Undercover in the Officer's Mess

NaPoWriMo's Day 17 prompt suggests that we write a poem re-telling a family anecdote that has stuck with you over time.

My mum's Uncle Dick, greyed and portly,

welcoming us into his flat. Nine decades

of stories, anecdotes and experience.

Royal Air Force pension keeping him comfortable,

he hands me a cold glass of orange juice

and casts his mind back.

I realise, too late, I should be recording this.

Granville, my mum's dad, arrives at the RAF barracks,

war weary, the grit and oil of a hundred trucks washed from his skin,

The Cairo sand long gone from under his nails.

Some time in the 60s, out near the Suez Canal,

Granville is here to see his brother.

The familiar strangling Egyptian heat,

A world away from the mild and refreshing English sun.

Dick is an officer, a few decorations on his blazer,

quiet reminders of the roaring horrors of those six years.

His friends and colleagues are all his level,

The like-minded and fellow-afflicted.

A spare jacket is an easy procure, Granville's size.

His brother's disguise.

They enter the Officer's Mess, Granville quiet,

eyes roaming.

The war ends, he thinks, and only now do I go undercover.

Crackle of a snooker break towards the back,

a couple of pints being clinked together

in a thin layer of cigar smoke.

A door shuts. Eyes head to the sound,

a flock of salutes.

Warrant Officer on deck. Granville mimics the officers.

Dick makes some formal introductions. The blagging continues.

“I see you have the Africa Star,” says the Warrant Officer.

Granville nods. He's not felt this uncomfortably warm since Cairo.

“Well done.” A polite smile for Granville. A knowing glance to Dick.

The Warrant Officer departs. The brothers had earned their breakfast.

NaPoWriMo 2018 Ends

Graffiti #northernquarter #manchester Beer goggles?

A post shared by Matt Tuckey (@matttuckey) on Apr 28, 2018 at 4:23pm PDT

National Poetry Writing Month, or 'April,' as it is otherwise known, has come to a close for another year. I perhaps could have knuckled down with it a bit more. I managed to upload a poem on 3 out of 4 Wednesdays, and I have a small handful of poems still to put up.

I had a lot going on this month, and the prompts that the site offered often just didn't really sit with me. But I had my own ideas, and I've worked on a few creating a number of other drafts. I'm going to get them fed back at Writers Connect before uploading them here every Wednesday.

One of the setbacks to poetry is the time it takes to make lines rhyme, if that's what you're planning on doing. I've wanted to write a few rap verses. I managed one. It takes a lot of patience to say what you want to say and match it to vowels in other words. A blog post like this one, that I'm bashing up as quickly as possible, I can upload to the blog as fast as I can think and type the thoughts. Poetry takes a hell of a lot longer, so the output is a lot smaller.

I still want to work on rhyme though, so stay tuned for more.

Anxiety

Artwork inside Nexus Art Cafe #northernquarter #manchester

A post shared by Matt Tuckey (@matttuckey) on Apr 25, 2018 at 11:36am PDT

NaPoWriMo's Day 6 prompt 'focuses on the use of concrete nouns and specific details, using the idea of “putting a dog in it.”' Here's a poem with solid images on the theme of anxiety.

A sprinter on the starting blocks, waiting for the gunshot.

A free-diver, testing that lungful of air, plunging deeper.

Gripping an overhead pole, dangling, holding,

wrists burning.

A balloon slowly being inflated.

A dog in an unfamiliar house, reluctant to sit or lie.

That guy at the back of the bar, drunk, eyes locked on you.

Waking up to the sound of your ringtone.

Realising, at 80mph, you're really too tired to drive.

Waiting for your boss to mention your lateness, again.

All of this expelled by your fist, slamming concrete-like,

into the weighted punch bag.

Translation poem with a weird bear photo

NaPoWriMo's Day Five prompt is a poem that 'reacts both to photography and to words in a language not your own.' Here's This is Not Going to Stop until You Wake Up so Give Up.'

“27.-Esto no se va a detener hasta que te despiertes así que ríndete. Una racha de pájaros. Un puñado de nenas como flores. Estamos para tu preámbulo. Caminamos a ti. Unas llegamos tarde para colocarnos el bozal. Tenemos máscara de ti, de tus ojos cerrados. Alguien calculó cada rostro. Orfebrería aplicada con dolor sobre la piel del cielo. La mano de alguien dio forma a cada labio. Creó el labio y estimuló el labio. Lo creó como golpe. Alguien nos colocó en la máscara tu labio.”

