Another Exercise

The Exercise.
Set yourself the following task:
You are going to write a page about each of the following topics. Don't let anything intrude on this exercise. No distractions. Don't even think about it too deeply or try to make much sense. Write down in five minutes or so for each topic) what you know about

1. Garden furniture
2. Marilyn Monroe
3. The Earth‘s core
4. Eagles
5. Fireworks
Bell & Magrs 2019*

Pleas bear in mind that this is all stream of consciousness stuff, and as such not designed to make sense.

Garden Furniture
So, what do I know about garden furniture? Well, if I am honest very little. There are all sorts of questions that could be asked here:-
What the hell is garden furniture?
How do we define it?
Is it just a bench in a sunny spot of the garden where we can sit and read?
Or, is it an elaborate set of table and chairs on a patio inhabited by party animals?
For me personally the only required piece of garden furniture would be a deck chair that could be constantly moved to the next sunny position - of course it would have to have an arm with the capacity to hold a bottle of beer.

Marilyn Monroe
To be honest I know very little about Marilyn Monroe beyond the public persona of the actress. That she was a very beautiful woman goes without saying. It is common knowledge that she met a sad end to her life, the true details of which may never be known. I suspect that a large part of what contributed to her sad demise was that she was used and abuse by so many for so long.

The Earth’s Core
It exists! What more can one say? There are plenty of conspiracy theorists out there who still maintain that the earth is a hollow shell - thank you Jules Verne. We are pretty certain that the core is comprised of molten rock, and we speculate about its composition. But can we really know? Well, not without visiting the core and collecting samples - not sure that I would volunteer for that position.

Eagles
A rock band? Oh, no, that was The Eagles - wash your mouth out Mr A! Well they are big birds, ain’t they? Also known as ‘raptors’ they are quite beautiful and graceful birds, especially in flight. They serve a necessary purpose in maintaining the balance of nature - a balance that man does his level best to fuck up at every opportunity. They are as varied a family of birds as any other family, and range in size from the big like, for example, the Marsh Harrier, to huge like the Golden Eagle.

Fireworks
Originally, I guess, they came from China. These days they are somewhat overused to celebrate any number of different events. But the British usage is rooted in that famous non-event perpetrated by one Guy Fawkes. I say that it was a ‘famous non-event’ because he failed. Had he achieved his aim we may have had something to really celebrate - something like a fully functioning democracy.

* Bell J., Magrs P. eds, The creative Writing Coursebook, Macmillan, 2019