This week, I’ve got another entry in my song-inspired series of poems! This one was inspired by ‘Wind Me Up’ by Extreme, which I’ve included below so you can have a listen while you read, if you like!
Tag Archives: teen
Cats Collection Updates – And Other News
Hi there! It’s certainly been a while since I’ve posted something on this blog, but hopefully everything will be getting back on track soon. I’ve been very busy with uni work and also my beta reading work on Fiverr but I’ve also been working hard in the background to get some things ready.
It’ll Be Better In The Morning
Not going to lie, I have very much combined a writing task from the Creative Writing side of my degree with this week’s post, but I’m hoping that you’ll enjoy it! The heart of the task was creating images, assigning purposeful adjectives to them and layering sound on top. Feel free to let me know your thoughts! But anyway, here’s the poem.
Nerve Cells
As my brain dutifully remains in my head – or, at least, I think it does – all day, every day, I think it’s only fair that I dedicate a writing piece to it. After all, it does have to work all day. Weirdly enough, I seem to be doing even more work now that it’s the summer holidays, but my brain manages to keep up somehow, even if it does generate regular headaches. So, aside from treating it with coffee and random bursts of inspiration, I’ve decided to give it the gift of words… that it has to come up with itself. I don’t think I’ve thought this through. Oh well!
Bus Ride
I wrote this poem as part of my senior creative writer position with FOURALL Magazine, and I was lucky enough to have it featured in their seventh issue. Bus Ride takes mental health and the metaphor of an empty bus and explores the ‘road to recovery’ and how it can sometimes be very difficult to begin that process and actually let people in. I hope you enjoy this poem!
Goosebumps
I will admit that, while writing this poem, I got really confused about what it was actually about. It started human and ended up abstract, although it was meant to remain human, and now it feels oddly macabre – at least, to me. I honestly have no idea how you’ll read this and what you’ll take from it, but it left me with a feeling that was a little like an echo, whatever that means. I hope you enjoy it, anyway!
Battle
I am currently, as I write this, engaged in a terrifying battle of wills with a rather bold spider who has decided that my bedroom curtains are now his home. This is not a true fact – the bedroom curtains belong very firmly to this house where I live, and where the spider does not live, but he is continuing with his antics regardless. So, what is a writer to do but write a poem about this experience and hope that the spider sees it and becomes so ashamed with his brazen behaviour that he promptly moves out. Well… here’s hoping, anyway.
Walking Home
This week’s piece, as you may have guessed, was inspired by my walk home today. It’s funny how you can be taken from inspirational happiness to existential sadness by a single walk, but that’s the way the world is. I tried to combine nature with the impact of the manmade world, but I think the nature always shines through a little more in my poetry. In any case, here’s Walking Home!
Dear Oskar
No, I didn’t just address a blog post to myself – instead, I wrote a letter-poem to myself! This piece is themed around my lockdown experience, with highs and lows of how life has been. It came runner-up in the Telegraph’s Teen Writing Competition and I’m really proud of it.
Lighter Fluid Excerpt
Have you read Lighter Fluid, my gritty high school inspired novella, yet? It’s available as a completely free ebook on Smashwords! Already read it? Feel free to leave a review telling me what you thought, or even a comment on this post. For those who haven’t read it yet and want a little taste before they leap into a new book, here’s the first scene! If you love it, make sure to check out either the ebook or the print book!
Oskar Leonard 