London Bakes #amwriting #poetry

Its been a while! I've been busy working on my book, so sadly not enough much to create bits for here - but I was inspired at my writing group last night. At the post-write pub gathering we got talking about poetry. I've not written poetry since I was an angsty teen, and i'm not about to let any of that see the light of day! However, after the pub, as I sat on the stinking hot tube, no battery on my phone for any pokemon collecting, I figured I'd have a play with some words instead.

Here's what I came up with:

London Bakes

Warmth became a cloak today,
A shadow.
A robe.
And we wore it, begrudgingly;
Passengers.
We rode.

We travelled on,
our forward journey, jostled by the carriage.
Destinations; many.
Varied.
We headed home,
We headed out,
An exodus
Unhurried.

Some wore the heat resentfully,
Some sparkled;
Glistened.
A few declared 'ignore the heat!'
Their bodies;
Listened.

And now we pour out, homeward bound,
A city gently baking.
And we cast off clothes, off bags, off shoes.
Running water forms the sound
Each dwelling's
making.


Though the heat is trapped inside,
the air,
is heavy.
There'll be no sleep
tonight, no rest and no relief
in sight,
but here we make
our peace
can't hide.
This is
A British Summer.

A Pointless Life #amwriting

‘You don’t have enough Points, Sir.’

She watched the hope fade and new emotions vied for dominance. Anger, despair, frustration. Resignation. Fighting to keep her own expression blank, she risked a quick glance around. No one was watching; the guy hadn’t made a fuss. He was just slumped, trying to find the energy to head back to the Employment Office where he would be assigned more work to earn Points to pay for his treatment. She coughed and slid a hand across the desk. She slipped the paper to the man. As soon as his grubby, chapped fingers touched the note she called out ‘NEXT!’

And so the day continued.

Starting At The Very Beginning...

I've been giving some serious consideration as to where my story begins. 

I don't mean just chronologically. 

I mean the first sentence. 

How will I pull my readers in and hook them to carry on and read all of the sentences which follow?