There's A Place

Prompt #47 by The Beatles

I really appreciate all of you, Readers and Writers alike. Thanks to everyone who participated in last week's prompt, The World, by Charles Bradley!

I also have a bit of an announcement to make. I have just published my first book titled, Polk Knoll: A Collection of Short Stories. It's available now, and contains seven stories originally written for Jukebox prompts.

I am getting ready to start working on a printed, Stories from the Jukebox Anthology, too. Which will consist of the 50 Feature Award Winning Submissions of the Jukeboxes first year. Wanna get in it? There are five prompts left! You gotta subscribe and submit.

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Week #46 Feature🏆

This week’s Feature Award goes to Phillip Slater for his fiction submission titled, The World (Is Going Up In Flames). This terrifying account of a trouble youth’s afternoon completely embodies the theme of Bradly’s song.

Warning: Contains subject matter that some readers may find distressing.

It had been another difficult day at School.

Some light bullying, nothing he hadn’t experienced many times before. He’d struggled in class; he wasn’t stupid, but his teacher often made him feel that way. It took him a while to process things; that was all. Time his teacher never let him have.

The icing on the cake was seeing a girl he liked walking hand in hand with the captain of the football team. He knew he had no chance with her; he’d never even spoken to her, but still, it hurt. Probably more than it should have.

The World (Is Going Up In Flames)

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Here’s this week’s prompt, There’s A Place, by the Beatles!

"There's a Place" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their debut album, Please Please Me, released in March 1963. (Via Wikipedia)

It was written primarily by John Lennon and credited to McCartney–Lennon. In the United States, the song was released in July 1963 on the group's first US LP, Introducing... The Beatles, later reissued in January 1964 as Beatlemania surged there. It was also issued as a non-album single in the US, in March 1964, as the B-side to "Twist and Shout", reaching number 74 in the Billboard Hot 100.

Lennon said that "There's a Place" was his attempt at writing a song in the Motown style. According to Paul McCartney, the song's title phrase originated from "There's a Place for Us", from the soundtrack album to the 1961 film West Side Story. The song's lyrics relate to the singer's ability to overcome his loneliness by retreating into the haven of his mind.

In a 1997 interview  Paul McCartney, said, “We both sang it. I took the high harmony, John took the lower harmony or melody. This was a nice thing because we didn’t actually have to decide where the melody was till later when they boringly had to write it down for sheet music.”

The song's lyrics are written in the form of a first-person narrative. The singer declares his self-sufficiency, being able to transcend loneliness by retreating into his mind. Rather than having different verses, the lyrics repeat the verse line, serving to emphasise the song's theme.

Calling all Poets, Fiction, & Non-Fiction writers that love music — Share your prose of 1500 words or less, using the prompt, There’s A Place.

Remember:

• Each Tuesday I’ll publish a newsletter with that week’s song prompt — along with a featured writer’s submission from the previous week.

• Anyone is then free to run with it! Just add the link to your story or prose in the comments of this newsletter.

• Subscribers to Stories from the Jukebox, also have a chance to be featured in the following week’s newsletter. And I’ll do my best to give feedback and restack each submission.

There’s always rules:

1. All forms of prose are welcome, just keep it under 1500 words.

2. Submissions must be published by midnight on Monday July 20th, 2026. (the newsletter is sent to subscribers at midnight)

3. Submissions must include a tag/link to this week’s Song Prompt Newsletter embedded within the post.

While anyone is welcome to add their post in the comments at any time — all rules must be followed for a post to be eligible to be featured or shared.

How would you like to pick our prompt? Find out how to join our revolving list of Headliners here.

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Our prompt was chosen by poet extraordinaire, Theresa Greene. And I’m so excited to introduce her to Stories from the Jukebox readers! Almost every week, Theresa is the one to get us started. I can hardly get the newsletter published before she makes her submission via Note. Each week it brings a big smile to my face 😁.

Here’s our Headliner, There’s A Place, by Theresa Greene!

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Do you know a reader or writer that’d be perfect for this prompt? Share it with them!

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