Seven Tenets of Tang Soo Do

At my karate school, we do a "Tenet of the Month" and as we start going through them a 2nd and 3rd time I get a bit short on "stories" and tired of telling the same ones over and over. So write a poem about one of our seven tenets. They are Integrity, Concentration, Perseverance, Respect and Obedience, Self Control, Humility and Indomitable Spirit. The only real requirement other than sticking to the tenets is that an elementary school student could understand it. I'm also considering trying to compile and publish a book from the material so feel free to do more than one tenet.

Promises Not Kept

From Bonnie:

Have you ever made a promise you ended up not being able to keep? How did it make you feel and how did the person to whom you made the promise react? Or the opposite...has anyone ever made a promise to you they didn't keep? How did they react & how did you react?

For Sale

From Meghan: 

I want you all to sell something. Use your work to sell yourself, a product or service or pieces of yourself. I know it sounds like a business in marketing but I think we could all have a lot of fun with this.

Word Play

From Priscilla.  The opposite of last week's short prompt. I think this is the longest one we've had.

Think about grammar and usage for a moment. Is there a rule that confuses you? Is there a grammatical error that sets your teeth on edge when you hear or (worse yet) read it? Are there particular words whose meanings confuse you?

Look up the correct answer, rule or explanation. Try using Google, which will bring you several possible sites – choose the most interesting one, or use all of them.

For example, the words bring and take have somewhat different meanings. David Sperling, on Dave’s ESL Café site offers a lengthy explanation of the different shades of meaning, as well as contrary views.

The very common verbs bring and take are sometimes troublesome for learners of English. One reason this happens is because bring and take have almost identical meanings but are used for different "directions" in English: bring shows movement toward the speaker, but take shows movement away from the speaker. If A needs something and wants B to get it and carry it to him or her, A says, "Could you bring ___ to me?" (or "Could you bring me ___ ?"). If A has something and A wants B to get it and carry it to C, A says, "Could you take ___ to C?" (B then takes ___ from A and takes it to C.) 

Now write the poem inspired by the answer or the explanation, or the word or phrase you started with, or even the act of checking the proper usage of your native tongue!

Time to, Time too

Tasha sent me this very short prompt for this week:

Time To, Time Too

Do with it what you will

Sunrise, sunset

Prompt from Linda:

Sunrise, sunset. A color-filled sky is like another world. Where are you when the sun does its magic?  How do you feel, what do you think when the sky is purple, orange, red and pink?

Make a poem from box of old records

If you are of a certain age, somewhere in your house or attic or basement is a box of vinyl records. Or at least a shoebox of cassettes. What are you going to do with them? Play them? Have a picnic and dance to them? Enjoy some memories or wonder who the hell bought them? Use the titles, or the memories, approach it how ever you like - but somehow make that old box of records into a poem.....