And here's a photo I took in The Milton Club on one of its final nights.

My final and very random visit to the Milton Club. It'll be missed. #manchester #nightlife I have no idea why this bear was there, before you ask.

A post shared by Matt Tuckey (@matttuckey) on Mar 28, 2018 at 2:22pm PDT

It's not just in your dreams that the desperate bear

rinses you. And you reach for your pyjamas

because the bear never comes with flowers.

This is just a preamble.

With his camisole, hat, and legs in trousers,

he's coloured like a bozo.

Tenuous mascara and a bow tie

Odd descriptions just corrode.

Alan called to wear it on the roster.

'I didn't apply to be sober,' he says,

'I'll have to peel the seal.'

The men have all gone to form a cad labia

creosote the labia. Stimulate the labia.

Creosote and gulp.

Its all gone now. Let's go loco

with mascara on your labia.

Sorry about that translation. The literal translation is here.

Itinerary

NaPoWriMo's day 3 prompt is a list poem. This was written on the 3^rd April, the day before the Commonwealth Games 2018 opened.

Moving teams, same office

Booking off Bank Holidays

Following up a job inquiry

The opening of the Commonwealth Games

(England will be top of the board again, get over it Australia)

An employment advisor meeting

A Parkrun in Yorkshire, marshalled by a support group

Can't make it to see UFC223...

Johanna V Rose II will be another war

It's gonna have to be a Youtube job for me because...

Writers Connect Sunday lunchtime

Reviewing this poem. Meta!

No parties planned. Poor performance.

NaPoWriMo 2018

National Poetry Writing Month comes around once again. The principal: write 30 poems in 30 days. Obviously I'm a little late. Easter parties.

Like last year, I'll be interpreting the guidance loosely- I'll try to write a poem every day, but I'll be stockpiling them and taking them to Writer's Connect, my feedback group. Then, once a week, I'll upload them here as part of my long-neglected #creativewednesday trend.

I'll also be listening to tons of hip hop, the likes of Eminem, Immortal Technique and Lowkey, to gain inspiration, and then trying my hand at writing a few rap verses of my own. I've been collating ideas for months now.

Here we go...

NaPoWriMo 2017 Ends

Drop acid not bombs. Seen in a London club by a friend.

A post shared by Matt Tuckey (@matttuckey) on May 5, 2017 at 12:28pm PDT

National Poetry Writing Month has ended with the turn of May, and I've done hardly any poetry.

This Prospective Nocturne was the only blog post I wrote that was based on prompt from the site. Coming Up, What is the City, Easter Rapped Up, Letter to Fluffy Oakes, Snapshots of Life, Come Party this Bank Holiday, and Rap the News were all poems I wrote this month. You might like them. You might not.

I liked pushing myself to put my thoughts into rhyme. I used to do this a lot in 2000/2001. I feel like writing prose blog posts for so long has been too straightforward, too much like everyone else in the blogosphere. And since December '06, when I started blogging on another platform, I've possibly been letting myself off just so I could write quicker and get on with my life. It certainly slows down the writing process if you rhyme everything.

Also, when you read poetry, whether it rhymes or not you need to be able to pick up on cadence and rhythm. You want to feel how the piece flows as it's read out. The blog posts I create normally include a lot of pictures and videos, and hence they aren't things that you would only read- you'd look at, listen to and watch them too. When you do this, the multimedia will have a pace of its own, separate to the text. Hence these posts I don't feel would work particularly well in free-verse, rhyming or any other type of structured poetry.

The NaPoWriMo prompts didn't particularly inspire me. I thought they were very airy-fairy, typical poetry concepts that only work if you write traditional poetry for those who have always liked such things. I'd rather write outlandish, controversial poetry for people who never thought they'd like it. NaPoWriMo didn't foster that in me.

Not even my own ideas inspired me. I've been hoarding blog post thoughts specifically for use in April, prompts that could be used particularly in poems or rap verses. When April rolled around, I just didn't have the drive to wrote about those specific subjects, and I need that fire to make them work. So they're sat on the list. I might work on them over the next year and put them up on a #creativewednesday when I get the right itch. But, more to the point, if I can keep writing fairly familiar clubbing-based content but in rhyme, I might stand out from the crowd.

I have so much to tell you.

