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Tips From The Bar

  
 
Almost every week from 2010-2020 I give a prompt for poets at a bar that didn't survive the Covid pandemic.
Many of the  2011/2012 blog post titles are from the brain of Simone Beaubien.
From 2020-2023 I gave occasional prompts as part of The Saturday Night Poetry Exchange.
Though I am no longer behind the bar at a poetry reading, I'll try and make a prompt a day in 2024.
Lime Warrior Photo by Matthew R McGonagle

Sidewalk Full Of Orphans Prompt

9/26/2018

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Tell a story involving finding a book. It could be a book left on a sidewalk, on a friend's bookshelf, something that arrives in the mail that you don't remember ordering. How did the book affect you? Were you fated to find the book?
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The Old Man Is Alarming Prompt

9/19/2018

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"A tormented mother living in Bramford Road with her two young children has been woken on an almost nightly basis by a tinny, distant rendition of 'It's Raining, It's Pouring'. She said the threatening undertone of the song had left her frightened and questioning whether she was imagining things. After months of torment, she finally reported the unusual complaint to Ipswich Borough Council." --Associated Press

It turns out that the creepy nursery rhyme was not the precursor to an attack by Freddy Kreuger. Rather, it's part of an alarm system for a local industrial park. Unfortunately, its trigger system was far too sensitive, as it was being regularly set off by spiders, just normal sized spiders, doing their regular spiderly duties.

If you had a non-violent security system for people breaching your personal boundaries what would it be? And what thing might accidentally set it off?

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Long In The Tooth Prompt

9/12/2018

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Picture
Earlier this year, during the midst of a construction project to update a subway system in Australia, excavators found the remains of a Victorian-era dental practice, including over 1,000 teeth. This gave researchers insight into Victorian-era dentistry, as well as providing nightmare fuel for anyone who didn't want to know about Victorian-era dentistry.

When future scientists unearth the remains beneath your home and work, what horrors will they learn about you?
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So The Cantab Is Pink Now

9/5/2018

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This week, the staff of the Cantab was greeted with a fresh coat of pink paint, and some....unexpected curtains and Christmas lights. Also, the floor is now sticky from fresh matte paint as opposed to...other reasons. 

They did not remove all of the stickers, sand over the years worth of masking and duct tape from show posters. They just painted over them. The room is precisely the same as it has always been but with a fresh...ish coat of paint.

Isn't this precisely what self-improvement is for some people? No work to repair what's underneath just a fresh varnish of bright Look At Me cosmetic alteration.

Have you ever been guilty of this unintentionally disengenious improvement? What did it accomplish for you? I mean, you probably haven't, what with being in such perfect condition, so, assuming you've never done this, surely you've experienced someone around you doing this. How did you react to this surface sheen of unrepair? Did you discuss this with other people? Were they on your side? 
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    Links
    Write Or Die

    Scott Woods's Twitter Prompts

    ​Rachel Mckibbens' Prompt Blog

    The 30/30 Prompt Blog

    Asterisk And Sidebar Prompts

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All work on the Crooked Treehouse is ©Adam Stone, except where indicated, and may not be reproduced without his permission. If you enjoy it, please consider giving to my Patreon account.
  • Tips From The Bar
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