Nob Hill in the afternoon

sitting in a dead bar remembering

Rome

the alleys of Rome

all the fucking coffees

put back, the caffeine rush

of broken-faced statues

the screaming dead

to grip the heart

but back home now

Jack & Coke

Americanized again,

which is fine, actually

the biggest thrill of travel

is knowing the typewriter

in the room back home is

where your life is lived like

it always was

like you knew it was already

but

you had to feel the night

in Spain

in France

the beats of London

and the fire-age of Italy

but what you've learned from

the words

all the Christs and Darwins and Satans

and Science

running in your blood

Nietzsche in skin but

Schopenhauer undulating

simultaneous acceptance and

rejection of nature and nurture

shit and shinola

the cunts endured

or the loves lost

by you

gone in the catacombs

beyond the chasms of

then

the comrades turned enemies

sharing that dead space

if we're lucky

a broken heart blown

to stone and shattered

if we're lucky

the Sun from now reaching

toward death

bright and open to

OUR intent for the last

half of the game

for the rest of

the words in

the room

your blood that

breaks

hard

against the shore

of what you

knew was

already

home

in your

skin.

Wowzers! Where did that week go? Well, yes it went fast but we all know what that means. It’s Friday and we get to showcase and shine a light on another talented and very lovely Proser.

She has written two of our most read blog pieces and is a very active Proser, always flying the flag for us. She is Anna Boswell, AKA Anna. Boz. Bozatron. Bozza. You may well know her under her Proser username, which is @ABoswell

Anna lives in Norwich, England and describes herself as “Passionate. Compassionate. Adventurous.” She is a Marketing and Customer Experience person by day, and an NLP Coach by night. Sounds snazzy. Seriously, if you haven’t read her blog pieces yet, then get yourself over to the blog site and check them out. And so, without further ado, we give you @ABoswell

P: What is your relationship with writing and how has it evolved?

A: I never felt like I was very good at anything much in school, except for chess, and creative writing. And that was down to Wilfred Rowe. Legendary Headmaster of Morrison County Primary School in Liverpool. This man made chess a compulsory subject, back in 1988. I liked how I could sit and analyse my next move. If I took the Rook in one direction, it may well capture the opponent's Queen, but then my King would be vulnerable. I spent so much time considering chess moves, I think it had an influence later on, when I began writing.

Characters and stories gave me an infinite amount of choice. Unlimited paths to take and adventures to seek. When I studied for my English Literature exam, the two books we read were Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and George Orwell's '1984'. Both these books have had a significant impact upon me. The first made me realise that through writing, you can access entirely new worlds, whilst creating unaccountable mischief and magic. I was utterly enchanted by Titania, Queen of the Fairies. On the other hand, Orwell's 1984 awakened the activist within me. It showed me the compelling, gut-wrenching power, that written words had to deliver a message, to uncover truth, to challenge consciousness, and to communicate with the world.

In February 2015, twenty years later, I discovered Prose. A place that actively encourages people to write, to develop, and to experiment. It reignited my love of short stories and poems, and before I knew it, I was writing almost daily. In the past twelve months, because of Prose, my writing has evolved probably the most dramatically, compared to any other period in my life. Words, and writing, have been my light, my dark, my creative balance, my therapist, my best friend, my passion, my humour, my freedom.

P: What value does reading add to both your personal and professional life?

A: Another part of my imagination lights up, with each new poem and each new book I read. It allows me to time travel. It gives me connections to people and places and experiences, I'd never have know. It's an access all areas V.I.P. pass, to other realms of wisdom.

It means I can say things like “Wanna hear something brilliant?! So, our observable universe is 84 billion light years across. Which effectively means it would take 84 billion years, travelling at the speed of light... to get from one side of the universe to the other. AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT! But once, a long long time ago, milliseconds after the big bang, all of that universe was contained in something the size of a pea. A PEA!” - Now, that kinda shit doesn't only impress people down the pub, I've used that in the boardroom. And for those interested, that came from reading the latest New Scientist book, 'Nothing'.

P: Can you describe your current literary ventures and what can we look forward to in future posts?

A: I'd love to write more about topics that are really important to me, that oppose animal cruelty, injustice and inequality, ideally to support movements and organisations that tackle such issues. I guess that's the Orwellian inspired activist in me!

Currently, I continue to write articles around how NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) can help people to overcome challenges, and would welcome any suggestions from Prosers as to subjects that might be useful to them. I've also had the opportunity to interview some really interesting people, about specific topics for which they are an expert, finding out what drives them, with the view to encouraging other people to be able to do the same, through articles and blog posts.

I have a personal challenge/ambition to deliver a poem at an open mic poetry night in London, with some people I've connected with through Prose. And with a shot of confidence and a dash of vodka, it'd be fun to do something like this more regularly. So, I want to play around much more with rhythmical structure when it comes to poems on Prose. In fact, I have some books on this very topic that I intend to devour!

