Story, Poem and Inspiration Point of the Week

Whilst Elliot’s Prufrock might have measured out his life in coffee spoons it sometimes feels like I’m measuring mine out in story and poem of the week announcements.  Thankfully stories and poems are far better and more beautiful things to measure ones temporality by than coffee spoons – especially when they’re as good as this week's winners, so I’m certainly not complaining.

The poem of the week belongs to Bee for her brilliant Poetry Monthly performance piece Breathed.  Someone said in the comments thread appended to the poem that listening to the YouTube link made the hair on the back of their neck stand up.  It did mine too.  Please do listen to the link as well as read the poem:

http://www.abctales.com/story/bee/breathed-poetry-monthly

And here’s the audio link: 

https://youtu.be/WebqlitPsso

The story of the week is awarded to Truth42 for one of the most personally affecting submissions that I’ve read on ABCtales in a long time.  Crucially the prose never falls to sentimentality. 

Michael Watson was as good as any of the boxers active in what is considered by many to be the golden age of British middleweight pugilism.  His real story, of course, is about overcoming the odds outside of the ring after the life-changing injuries that he sustained in his last fight against Chris Eubank.  Truth42 takes us along with him for an intimate meeting with the man himself with his truly special Nice To See You:

http://www.abctales.com/story/truth42/nice-see-you

Those who were able to get along to the ABCtales reading event in London on Wednesday also had the privilege of listening to this wonderful account being read out by its hugely talented author.

The event in London was a triumph on all fronts.  A big crowd gathered to listen to a total of 16 readers who were all on tip-top form.  There was wall-to-wall quality on show all night.  But it doesn’t end there.  We managed to raise £200 for The Railway Children Charity and that will be match funded by the government. 

If you’ve never been to an ABCtales reading event I can tell you that they are fabulous occasions.  There’ll be an announcement out soon giving details of the next one so do try to get along to it if at all possible.

Inspiration point of the week:

“Hard Boiled”

The loosest of interpretations is allowed and encouraged.

Good luck with it and have a lovely weekend,

Peter.