The World Is Our Oyster

Introduction

Very often people are stumped for things to write about. On the train today I was trying to watch an episode of "Supernatural" and then the train wifi took a hissyfit and decided it wasn't playing anymore so I started observing people and things, and started thinking about inspiration and story prompts, and thought when I get home maybe I could make a story out of this.

The title is correct, The World is OUR Oyster

The music is "The Oyster and the Flying Fish" by Kevin Ayers and The Whole World from the album "Shooting At The Moon".

So What Do We Actually Have?

I was in my seat and saw people scrolling through images on their phones and on their devices, maybe some of those they shouldn't have been looking at in a public place, but the internet does give us access to so much stuff.

I saw others apparently doing work, but although I have done it, I don't find being on a train conducive to being a good working environment, I need a desk and a decent-sized screen. Maybe that's my age but I do like convenience.

Then I started wondering what stories these people could tell, and more importantly, the stories that I could tell about what they were doing on and with their devices. You can already see that they have actually inspired this piece, and this was before I write a piece of fiction or a poem about these people and their toys.

That was a first thing and then I saw the scenery from the train, wind farms, Lindisfarne, a rainbow over the North Sea, Cows, Sheep and hay bales.

Giant windowless buildings (they give me nightmares still, I remember working as a contractor in a building that was a huge empty space and the only windows were about thirty feet up, so you could not see anything) are a source of inspiration for me.

As part of my Plagiaristic Poetry series, I used some books in the bookcase at my local hostelry, the Cosy Dove (though I spelt the name wrong)

Anything that you see can work as a prompt for a story. The world is absolutely full of things to inspire us.

I travel a lot, although I limit myself to the United Kingdom landmass, and on one of my train journeys, from Newcastle to Whitby, a seventy-mile journey that takes three hours because of the twenty-eight stations on the route that I documented in this poem.

Our world is awash with prompts you just need an open mind to see them. I like the Frank Zappa quote "A mind is like a parachute, it doesn't work unless it's open". I hope my mind is open and does work. I think it is and it does, but it is up to those who read my creations to deliver that verdict.

You may know that I post a lot of cats on Instagram with the hashtag #CatsofVocal and that again provides me with material for my Vocal stories such as this one:

Take the image on the video or the main story image and they can also be prompts that can inspire us, in fact, I am tempted to do something with the "Shooting At The Moon" image.

Conclusion

I am not special or talented. Anyone can do what I can do as long as they have a computer and a Vocal subscription, and the bloody-mindedness to keep writing stories that hang off anything that pops into their heads.

I think that it works for me, so hopefully you can make it work for you.

Thank you for reading, I really appreciate your support.