LEADERS - not followers

Thursday, July 29, 2010

HEROES …?

For Big Tent Poetry


This week’s prompt
We all have heroes — icons whose greatness we aspire to,
whose larger-than-life personalities (or pretty faces) we are drawn to.
Fresh out of graduate school, filled with feminist fire, I wrote several poems re-imagining
the life and times of Barbie. (Denise Duhamel has an entire collection devoted to this blond bombshell.
You can check out Kinky
here). A few years later, never having seen an episode of “Leave It To Beaver,”
I nonetheless began channeling June Cleaver when married life didn’t turn out the way I imagined.
This week, start with a list of pop culture icons that interest you. Imagine one of them in a mundane setting:
Marilyn Monroe doing the dishes, Elvis mowing the lawn, Lady Gaga carpooling the kids to soccer practice.
Poem an icon into a situation they may never, in real life, appear.
Need some inspiration? Check out Tony Barnstone’s
The 167th Psalm of Elvis,
David Trinidad’s clever
Chatty Cathy Villanelle or Kate Durbin’s haunting prose poem
Marilyn: Leftovers, chronicling Marilyn Monroe’s personal effects.

I put a Rock ‘n’ Roll superstar
(take your pick)
to work in a factory


WORK SONG

Strange town
Longsight M13
What difference does it make?

Working 9 to 5
Money for nothing
A means to an end

The hardest thing in the world…

Something better change
I don’t like Mondays

Help!
I wanna be sedated

(Yeah, yeah) Industrial estate


Acknowledgements:

WORK SONG – Cannonball Adderly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBxAC4ywaJ4

Strange town – The Jam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4tEX8tm6qw

Longsight M13 – Ian Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV70kw7S7xQ

What difference does it make? – The Smiths
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5DE8UQnM5Y

Working 9 to 5 – Dolly Parton
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpKAA2VxWY8

Money for nothing – Dire Straits
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5ZEzWwKJnY

A means to an end – Joy Division
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPG_TCX2Z0k

The hardest thing in the world - The Stone Roses
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLser2OWa74

Something better change – The Stranglers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSEOzimKnEY

I don’t like Mondays – The Boomtown Rats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er5uuCYi7q4

Help! – The Beatles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU7JjJJZi1Q

I wanna be sedated – The Ramones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rxJroWIg1Y

(Yeah, yeah) Industrial estate – The Fall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKECj238-Lo

24 comments:

  1. Anything that includes The Ramones is definitely cool!

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  2. Thanks Mama Zen; Gabba gabba hey, I agree...

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  3. I found 5 lines that I knew from songs. Not bad for an golden oldie! Help! I wanna be sedated.
    (giggles smirles snork!)

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  4. Thanks Rall; They're all song titles; some mainsteam - some a little obscure. Most of them 20 yers old or more.

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  5. I only found two! But it sums up accurately the drudgery of so many 'normal' jobs.

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  6. Thanks ViV; Still got the 'Titles' theme in my head... and I've had my share of factory work.

    Sorry about the 'a' in years, Rall - I know how to spell it really.

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  7. Cleverly done, Stan.

    http://thelaughinghousewife.wordpress.com

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  8. It takes yers and yers Stan.Sorry about the k in smirkles!

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  9. Thanks to:
    TLH; I was struggling with the prompt, so I just played some tunes...
    Rall; Looks like we both had a bit of a rough spell!

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  10. Yes, the prompt was a bit rough for me too...until I came up with an idea. You can always be depended on to come up with a unique slant!

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  11. A puzzle piece poem! Wonderful!

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  12. Stan I see you still have titles going through your head as well! Nice one!
    Pamela

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  13. I like the combination and blending of the new and old prompts. Makes for a very good weave.

    Elizabeth

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  14. Great idea here! Love your imagination...

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  15. Love it, sadly didn't "get it" until the Ramones line. Ah well. Well done!

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  16. Thanks to:
    Mary; My main problem was putting the icon on unfamiliar ground. Most either have 'normal' backgrounds, or have served 'community service' sentences.
    Mark; It nearly didn't happen.
    Pamela; More local flavour to this one.
    Elizabeth; For a last resort, I think it works OK.
    Cynthia; Those song titles helped a bit...
    Twitches; Not exactly Greatest Hits, but a couple of well known songs in there.

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  17. Love it Stan! That title prompt got me thinking about writing another piece, too. It's fun, and fills in those blanks in my head. I like how you worked it into the Big Tent prompt.
    Hey..I saw a question of yours somewhere. Yes, coriander is cilantro. mmmm mmmmm I'm still thinking about it. ha!
    ~brenda

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  18. Thanks Brenda; Whenever I get a 'block', I put on some tunes, and it comes...
    Yeah, thought I got the cilantro/coriander thing right... thanks.

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  19. Quite a few of my favorites in this mix... nicely mashed :)

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  20. Thanks Francis; I like a bit of almost everything.

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  21. Amazing use of titles - reads real!

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  22. Thanks Tumblewords; You don't have to be a rock 'n' roll superstar to know the feeling.

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