My Weekly Writing Challenge

If you need a little inspiration to get your creative juices flowing, try my weekly writing challenge. You have two weeks for this one (til Thursday 9th June) as I’m going to be away so no excuses for not giving it a go!:

Option one: Write a limerick with the word PLONKER (thank you Al Lane!) in it somewhere

Option two: Write a poem on the theme of BOOKS

Option three: Write a twenty-word story using all of the following words: WORDS, DOUGAL, DALLIANCE, ELIXIR, GAMBOL and PLETHORA

Last week option one was to write a limerick with the word BERK featuring in it somewhere. You clearly enjoyed this one:

Keith Channing, as usual, was quick to respond with his witty quintet:

I needed a couple of bob
So went out to find a new job
I’m happy to work
But I felt such a berk
No, really; don’t be such a snob!

I’ll never be tempted to shirk
Even though my new boss is a berk
I might just attack
If he stays on my back
Although that’s when I do my best work.

The county of Berkshire’s to blame
For taking in vain my chief’s name
Not his real name, you see
Just how he seems to me
As a limerick, that’s seriously lame.

At Berkeley Elaine went to uni
She whose mother’s a bit of a loonie
If it weren’t for the booze
She could win more than lose
But that Benjamin’s so bloomin’ puny.

Berk is an interesting word
In fact, it’s the daftest I’ve heard
It means someone stupid
And that rhymes with cupid
Now isn’t that just too absurd?

Jason Moody sent in one we can all empathise with:

‘Incorrect password’ it said
So my palm once again met my head
Why won’t you work?
You electronic berk
So I gave up and went back to bed.

And Keith Channing sent in a brilliant sequel:

The electronic wizard’s skulduggery
Was no more than sheer mental thuggery
I tossed and I turned
My fever it burned
But could I get sleep? Could I… heck as like!

Bindu has written two entertaining limericks:

What an insufferable, incorrigible berk
Is that inefficient spectacled clerk!
The moment his fingers touch the key pad
Monitors turn dark and really sad,
While his manager peers down, wearing a smirk.

With hands on the hips the boss does lurk
Towers & hovers above the quivering smurf.
Who takes into his stride this technical snag
Oh what he would not do to avoid this nag!
Got a better plan than this to shirk the work.

Graeme Sandford always writes something a little different:

I once was a travelling through Berkshire
In my van, when it never did catch fire
It didn’t break down
So my smile didn’t frown
And I reached my destination safely in Oxfordshire.

Now, I’ve just been told off about my recent Limerick
About Berkshire and my journey to get through there quick
‘It’s ‘Royal’ Berkshire!’ I was told
One right Royal Berkieite did scold
So, I am corrected, my badd, I am such a dick!

Oops, now I’ve upset all the prude ones
By being crass in my writing of word-puns
A dick, I said I was;
And why, just because;
I’m a berk-sure enough for those word-nuns.

Al Lane loved this one and has challenged me to use as many similar words as I can – hence next week’s ‘plonker’!:

For some, their time spent at school
Is a time for playing the fool
But on starting work
Don’t be a berk
Knuckle down, and play by the rules!

I’m thrilled to welcome Stella for the first time. Please click on the link to read her super limerick:

https://stellaseawaft.wordpress.com/2016/05/25/homeworks-never-finished/

Option two was to write a poem on the theme of secrets. Here are the thought-provoking results:

Ladyleemanila has unleashed her imagination for her poem. Please click on the following link to view it:

https://ladyleemanila.wordpress.com/2016/05/19/the-secret-path/

Bindu sent in a fun poem:

Hush! It’s something not to be told
Guard it as treasure, its worth more than gold.
Clutch it, hold it close to your heart
Share it with none; well that is your part.
In this game of holding back what you can’t share,
You are sure to demonstrate that you truly care.
But should you reveal what you had to conceal,
Cross my heart, won’t tell you know (no) more.
Hush! It’s a secret!

Geoff Le Pard‘s is absolutely brilliant. Please go to his page to view it:

https://geofflepard.com/2016/05/22/shakespeares-secret-sonnet-poetry-prompt/

Graeme Sandford also treats us to a poem:

Let me tell you something
Let me tell you a secret
As long as you can keep it
Under your hat.

No, I should keep secrets to myself
Store them in my brain cupboard
Upon the secrets shelf
That would be best.

If I told you
Would you promise not to tell?
Well? Would you?
Can you keep a secret well?

Maybe I will tell you a different secret
One that I made up
And see if you can keep that one.

It may just prove how good you are
At keeping secrets
Or how bad
Or both.

Anyway, the real secret-
Not the made up one –
Is something that I am not supposed to tell
I promised
And I can keep a secret…
Well…

Stella has written a clever poem. Please take a peek:

https://stellaseawaft.wordpress.com/2016/05/25/buried-secret-treasure/

I’m thrilled to see Les Moriarty back with his beautifully atmospheric poem:

They stay with only us,

We like to think.

Thoughts, feelings, dreams.

If I told you mine what would you do?

Hold them close with a warm heart.

Or scatter them, like confetti at a wedding.

Secrets

Kept in the mood and in the heart.

Always there,

Waiting to escape.

One day they will,

One day the secrets will be out.

And the wind will cry your name.

Secrets

Do you want to know one?

A constant source of intrigue and whispers.

It’s just a little shadow

That follows me everywhere I go.

Oh how I would love to impart

The information in my heart.

Secrets

Alas, they will have to remain

Close to me and I shall refrain

From telling this person what they are.

Which fills me with sorrow and also with hope

That they have picked up the little signs

That secrets give out all the time.

–

Jane Basil joined in with her powerful poem. Do visit her site to see it:

https://janebasilblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/23/9110/

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Option three was your flash fiction option – to write a twenty-word story using all of the following words: DESTROYED, ALIBI, PROTOTYPE, NAUGHTY, BOB and BALLET:

Visit Jane Basil‘s blog to see her wonderful stories:

https://janebasilblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/23/a-spot-of-ballet/

EDC Writing always delivers a super story:

No alibi, prototype destroyed …the charge. Bob couldn’t hide his guilt, too evident, like naughty tight things at the ballet.

Jason Moody had fun. He’s so good at these:

Bob was done with the Alibi channel. He felt naughty, he took scissors and destroyed his daughters ballet shoe prototype.

Bob was a prototype. A naughty one. He once destroyed a ballet school. His alibi?
“But I love that place!”

“Ballet!”
“Destroyed!”
“Bob!”
“Prototype!”
“Alibi!”
“Naughty!”

“Very good,” said the lecturer. “Now say the first number you think of…go!”

Bindu also sent in a funny story:

Bob used a naughty alibi while creating a prototype of ballet shoes that destroyed all flaws during the dainty dance.

Please go to Stella‘s site to see her wonderful story:

https://stellaseawaft.wordpress.com/2016/05/25/case-closed/

 

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