With National Poetry Day around the corner, where is the poetry in your life?

Around the table -who do you like to sit around the table with? what are you eating? What do you talk about? 

What I never understood … Go. 

Autumn … what do you notice? What does autumn mean to you? Do you like it? Why?

What I found … Go. Ten minutes.

Trees. What place do trees have in your life? Is there one special tree? A gathering of trees? A lifetime of trees?

A visit from … Who has visited recently? Who do you wish would visit? Or, what about the past, whose visits have been notable?

Things I am not. This is an idea I have borrowed from the poet, Naomi Shihab Nye. Write a list of things that you are not (not an astronaut, a perfectionist, a clothes moth, a grumbler). Choose your favourites and develop them, add the detail, a fuller description, whatever comes to mind.

When I can’t sleep … what do you do in the small hours when sleep eludes you?

Who is the oldest person alive in your family? Tell their story.

Best time of the day? Early or late? Alone or with others? Has that time changed over the years? Does it change with the seasons?

Bread: how do you like it? With butter, marmite, mashed banana, cheese and tomato….? What kind of bread was that? And where have you made it, bought it, eaten it? Go. Ten minutes.

Run. Do you? Is it a love/hate relationship? How did you start? Stop? Alone or with others? Tell us about the breath, the distance, the rhythm, the thoughts.

Nature notes; in the eighteenth century, Gilbert White of Selborne made notes of the natural world every day. He noted the weather, arrivals and departures of insects and birds, the doings of domestic animals, plantings and harvestings. What have you noticed today? Jot down a short list. No need even to write in sentences.

‘A really significant element in ascribing beauty to a thing lies not within itself, but in the quality of our attention to it.’ Mark Cocker in Crow Country. What in your day has been beautiful? What might there be near to you that is beautiful? Attend to it for a moment. Capture it.

Board games: do you still play? Competitive? Or just at sea? What games did you play as a child, or with your children? I once upended the whole board, card, counters, cash flying, when I thought my mother was letting me win…

“I hate courgettes. You should know that.” What vegetables do you hate or did hate as a child? What is the story? How did you change your mind? What was the worst experience? What vegetable do you despise to this day? Ten minutes. Go!

Bonfires. How I love them. How I miss them [too many thatched rooves nearby]. Tell us about bonfires. Good times. The best way to make them. 

Ball games. What have been your favourites? What part did you play in the game? What equipment? Where did you play? Do you still play? Who with? And why is that No Ball Games sign so often the backdrop for a football goal?

Things I haven’t done. Make a list. Is it a list of things that you would like to do? Or is it a list of all those things that still have to be done?

A house you loved -not your own house, but another person’s house, one that showed you a different way of being … Tell us. Remember the detail.

Where I have slept. This comes from a poem by Raymond Carver, shared at a Cut Loose workshop. List the places where you have slept. Which one will you write more about?

Wild. Where are your wild places? When have you been furthest into the wilderness? A wild place. Ten minutes.

Salad – love it or loathe it, or just a bit ambivalent. Tell us about salad.

Hair. How is your hair these days? When did it last meet a hairdresser or barber? How are you wearing it. How do you feel about you hair? Has it ever been thus?

The strangest house. What is the strangest house you have ever visited? When was that? What was it that made it seem so strange to you?

Veg patch. Do you have one? What have you grown there this year? Whose veg patch do you look at with admiration? Do you like being there, in the veg patch?

Ghost story -warming up for the end of the month. Do you have a family ghost story? Events that are hard to explain? An urban myth, regularly retold? A ritual of story-telling -who is your family storyteller? What tricks have been played?

Rain. Well it probably is. Ten minutes. Out in the rain. Go

Pumpkins: when I was little, we hollowed out swedes to make lanterns. I love growing pumpkins and I like pumpkin soup, too. I love the interior of a pumpkin, cobwebbed with rich orange strands that hold the seeds, its flesh jewelled with moisture. Tell us about pumpkins. Ten minutes!

Hallowe’en. Of course it is and a different event this evening from one children have grown used to. We used to bob for apples and cut into a flour cake until the sixpence on top fell into the flour. The person who had made it fall won the sixpence, but had to retrieve it with lips or teeth -preferably just after they had been bobbing for apples so that they would have a nicely ghostie face. Not an option today. So there you are Hallowe’en stories. Ten minutes, go.