Adventually

Make christmas pictures. Make christmas toy lists.
Ete mints pies. Decorate bedroom and hotel.
Dress up toys. Reef up. Watch mupits christmas
charle. Make Santa's house out of lego.

Make christmas cards. Christmas tree or read
christmas story. Watch Narnea. Watch Shreck
the holls. An activity scene out.
Dressing gouns on. Deckarate tree. Play games.

Rein dear sweet thing. Dress Atticus up
as Jeses. Make crackers and biscits.
Play in the snow if there is any.
Take pictures of Robings. Sing Rudeof

the red knose Raindear. Put stockings out.
Put mints pies and drink for Santa.



An advent calendar of 24 things to do before Christmas made by my seven-year-old son, with the numbers removed but in his original order. Penned 26 October 2010. Notes: 'Reef' means wreath; the 'Rein dear sweet thing' is a reindeer-shaped sweet dispenser; Atticus is his baby brother. Submitted by Gabriel Smy.

With This Ring

Diana, the bride

at every royal funeral

and the mourner at

every royal wedding, was

present in more than

just the engagement ring which

sat so heavily

on the hand of this young woman

who must now walk a

mile in her bloodied shoes, on

a road leading who knows where.



Julie Birchill in the Independent, quoted by the Daily Mash, 17th November 2010. Submitted by Marika Rose.

Effed Up

Find more friends.
More friends are waiting.

These five friends
found their friends using
the Facebook Friend Finder.
Have you found all of your friends?
Give it a try.

Find friends



Microcopy from Facebook, spotted 9 October 2010. Submitted by Gabriel Smy.

Mr Sweep

Chimney's and stove flues swept
Bird's nests removed
Broken chimney pots replaced
Chimney stack repointing
Cowls fitted
Clean, reliable service
Handyman services also available



Taken from a tradesman's poster found in Aberdeen, spotted on the 12th November 2010. Submitted by Tim.

All Stand to Sing

VERSE 1
Great man, who descended from heaven
Great man, who is a man of deeds.
Savior, supreme leader of the nation
Guiding star of the 21st century.

CHORUS
Leader, great leader,
Great sun of the 21st Century.
Father, beloved father,
Bright Sun of the 21st Century.

VERSE 2
Dear leader, who is a perfect incarnation
of the appearance that a leader should have.
Wise leader, father of the nation,
Father of the people, great sun of life.

CHORUS…

VERSE 3
Beloved and respected father, great
Defender, sun of the nation.
Beloved and respected leader, fate
of the nation, guiding ray of sun.

CHORUS… x2



An evangelical chorus made from the official names of Kim Jong-Il. Submitted by Gabriel Smy.

Don't Speak

I've got nobody to talk to.
Nobody to say, how you feel?
Nobody to say, you ok?
Nobody. You can't talk.
I can only talk to you.
And you're no frigging good,
cos you can't talk back.

It's been really funny, cos in the stillness I've felt
you know
my goodness, you know,
this is me. It's just
it's just me now. I feel kinda stripped bare.
I can't
the only way I can describe it is I feel
tetchy. I feel
every time it gets really quiet I think
I'm out of control.

With all the stillness
I really can look at myself.
I don't know whether you can
whether that's ever happened to you
where you've actually looked in the mirror and
you can kind of see past the eyes. And it's like
meeting a new person.

Right now, right this minute
this is the loneliest I've felt since I was
was at the children's home.



Volunteers on a silent retreat, taken from the BBC's The Big Silence, first broadcast on 22nd October 2010. Submitted by Marika Rose.

Cars parked on the pavement

Cars parked on the pavement in Benchill
1 minute ago

Theft of cash from a garage in Salford
1 minute ago

Theft from a car in Bolton
2 minutes ago

Fail to stop collision, two cars, damage only, no injuries, Salford
2 minutes ago

Abandoned car in south Manchester
2 minutes ago

Neighbour dispute in Wigan
2 minutes ago

Harassment by ex-partner in Stockport
2 minutes ago

Neighbour dispute in Rochdale
2 minutes ago

Report of man asleep in toilets in theatre when asked he left
3 minutes ago

Domestic issue in Oldham
3 minutes ago

Antisocial behaviour – youths throwing things at cars in Bolton
3 minutes ago

Report of abandoned animal in Salford
3 minutes ago

Customer refusing to leave shop, Bolton
3 minutes ago

Information regarding an annoying letter
4 minutes ago



Selected from the Greater Manchester Police twitter feed, publishing every event it dealt with over a 24-hour period ending 15 October 2010. Submitted by Nick Asbury.

Not The Tiger

Begin by not thinking about a jungle

at dusk, then don’t think about a bush

rustling behind you though there is no wind.

Then don’t imagine turning too late, your

helpless shriek cut short by the rushing

onslaught of a powerful stripy carnivore

hurtling at you, its jaws agape. There

are about 3,000 tigers in the wild,

so if you follow this procedure once

every day in a little over 8

years you’ll have not thought about all of them.

How can I not think about tigers? taken from the blog Some Kind of Explanation on the 31st October 2010. Submitted by Marika Rose.

Turn of the Century

Jim Higginson, Jeff Pullinger,
New tweet traffic, John Whittaker.
Jo_Bell, scribble mill,
J Willmoth, Stoo Gill,
Woodward (MW), Steph Walker.

M Suryadarma, Seymikins, Jason Davies,
Alastair Cook, Evans_above, Philosophicles;
Ani Dhorchaidhe, johan vdm_tweets, Bruntonspall,
Kiwi_j, Holmes Annie, Phil Harford, man birth control.

Saxicola, Elspeth Murray, Ambit magazine,
Ally Maughan, chris_emslie, TJ Cashman, Dex Brady;
Firebird Poetry, Phill_dolby, Alasdair North,
Stuart Durber, DK Scully, CA Whitworth.

Rocky
Rutherford, Dreich
Randall Snare, Marika
Rose, Mary Rose Lloyd, Rich Oster
robot

prior
Paul poetry
Perly gates, Joanna
Paterson, Parkers web, Qban
poet

Liz Plane
Lump in the throat
Len Bogorad, Alfrot
Lucie Shuker, Lisa Ansell
Leithing

Crafty green poet HaikuGirl_, handful of stones Adarro,
Elly green poetry ed snow, Beta Rish Ajodasso.
F green Amy Plenderleith, Bertielicious Jaduperreault.

Emily Hewson Daniel J John, Geoff De Geoff Geoff Stevenson,
Toyedi Shrewmaus N Schonken, Glendronach Ben Hodson.
Caroline crew Tolte C John, Scotbower Vicky Osullivan.

Kaslis_1, Pete Marshall 1
J Flamingo 2, Ninja Grrlz 6

Minute story:

Poetry found one night:
stanzas the poetry editor read.
Write, cook, by leaves we live, design tides,
graft poetry, write 0ut loud, muse…
Hunter, weaponizer, moondust writer,
idyllic poet, mark burdz eye view.

Anon, poetry.

Mknight.



Created from the twitter names of our first 100 followers on Twitter. Capitalization has been changed for some of the names and punctuation added. Among the stanzas there are firsts on Verbatim for some poetic forms: the limerick, the Korean sijo and the Crapsey cinquain. Submitted by Gabriel Smy. Thanks for following.