Song title poetry
We're writing a letter
You know Crazy right? Crazy ideas. But I have an idea. Write a note, a letter to the artist whose titles you have used to make a song title poem. If you want to do an email, do an email. But it’s more fun and original writing on paper. Explain what you’re doing and why and include your masterpiece!
Dear…
If you want to take a picture and show me the letter that’s ok, but I trust you to do it.
The floor and the comments are yours as I wanna hear how we’re all doing.
Tomorrow is crunch time. You’ll know what to do with that letter.
Had to do this one quickly without thinking haha - otherwise I would have lost my nerve. Thankfully a few of mine were written based on very obscure small NZ bands, so it wasn't too hard to figure out how to contact one of them. So letter sent - I'll let you know if I get a reply. I sent it to Alistair Galbraith, from A Handful of Dust;
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Hey Alistair,
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You don't know me, but I have been a long time fan of your music. And some 25 years ago (or so) when you opened for Keiji Haino in Auckland, my friends and I gave you a cassette of our band on the first night - and then on the second night you remembered us, and had listened to the cassette, and gave some lovely feedback. It's been a really special memory for us ever since.
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Anyway - I was recently taking part in a poetry challenge, where we were tasked to create poems out of song titles. And one of the bands I chose was A Handful of Dust. Then at the end of the challenge, one of the follow up prompts was to send a letter to one of the artists, to share the poem and let them know what an impact their music has had on us, and I chose you. Many thanks for all the great music over the years, and I hope you enjoy my humble effort at writing some poetry using song titles from Handful of Dust. Here's the poem, written as a sequence of 3 free-tanka;
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-: The Colour of Grasshoppers: A Dance :-
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I. first dance
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in a handful
of dust—
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i am god's finger,
.
and the sun
is not named
.
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II. second dance
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dialogues
of the dead—
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in the house of voluntary poverty,
we will blow
our best
.
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III. third dance
.
come,
breath upon these slain
that they may live—
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in the city of the sun,
a brief apology
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All the best,
Richard Whyte
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.
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<3
I'm stuck... not sure whether to choose Wham, Hozier, ABBA, Youssou N'Dour. This is a tough one.