Standard bank holiday #cirquelesoir #miltonclub #Manchester #nightlife

A post shared by Matt Tuckey (@matttuckey) on May 1, 2017 at 12:15pm PDT

This bank holiday weekend: A wacky bingo game with garage group So Solid Crew. Anthony Joshua's domination over long-time former champ Vladimir Klitschko. A club dominated by a circus troupe. The end of #napowrimo. And that's just last week. I'll be blogging about these soon.

This coming week will be quiet, I'm not going to lie. Roxy Ballroom has opened in the unit that housed Baby Blue on Deansgate, promising 'Ping pong, pool, and beer pong all under one roof.' I may organise a meetup with the new venue as a starting point soon, just to see what it's like. There's nothing planned as it stands, though, and as the previous weekend was a bank holiday it's hardly going to be heaving anywhere.

Next week will see at least one meetup.

Rap the News

Last Sunday at Writers Connect I came with a warmup idea. I showed everyone the MSN News app on my phone and we looked through the top stories of the day. I asked people to pick out a story and use this as inspiration for a rap verse.

I chose one about the escalating nuclear threats going back and forth between USA, Trump and Pence on the one hand, and North Korea and Jong-Il on the other.

Concerns grow over the Korean peninsula

A US president so unstable and insular

a chaotic situation, that's enough said

when neither leader we believe can be trusted.

How can we say we can't be harmed

by the guy in the East who's own father was embalmed

who's threats to the West no country will defend

and who ordered the murder of his own girlfriend?

How long will we tolerate Jong Il over there

when they haven't released Otto Warmbier?

It's hard to write at the same speed as you would if you were writing prose. It takes more time to think up how to match your vowels and still make your point. Warmbier, if you were wondering, is an American living in the DPRK who was recently given a fifteen-year hard labour sentence for drunkenly stealing a poster.

April is National Poetry Writing Month in the States. I've been checking the prompts but haven't been particularly inspired by them, but wanted to do something poetry-based at the writers' group. I should have been writing more rap verses, and plan to do this henceforth!

Come party this bank holiday, as suggested by this rap verse.

Thinking up couplets that hardly rhyme

just so I can yell IT'S PARTY TIME!

If you're still in Manchester and haven't gone away

for the second April bank holiday

Then just remember that the world keeps revolvin'

And life is short, and there's lots to get involved in

So what you gonna do, well, first you might

venture into town on Thursday night

Get yourself a ticket and pay on Visa

For Miss Swimsuit UK in Viva!

Loads of celebs, no you don't want to miss them,

Like Real Cheshire Housewives' Ampika Pickston!

I'm serious, the celeb lineup is awesome,

It even has Ex On The Beach's Charlotte Dawson!

If you're a girl and wondering if you should bother,

Do you really wanna miss out on Rogan O'Connor?

The frontman for The Dream Boys is one of the guests

And there's more Ex on the Beach people coming up next,

A celebrity couple is always a good thing

Chet Johnson and Helen Briggs are going to be judging!

The party will be great and the DJ will be jammin'

And you might also spot Love Island's Katie Salmon.

So if you want to come out and party with me,

Sign up to the meetup and RSVP!

Saturday night is one not to miss, yo,

Anthony Joshua versus Vladimir Klitschko!

So you tell me, what is there preventing

You from attending the viewing at Genting?

Next Monday, are you working? Nah!

Sunday night sees the Cirque le Soir!

Here's an invitation, come with the perfect group

and see the spectacular circus troupe

'a spectacular ambience and enchanting atmosphere'

from the suburbs of Paris, and now they party here!

So step right up, ladies and gents

the hosts The Milton Club always put on great events.

Pharaohs, fire breathers, and an axle grinder

Don't stay in, as if you need a reminder.

Snapshots of Life

Blinded by the lights, dizzy new heights #Manchester #architecture #streets

A post shared by Matt Tuckey (@matttuckey) on Apr 19, 2017 at 1:00pm PDT

A surreal warm-up exercise from Writers Connect. I compiled it from looking through the pictures saved on my phone.

Trip hop music in an art cafe

ten megapixel photos of club promoter's arses

a former UFC fighter with a t-shirt suggesting,

'Different chokes for different folks'

cloakroom ticket 480.

Standing next to a luminous hashtag

vacancies for singers at a Manchester pub

woman smiling with a sign:

'Queef on the patriachy'

Expensive apartments at dusk

cloakroom ticket 118

calves full of lactic bulging in the mirror

snapshots of my life.

A pineapple cocktail,

a worm's eye view of an office block

a smiley face cut into the temporary

dust on a glass door

graffiti bee next to my new broadband box.

