymore.

The soul wills me to stand,
Remove my head from the sand
Of sorrow and self-pity,
But the mind coldly resists,
Lost in a murky logic
That rejects true feeling.

My body yearns to fight,
To see these elements reunite,
To remake the real me;
The one sensitive yet strong
With an unclouded soul,
Trusting but still cautious,
The mind knowing the way
Once black fog is cleared away.

Heart, mind and soul may divide,
But my essence is still somewhere inside.

Like this poem? Read more in my first poetry collection, ‘The Awakening’, avaliable NOW!

Paperback – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Awakening-Selection-Poems-Stuart-Peacock/dp/1911476335

eBook-: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017BZBH6M</a

Weds Poetry Prompt: ‘Poolside’

This week’s prompt: Write a ‘pool’ poem.

Bit late this week, due to…stuff happening. And no I’m not slacking – I did write a poem for last week’s prompt as well, but ended up entering that one for submission to a magazine, so I’ll wait on the result of that before posting that one. Anyway – a nice chilled poem for the end of the week for you:

Poolside

Only by the side of the pool
Can I make sense of it all
The calming little bubble
That real life can’t break through
Innocent days I faintly recall
Return after I leap in the blue
My fading spirit born anew
In the water soothingly cool.

Like this poem? Read more in my first poetry collection, ‘The Awakening’, avaliable NOW!

Paperback – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Awakening-Selection-Poems-Stuart-Peacock/dp/1911476335

eBook-: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017BZBH6M</a

Weds poetry prompt: ‘Rumination’

This week’s prompt: Write a ‘comprehensive’ poem.

Rumination

I get lost in the little details,
Hung up on how’s the why’s,
Meaning I’ll inevitably fail
To see what’s in front of my eyes.

This is to have a mind cursed
To a cycle of constant rumination,
Believing and willing the very worst
For each and every situation.

This analysis can be practical
If initiated by a balanced mind,
But if it has ceased to be rational,
Only sadness I shall surely find.

Like this poem? Read more in my first poetry collection, ‘The Awakening’, avaliable NOW!

Paperback – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Awakening-Selection-Poems-Stuart-Peacock/dp/1911476335

eBook-: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017BZBH6M</a

Weds poetry prompt: ‘Save for Later’

This week’s prompt: Write a ‘reserved’ poem

As mentioned in the link, this word can take on a few meanings. I opted for ‘reserved’ as in a space saved for someone…

Save for Later

Save me a space
For once I’ve figured out
What I want out of this place.
Keep that seat warm
Should I ever be cold enough
To leave the current one empty.
Hold my number in the queue
For when I’ve weighed up
The infinite pros and cons.

Just don’t mention it –
My hesitative nature, that is
Call me a careful thinker
With an eye for analysis
And an aptitude for planning,
Who knows, they may just buy it
And not simply figure out
That I’m a chronic ditherer
Just muddling his way through.

Like this poem? Read more in my first poetry collection, ‘The Awakening’, avaliable NOW!

Paperback – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Awakening-Selection-Poems-Stuart-Peacock/dp/1911476335

eBook-: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017BZBH6M</a

Weds poetry prompt: ‘Project-Minded’ /End of April PAD Challenge

This week’s prompt: Write a ‘project’ poem.

And so we’re back to the weekly prompts, always feels strange after finishing a monthly challenge…anyway, to this prompt, which may shed a light on my pensive way of doing things…

Project-Minded

I always put in my all,
Make everything a project,
Even if seemingly simple,
It can’t make sense to me unless;
It’s precisely planned and plotted,
Then shot repeatedly to pieces
Becoming orderly bullet points
Neatly and tidily arranged again;
This is the leisurely process
Upon which all my decisions are made,
Spontaneity was never my strong suit,
But grin and bear with me
And I’ll grant you the promised answer,
(Just after I’ve put all of the implications to paper).

***

Speaking of things neatly arranged – here is the list of each of the poems, with links, that I wrote for this year’s April PAD Challenge – to now be re-read, revised, etc. The support from two other participants; Sarah and Trish, was greatly appreciated as well 🙂

1. Mind Map
2. Self-Doubt Portrait
3. Running to a Dead Stop
4. Just in Case
5. Rules of the Real World
6. Rhubarb Crumble
7. Night Vibes
8. Family
9. Battle to Unwind
10. Hot Date to Deal Breaker
11. The Block
12. Lament for Old Red
13. Plague of the Ladybirds
14. Damage Report
15. I Am a Tree
16. Summer Skies
17. The Long Way Around
18. Prison of Days
19. Loose Thread
20. Temptation of the Vine
21. The Limit
22. Cherry Blossom
23. Stand Up
24. Hiding Behind Glass
25. The Prognositicators
26. Sharing the Mundane
27. Stories Without Glory
28. The New Wave
29. The Human Way
30. Eyes Half Open

Like this poem? Read more in my first poetry collection, ‘The Awakening’, avaliable NOW!

Paperback – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Awakening-Selection-Poems-Stuart-Peacock/dp/1911476335

eBook-: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017BZBH6M</a

2018 April PAD Challenge Day 30: ‘Eyes Half Open’ #aprpad

Day 30’s prompt: Write a ‘closing time’ poem.

So here we are at the end of another year’s April PAD Challenge…and a fitting prompt for the last day. Writing has been a great therapeutic release for me this month, more than ever really, and certain poems probably shed light on my current state of mind. Whatever the future brings, I hope you enjoy the last poem of the month, and have enjoyed the others too…the fun of revising/rewriting still to come…

Eyes Half Open

My eyes have been open
But have I really been awake?
Day after day, the same place
Seeing it, but not noticing
The things that others do
Who have not yet known the contempt
Of familiars thrown at their face
Until the will to engage, sadly fades.

Too much time I have dawdled through,
Making excuses not to depart,
Even though staying and waiting
Is like a knife to an aching heart.
The fear of change held me back
But no more will I bend to that hold,
For the leap into the great unknown
Is lesser pain, than remaining and regretting.

I curse myself for being half-awake,
The careless lapses and mistakes
That I have let myself make
In a world blurred and murky to me,
Tell myself I am in control
Of my own path and fate
And that no one else can dictate
My role in life’s shifting stage.

My eyes truly widen again,
Now seeing a distant light,
A signal that is time to go,
Make the change long delayed,
Close this door and open the next
Before it is too late.
Behind it is redemption
For too long not paying attention.

Last year’s poem for Day 30: ‘The Sweet Release’

Like this poem? Read more in my first poetry collection, ‘The Awakening’, avaliable NOW!

Paperback – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Awakening-Selection-Poems-Stuart-Peacock/dp/1911476335

eBook-: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017BZBH6M