I suppose I'm meant to say that I'd like to write a book. I would. Of course. And I've got a story. But, this isn't my priority. There's so much more I want to achieve first, that I think will help equip me. I'm in training.

P: What do you love about TheProse.com?

A: The no holds barred, uncensored, non-judgemental freedom. The genuine encouragement, ability to experiment and opportunity to develop. The creative challenges, the Prose publications and the extensive, treasure filled, reading library. And then, there's the people. The absolutely fucking phenomenal people. Irons up.

P: Is there one book that you would recommend everybody should read before they die?

A: Where the Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak

P: Do you have an unsung hero who got you into reading and/or writing?

A: In 1998, Jim Smith, a close family friend (no longer with us), gave me a gift. It was a Robert Frost poetry book. I've read and re-read both the book, and the letter he wrote enclosed within it, over forty times. His letter said he'd had this passing impulse to buy it for me. It was that passing impulse that instigated a butterfly effect. And that has made all the difference.

P: Is there one quote, from a writer or otherwise, that sums you up?

A: “There is no reason why anyone should understand how it works… and of course no reason why anyone should care … unless you are curious, in which case I love you, for curiosity about the world and all its corners is a beautiful thing.” - Stephen Fry

P: Favourite music to write and/or read to?

A: The Doors.

P: You climb out of a time machine into a dystopian future with no books. What do you tell them?

A: This is a tough question, I mean, I'd have to reinvent books. Obviously. And then I could share all manner of things, couldn't I? Can they read? These dwellers of the dystopian future? If not, I'm starting up reading classes n'all. Then I'm re-hashing 1984, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Where the Wild Things Are..... A 1984 Midsummer's Wild Thing. It's gonna be huge.

So there you have it. We’ll leave Anna to rewrite the future in her beautifully crazy way. Follow and interact with her on here, as well as on Twitter where she resides as @_bozatron xx

If you are active on Prose and want to be featured or want to someone on Prose to be featured, do please let us know at info@theprose.com. Until next time, Prosers.

They

     were

    midwives

        on                                                    my                                                       mother’s

         side.                                                One                                                     is

         from                                              St. Thomas.                                   One

          is                                                          from                         Trinidad.

      Grandma                                                is                          from

       Cuba.                                             Then                     there’s

     the                                              one                     from

    the                                      Canary Islands,          she

    was a                                        doctor.             Her

son,                                            grandpa,          was a

  landowner                           The                 one

           from                  Puerto Rico decided

                     that she would do

                      other things

                      and relocated

                       to New York,

                     where I

                   was born.

Morning, Prosers,

It’s week 11 of our Throwback Thursday Blog feature and this week are getting a little reflective, along with sharing some really exciting behind-the-scenes news with you!

Prose was officially taken out of beta status just over one year ago, and ever since we have been working hard to bring you the best writing and reading social media experience, ever. As a result, we have seen team members come and go, and those of us that remain have become extremely tight-knit. We truly are an extended family, with thousands of miles between us, yet we often spend more time with each other, than with our families.

We often sit in awe over the comments we read, the statistics that we analyze, and the creativity that you all share with us every day. There is something so pure, personal, and raw, when you put pen to paper, or fingers to keys; writing and purging your thoughts is an intimate act, and we couldn't be more honored that it’s us you have chosen to share your words with.

The team share your comments and posts with each other frequently, and to see the love you have for Prose, the platform we pour hundreds of hours into each week, makes us happier than ever! Monday this week saw one of the best days we have ever had on Prose in terms of page-views, visitors, and time spent reading on the site. More and more people are discovering Prose and finding a literary home within our community.

As we mention community, we thought it only right to mention our thoughts on what we see daily on Prose. Prosers are getting to know one another along with sharing knowledge, collaborating, supporting each other. We cannot tell you how proud that makes us, it is so good to see the community grow and along with it, the literary-family-feel you have all adopted. Thank you all so much for helping us become what we dreamt of when this idea was conceived.

Now, with transparency being key, and to further build our relationship with you, we’d like to let you into one of the projects we are working hard on behind-the-scenes. We see Prose as a full literary network; we have published your words in The Prose Anthologies (available on Amazon Kindle), we provide an awesome social network, Portals have been established, we have blog.theprose.com where we offer informative pieces and advice, we’ve had interviews with industry experts, actors, writers, and directors, and we still feel as though we aren't quite there yet. We are currently in development with some super-awesome new features that we know you will absolutely love. But we can’t disclose that, yet. However, what we can disclose is that we are working on the first, of many, Prose magazines called The Prose. Stay tuned, we will share more about this nearer the time. If you would like to offer help, please send us an email, theprose.com/p/contact.

Finally, before we go and get on with the top-secret Prose business, we are making your lives a lot easier when it comes to sharing bugs or feedback with us. We have created a public Trello board for you all to contribute to. The team will keep a close eye, or two, on this and we invite you to join us in the new age of transparency across the board! Here is the link: https://trello.com/b/Kb5b4vee/prose-suggestions-bugs. Help us to help you!

Until next time, Prosers,

Prose.