A culmination,

a pretentious description...

The contents of my camera roll.

Snapshots of my life.

Prospective Nocturne

Day 17 of NaPoWriMo, and today's prompt is a nocturne, a poem to be read at night. To get the full effect, come back to my blog after sundown.

PDF E-tickets and ripped jeans

Mirror selfies and free parking

Manchester after dusk.

The city changes, colder still,

But the events of the night

fuel the city's economy,

and this blog.

To come: a post about a fading singer,

her hits conjuring images of being 22

Bar work and the dole my occupation then.

But great music.

A rapper also,

Tattooed like a walking 'hood tapestry

possibly flash-in-the-pan,

after so many sleeps, we'll find out.

Last night- Bank holiday madness

arrests, fights, a woman sobbing in handcuffs,

a stupid way to end a weekend.

But hey, Printworks. What do you expect.

Trade in your in for out-

don't sleep when you could party.

Come out Friday to see Big Narstie,

Rapper, in The Milton Club.

Starting in Sakana.

Early night Saturday, soaking up sleep

More poetry Sunday at Writers Connect 

or fiction, art on the walls and

words in our heads. Get your feedback here.

Flex your cerebral cortex.

For now, though, repair yourself

with REM, prepare yourself,

Make melatonin and avoid this screen.

Letter to Fluffy Oakes

The beautiful Vermillion Cinnabar #Manchester #Indian #restaurant

A post shared by Matt Tuckey (@matttuckey) on Apr 16, 2017 at 9:43am PDT

The prompt for Day 16 of NaPoWriMo- and shamefully the first prompt I've actually tried- is a poem in the form of a letter to someone.

FOA Fluffy Oakes

Oldham Zoo

Hi Fluffy,

a quick letter to say,

thanks for your help with everything. I'm making big steps.

It's been a busy week as per. To be honest,

People still scare the crap out of me sometimes

and I don't think they realise that, nor would they

that it's not their fault.

I've got a new position in work and

it seems to be going okay. People are understanding

and patient.

But the real challenges, as we know,

are outside of work.

My social life is good, and I can't pretend otherwise,

and I wouldn't want to. I still carry

that feeling that I'm constantly making a twat out of myself

and being a burden,

Not that people would know.

Wednesday I went to All Star Lanes,

Part bowling alley, part bar,

Part museum. Great memorabilia

but dear for drinks. We didn't bowl.

Maybe next time.

It was a starting point before we

darted to Great Northern Warehouse,

A large open space, and hostel for Northern Rep

Drama production company with a twist,

Shakespeare and 2017 Manchester conjoined

A Midsummer Night's Dream with pop music,

Audience dares, a hen do, a double-entendre fairy

and lesbianism.

I had no fucking idea what was going on,

but I enjoyed it regardless. Impressive acting.

I had to cancel an unattended Meetup event Thursday.

Nobody RSVPd to MK at Albert Hall

Amazed people didn't want to do it.

Whatever. Seen him twice before anyway.

Good Friday:

Got drunk, sarged, failed, got Happy,

an ironically-titled group- there were a handful of arseholes,

but most were good people.

Meetups like these don't seem to be about anything

A huddle of people with little in common

other than the need to connect.

I'm not mad keen on the venue either.

Yesterday I double-booked, Fluffy.

All that organisational talk we had...

and I fucked it up.

Went for food in Vermillion,

waited for friends on a pod,

a seat the size of a king-sized bed.

Moulin Rouge on the TV screens,

deep house ambient in the air.

I guessed at a 2-hour timeslot,

It took us 3 to meet and eat and beat it.

I was supposed to be in the hallowed Sakana for 9.

Nope- I was still chowing Karahi chicken and naans.

Delish, though.

Gotta dash. Hope all is well at the zoo.

Will write again soon about a singer.

Easter Rapped Up

Monday night and how's this for a good start?

Manchester Cool Bars hit the thousand-clubber mark!

I think you might be familiar with one of our latest members

If you've been to Market Street you'll probably remember

One particular imperial entertainer

It's the keyboard player dressed as Darth Vader!

And if you want to know who's under the mask,

Come on the meetups, then all you do is ask.

And what is happening in the city over Easter?

Well read on further, so that you can feast yer-

Eyes on a couple of real good calls

Like MK at the Albert Hall

So if you're a fan and you want to book in now

RSVP for a night of funky house.

