LEADERS - not followers

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

A FEARFUL TRILL

FOR POW PROMPT 2


THE PROMPT
If you scroll down to the Poetry News you will find an excerpt from Elizabeth Smart's prose poetry novel "As I Sat Down By Grand Central Station And Wept ''. It is a police interrogation juxtaposed against a biblical psalm. Write a poem using this excerpt loosely as a model. Your poem should illustrate juxtaposing and contrasting elements. You could use a poem, a song, a letter, a hymn, something operatic or biblical and please, no interrogations. I'm looking forward to a variety of responses . So let your imaginations run riot. This should be fun to write. See you Wednesday. Until then, keep yourself nice!


BRIEF
Fin de Partie (Endgame) by Samuel Beckett, meets well known proverbs,
World Cup commentary, songs, poetry, movie and album titles.
The pressures of making a home, maintaining a relationship
and staying sane in the process are not for the feint-hearted.
A dubiously hopeful (happy?) ending – even if it means starting all over again…



I HAVE TRIED IN MY WAY TO BE FREE

An Englishman’s home is his castle
Intérieur sans meubles.
The lights are on, but no one’s home

Final demands notwithstanding
Lumière grisâtre
Put another shilling in the meter

I used to love her…
Fini,
They think it’s all over

Give ‘em enough rope…
c'est fini,
It is now

Eschatological End of Days?
ça va finir,
Careful what you wish for

Like a bird on the wire… I have tried…
ça va peut-être finir.
I know why the caged bird sings


CREDITS:
Title from ‘Like a bird on the wire’ by Leonard Cohen
French, (in italics) from Fin de Partie by Samuel Beckett
I used to love her – The Rolling Stones
They think it’s all over/It is now – Kenneth Wolstenhome (1966 World Cup)
Give ‘em enough rope – The Clash
Careful what you wish for - Eminem
Like a bird on the wire – Leonard Cohen
I know why the caged bird sings – Maya Angelou

15 comments:

  1. Wow! Your references are so interesting . This worked very well indeed. Thanks for contributing such a good poem.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Rallentanda; I had to keep shuffling the quotations until I was satisfied with the result... Les mots justes...?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Merci bien, Monsewer, or summat like that.

    Cool post Stan!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Andy; Que'tchose comme ca - A Pas De Calais resident said that's how locals say quelquechose (something). I guess it best translates to 'summat'.

    ReplyDelete
  5. So all you do is listen to music, TV and read poetry, eh Stan?! Clever blending. I was reduced to interspersing my own words! And 'summat' is a wonderful word!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks Derrick; That's not all I do - I also sleep, eat and get drunk, innit...
    and a whole 2 lines of this are all my own work...!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love what you did with this prompt. Nice!
    Pamela

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks to:
    Pamela; Great prompt to work with.
    Jingle; I'll check it out.

    ReplyDelete
  9. When I first saw the structure, I had my doubts. But this is amazing! Great stuff, Stan!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks Paul; It took several drafts before I settled on this.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Stan, I found the first read interesting but got to your references and then it all got really interesting enough for a second and third read. I'll raise a glass to any poet who can co-mingle Cohen, Eminem and Mick. Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks JDM; I spent quite a long time piecing it together - though probably mot as much as the likes of Cohen and Beckett.

    ReplyDelete
  13. There's a great little jazz ditty--"If I Spoke French"
    *wistfully*

    ReplyDelete
  14. nice job shuffling those......thanks for sharing this Stan

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thanks to:
    Briarcat; Sometimes, even people we know best seem to speak a foreign language.
    Wayne; I think the end product works about right.

    ReplyDelete