Tag: writer

Posted in #NaPoWriMo, Writing

NaPoWriMo 2026 – Day 24/30

Posted on by Charlie Alford 
While you were sleeping
the house was breathing
Stretching it’s bones
Exhaling in moans.
The floorboard creaks
as the doorframe speaks 
the tree rustles in the dark 
witching hour left its mark.
The walls are painted in whispers
as the darkness, omits her
she’s missing from the shadows 
and only the house knows. 
Holding its breath 
behind the ageing frames 
until morning yawns
and starts a new game.

Posted in #NaPoWriMo, Writing

NaPoWriMo 2026 – Day 22/30

Posted on by Charlie Alford 
It’s 4pm on a grey Autumn day
when the twinkle in my eye starts to say
it’s all them pigeons, I’d bet my pension
I swallow a laugh as I pay attention.

On the screen, behind Churchill, they line
like members of Parliament at Question time.
Gatherin’ round to remember the war,
chests puffed out, cooing at tours.

I listen carefully, drinking my tea 
as the voice in my head narrates the TV.
The pigeons, I agree, are patrons of London,
but that doesn’t mean they’re the guilty ones.

Um, what about the coded messages,
bows and circles as they make their pledges
fueds in the vestiges of Westminister -
could there be anything more sinister.

I wrap up my work as I contemplate 
how pigeons have shaped my homelands fate
is this payback for Trafalgar Square
those years we scattered and chased from there?



Posted in #NaPoWriMo, Writing

NaPoWriMo 2026 – Day 21/30

Posted on by Charlie Alford 
It started with a Charlie, girl
You will not be a fly on the wall
Take those wings to the summer sky
Wrap your dreams around the world.

Little red wellies made Chuggles
Daddy’s lifelong partner in crime
Watching from the country garden
Cycling through Surrey’s autumn hills.

The seasons turned and so did Chum
A dog food brand, a word for friend
My little brother named me once
And either way, I loved the sound.

The land down under gave me Chaz
Where it is too hot for syllables
And cultural expectations
It felt very early-noughties cool.

Graduation christened me Charles
Pulling me back toward the patriarchy
Having to prove my own first name
Those small corrections left their scars.

Today the Teams chat calls me CA
An office joke between colleagues
Who speak in acronyms all day
A little goodbye: see ya, CA.

But what began as sibling teasing
Became the name my people use
The one that stayed, the one that softened
I will always be, Always Chum.

Posted in Writing

NaPoWriMo – Day 21 – Courage

Posted on by Charlie Alford 
Stop saying ‘my understanding is’
be active and straight with your words
Stop second guessing your position
say what you need to say, be heard.
I’m not going to be here.
I’m not going to answer.
I’m not sitting around waiting
I’m dancing like a sunflower.
Courage is not the absence of fear…
Posted in Writing

NaPoWriMo – Day 19 – Monsters

Posted on by Charlie Alford 
Aged council houses in the Home Counties
backed onto deep dark historic woodlands 
haunted by castle ruins and shelters
brought to life by village children.
At the end of the short cul-de-sac
a long footpath disappeared with the night
mothers shouted curfew bells at sunset
and demanded a return to the light.
Do not go into the woods after dark.
Not a step beyond the street light shadow.
Across the line the boogey man will wait
for naughty children who never listen. 
Do not go into the woods after dark.
The flickering shadows are not your friends.
The boogey man will come, wait and see
and you’ll wish you had just listened to me.
Fast forward to the turn of the century 
this village child became a teenager
where adventures went beyond the woodland
but never beyond the path after dark.
Because the boogey man could be waiting.
Posted in Writing

NaPoWriMo – Day 18 – ABC Predicted Text

Posted on by Charlie Alford 
And I wrote you a playlist of
Bob Ross’ voice, more serene than
Coastal lakes lining mountains.
Did I get the right vibe?

Even if we are not leaving 
For the next year or so 
Google drive through the same day 
How down the hill did we fall? 

Is it this time of Autumn?
Just an in between of seasons.
Know how to get the old boys back 
Like those immortal 90s shows.

My phone died like a car crash 
Not sure what happened but it 
Ordered a few more days to 
Park in the present, oi vey.

Question? We have to go ahead
Rest and breathe for tomorrow 
See I will miss the next dream
That you planned without me.

Until it’s like a normal 
Video of you and me 
What do you want to do?
X-ray the situation?

Yeah I’m not sure about road trips.
Zaddy, I’m writing to you.
Posted in Writing

NaPoWriMo – Day 14 – Parody

Posted on by Charlie Alford 
Let me count the ways I’m not into you
You have enough red flags to line a street
But my heart does not care what maybe true
she fantasies about the day we’ll meet.
Why do you have to be agreeable?
You’re like a puppy waiting to be fed
love and worth. It is unbelievable
that I cannot get you out of my head.
But, in the moment my phone starts chirping
lightening sparks my fingertips and I type
my heart hangs from words that keep it racing
while my brain doesn’t understand the hype.
In the moment, my heart is into you
But in the morning, I’m over it. True.

Inspired by Shakespeare’s Sonnet 141 and one of my fav rom-coms 10 Things I Hate About You.

Posted in Writing

NaPoWriMo – Day 12 – Poem

Posted on by Charlie Alford 
Where the voice in my head connects to pen
Onions of feelings turn into scribble
Reaching to pieces I need to question
Deconstructing a veteran riddle.

Pour me a glass of the finest whiskey.
Oblige me to a bottle of cheese and wine.
Endeavour to bring mental liberty.
Mend the broken quatrains that jail my mind.

But, a poem is more than verse or song
Like the tide it changes with differing eyes
Understand it’s not something to get wrong
Each one has a way of seeing the sky. 

Be the message you want to tell the earth
Excite, amaze, and know your worth.