Game 1: Grab a book you love and choose any old paragraph from one of the first pages.
Game 2: Reformat the paragraph so it’s a poem made of 10-syllable long lines.
Game 3: Now delete every other line.
Game 4: Fill in the gaps with your own 10 syllables to make it a rhyming couplet poem.
(Credit the author if you share the poem.)
I’m not a giant.
But at six foot four
I need to bend my knees in the shower.
I look like a flower
moving its head to find the sun,
except I hunt for rain clouds.
If a shower is too powerful
it can feel like a group of wet snipers
completing their mission through my chest.
If the drizzle is too light a sprinkle
then what’s the point?
I used to blame a weak shower
for my dour moods, or disappointing smell,
or for the drought that would leave me
too dry to get out of bed.
© Carl Burkitt 2021
Game 1: Write down the first word that pops into your head.
Game 2: Write down the following: 3 words that rhyme with the original word, 2 synonyms of the original word and 1 opposite of the original word.
Game 3: Take 7 minutes to write a poem in any style you like, but make sure you use all 7 words you’ve written at some point.
I used to tell people
your lips moved weirdly when you spoke.
You weren’t bad on children’s TV.
I think I was annoyed
because you looked taller than me.
I like your podcast
because I’m a big boy now.
© Carl Burkitt 2021
Game 1: Take a minute to think of a celebrity you like.
Game 2: Get into a blazing row with them for 4 minutes. Consider: What would it be about? What would you say? How far would you go? Would you get personal?
Game 3: Spend 5 minutes trying to make up with them in a poem.
I try not to
believe a word
but sometimes
they’re said too loud.
© Carl Burkitt 2021
Game 1: Listen to the instrumental piece
Tall Tales by Human Pyramids.
Game 2: Listen to it 3 more times on repeat and see if any lyrics or a poem come to mind.
I’ve always eaten the crusts on my sandwiches.
10.5 in trainers, 11 in football boots, 12 in wellies.
The weather is fine up here.
It’s called vitiligo.
I was about 18 and 2 months old.
Daniel Bryan.
A chippendale or lead singer of Status Quo.
Roast dinner.
Being falsely imprisoned.
It depends when you ask,
but right now Salt and Vinegar.
I think about him every day,
it doesn’t matter how long you know someone.
© Carl Burkitt 2021
Game 1: Imagine you’ve met your doppelgänger – someone who looks exactly like you.
Game 2: Take 3 minutes to scribble down all the questions you would ask them.
Game 3: You are now the doppelgänger! Take 7 minutes to answer the questions the other you wrote in a 10 line (or more) poem.
There’s a framed picture of Frank Sinatra
frowning at a toddler
nailed wonkily to the wall
above a knackered juke box
playing Babyshambles on repeat.
The 70s wallpaper has chunks missing
and I can see at least three rusty pipes
behind the Japanese gins and American ales.
The exposed brick is crying damp.
Tripled cooked chips are sitting
in the middle of greasy upside down hats,
beetroot ketchup is dripping through the gaps.
There ain’t a smile in the gaff
and everyone feels at home.
© Carl Burkitt 2021
Carl tells tales 