Keys to Paradise and Other Locks.

Go to any museum and you'll find rusty and rotted keys from thousands of years ago, ornate and elegant keys that hung from the waists of Victorian or French housekeepers. In the drawers and cupboards of all our houses there are likely to be keys, put there for safekeeping, that belong to locks that no longer exist.

Keys take on a different form in the twenty first century. Safe combinations, swipe cards, iris and fingerprint recognition and keys smothered with bling and patterns to make them stand out.

However you look at it, everyone from the Roman Soldier to the Modern Art Teacher had or has something they want to lock up. Salt, saffron, sugar, secrets. Love letters, evidence, diamonds, people.

Make a list of everything you have locked up. Do you see the beginnings of a poem in that list? Or a story?

Look at the photo of keys above. Select one. Imagine you keep it somewhere safe. Write about the lock it opens. Tell a story about what's locked away and why. 

Write an intriguing sentence that includes the word key.

Have you any interesting stories that involve keys?