These shoes are made for crawling, soft and grippy just like glue One shoe off and one shoe on, all fours around the room These shoes are made for cruising, stable soles with gait askew Small and tentative steps explore a world that’s meant for you The shoes are made for running, so fast you almost skid. Rushing in headfirst; careless confidence of kids These shoes are made for lounging, stylish apathy of youth Kicked off and spread about, with a mute that borders rude These shoes are made for business; function, status, practiced form Polished to a shine and conforming to the norm No shoes are in the middle, when the wheel becomes too much Barefoot walking out in nature, reconnected to Earth’s touch These shoes are made for comfort, an easy pace of life Marvelling at the young and their capacity for strife These slippers sit in waiting for feet that seldom leave their bed Liver spotted paper soles remember all the lives you’ve tread These shoes have wings to take you to whatever may come next The feet that walked this Earthly plane now take their final rest.
Thanks for joining me for another Sunday rhyme time. This poem was written for my local poetry group. We’d meet at a pub called the Boot and Shoe and the prompt after our first meeting was to write a poem involving shoes, or boots. I quite like writing to a prompt, feels like it takes the pressure off sometimes. Do any of you write to prompts?
On the topic of boots (and pressure, come to think of it), I’m having a squeaky boot problem at the moment. I have new boots which are very comfortable, apart from the fact that they emit a distinctive squeak with every step I take, alerting anyone within hearing distance to my presence, which is somewhat emotionally uncomfortable. But I’m squeaking on and hoping it will abate in time, though tips are welcome!
Rae Cod’s Writing 
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Thanks lovely 😊
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Nice boots!
Your boots probably need a lot of nourishing with wax. I read a story about an Italian who used olive oil on his boots. Oil works for squeaking hinges so who knows? 🙂
Yes, I have written to prompts; short fiction stories. There were several bloggers I followed who suggested prompts, probably still do. There were so many, I put them in a separate blog. I haven’t tried any for well over a year now though.
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Thanks! Do you know I accidentally spilled olive oil on a pair of boots years ago, totally ruined them (they didn’t squeak, but then they’d never squeaked so I suppose that was proof of nothing except how to ruin my favourite boots). They were suede thought & these boots are leather so you could be onto something Ian, thanks! ☺️
How did you find the experience writing to prompts verses writing without? What I find fascinating about them is you can give 10 writers the same prompt and they’ll all come up with a totally different piece of writing, so many possibilities!
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The first one I tried, it was way toooo long. Possibly not too long for a short story but too long for a blog post.
I found I preferred the ones specifying a word limit. There’s one limited to 99 words which is a tough challenge – was the blog called Carrot Ranch or something? I can’t recall. I think it was.
I gave up on photo prompts because these aren’t very inspiring and others were literally blogging about what they saw rather than using some imagination.
I got to know the exercise is called Flash Fiction, little imaginative stories around 300 words, or fewer. I started to post them on a separate blog and, in time, I was writing them without seeking a set prompt. Really, I thought there’s two ways to write any blog post: factual or fictional, regardless of the inspiration.
So, if say I thought of writing about my thoughts on boots; I could write what I thought of boots, the pros and cons, the boots I like, a personal anecdote etc., or I could make up a story about a man, or woman, and their boots; a short piece of fiction encapsulating my own views on boots. 🙂
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I love flash fiction. I used to read my Mum’s magazines when I was young & at the end there was always a short story under 500 words with a twist at the end. I’ve tried to write a few myself but it’s very hard, I think 99 words would be a challenge indeed, I struggle with keeping a short story under 500.
There’s definitely an art to the short story I’d like to learn, & so many ways to write about boots!
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Give it a go, why not?
I’ve had a look over my old site, I remember how much fun I had.
Here’s one of the 99 word ones,
https://thesongofanunknownbird.wordpress.com/2019/09/02/the-safebreakers-daughter/
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That is brilliant Ian, so much story captured in so few words, and so dark! I enjoyed it very much, thank you.
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