So after the party on Maundy Thursday

Good Friday's free, as it stands anyway

What about if you want to see someone sing?

On Saturday night, then, it's this one thing

If you're going out, who would I say to see?

It's RnB singer, Amerie!

A live PA in Milton Club, and I'm not kidding,

She's supported by LA rapper Kid Ink!

So if you want to turn up and represent,

Then RSVP to the meetup event.

I'll turn up on time, and won't be late to meet ya.

It's safe to say I cannot wait for Easter.

What is the City but the People? And a New Bar? And a Police Car Chase? and Reality TV Stars?

Confidence through action, it's gone past talk

That's how I've auditioned to do a catwalk

I was feeling brave and want to conquer fears

I found a group of people wanting volunteers

to join an event in the centre of Piccadilly

MIF starts with What is the City

Too short and too plain was my suspicion

but the organisers seemed to like my audition

So I'm hoping to hear back from the team soon,

if I'll be taking those strides on the 29^th of June.

Also in the city, we'll see treat

heading it's way to Peter Street

Finally the shell of Bar Thirty Eight

Will transform itself from dirty to great

So if you want a new place to sup from a chalice

You'll have to wait for Tup Tup Palace.

Police are currently chasing these down Huddersfield road. Presumed stolen car. pic.twitter.com/FI9vT1kYeI

— Matt Tuckey (@matthewtuckey) April 4, 2017

Earlier this week on Thursday night

I joined Cool Bars to go to Socialite

We started in Sakana and celebs were in there

celebrating the launch of Perky Pear

most of them left before I could find them

But I managed to grab Katie Salmon from Love Island

I met her on the hottest weekend of the summer

A lovely girl and a hell of a stunner.

One more thing, and don't be bitter,

but X Factor's Ellis Lacey follows me on Twitter.

Coming up:

Refuge Manchester. Classy, but full of old people.

A post shared by Matt Tuckey (@matttuckey) on Apr 3, 2017 at 1:46pm PDT

A few events, and you'll want to get in there,

And a blog post about a party with swimwear

There's something coming up if you're a Manchester native,

Or if you're passing through, but you're still a creative,

As long as you are, then you could be anyone,

So come and meet the group tomorrow in Bar Twentyone.

To miss out on this next one would be an oversight-

come out on Thursday to LIV's Socialite!

Models, celebrities, and all that palava- if this sounds fun, then join us in Sakana.

Artisan on Saturday for classy cocktails

And deep house music, and that should not fail

to create an atmosphere that you need to see

So go to Meetup and RSVP.

Not staying late as I have another prospect:

Sunday afternoon is Writers Connect. 

Fiction and poetry, that's what we show,

to each other, and more so as it's NaPoWriMo.

More to come over the coming fortnight,

Details will come next week if that's alright...

NaPoWriMo 2017

It's you reading this post right now. #hipster #jamesprescottjoule #Manchester No, it's the guy who invented the joule energy measurement system.

A post shared by Matt Tuckey (@matttuckey) on Mar 29, 2017 at 7:27am PDT

National Poetry Writing Month has begun. The voluntary writing challenge lasts the full month of April, and contributors attempt to write 28 poems, one per day, throughout the month. Obviously, I'm late to the party, but I'm still going to give it a shot. Only, I'll be doing things a little differently this year.

I'll still check out the prompts and attempt to write a few poems. However, I'll only be uploading them, one at a time, on Wednesdays. This will, most likely, result in a backlog of poems waiting to go up on what I call #creativewednesday, my weekly creative blog post. I'll also be visiting Writers Connect to brush up on poetry, and the warmup exercises and subsequent writeups will also form part of that backlog.

I'll review this at the end of the month!

NaPoWriMo ends

National Poetry Writing Month is done and dusted for another month. I've been busy, so didn't get as much done as I'd hoped.

I've uploaded a couple of edgy poems I wrote years ago, I've followed a couple of the site's prompts, I took a musical sketch scene to a writer's group for feedback and I've worked on a rap write-up of the Eminem vehicle, 8 Mile. Stay tuned for these- they'll be up when they're finished.

I think one way of making a blog stand out could be to put all information into rhyme in order to keep it different from the rest of the blogosphere. You'd also get pretty good at rhyming if you kept at it. Rhyming couplets also encourages the use of interesting imagery, and could put new angles on subjects that many bloggers are covering. There are no rap verses about the Royal Baby online, for example. None in English, anyway.

I have more writing in the pipeline, so I may just do that...