by the Read Write Poem Staff
It’s Thursday, and that means it’s time to get your poems on! What did you think of the mash-up prompt that Matthew Hittinger blessed us with this week? Did you use two or more of your own poems or did you mash your work with that of another poet? Did any members work together on their mash-ups — we sure hope so!
Please read this page to find out how the Get Your Poem On and Read Write Prompt posts work.
Remember that work linked from this post is shared in precisely that spirit: sharing, as opposed to critiquing.
If you haven’t done so already, please read all the pages under About in the navigation bar.
If you participate in a Read Write Prompt, we ask that you link back here in your posts, either with a link to Read Write Poem or by using the Read Write Poem badge in your post. Sidebar links are great but it helps others find the site when you link in every post you contribute to the project. It’s not a lot to ask in acknowledgment of the work everyone is doing in providing prompts for members to use.
Not quite mash so much as bubble and squeak: Life’s a Beach
This was a very enjoyable prompt. I mashed up a poem and the lyrics to a Billie Holiday song.:
East of the Sun
It’s been a dis-orienting experience, a little like working a jigsaw puzzle without knowing what the picture will be. I like what came of it, but in a sort of impersonal way. i have hidden words
I couldn’t mash two poems. I found out I could mash with lyrics.
don’t tell me
Mash = my poems,Will’s and a recipe
The Food of Love
I’d like to be a pineapple
green pointed and prickly
golden rough outside
like Blondel
hip little minstrel
in clover coated confection
I was a peach once
but got old
so nature deals with us
and takes away our
playthings one by one
am now a baked potato
with a dollop of butter and paprika
still yummy but homely
mine rose cheeked kinsman
said I was a tattered weed
of small worth held,I said
truly thou art damned
like an ill roasted egg
stuff your zucchinis…
Derrick replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 6:09 am
Hi Rall,
I could never think of you as a baked potato, even with a dollop of butter! Nor a tattered weed. Perhaps a slender Gum, exuding an exotic scent.
barbara_y replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 6:39 am
I said very nearly the same thing to my cousin the other day on facebook. We need to do a challenge for vegetables
Rachel Barenblat replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 7:51 am
I like this very much, rallentanda! I especially like the opening lines. And something about “I was a peach once / but got old” makes me laugh.
Therese L. Broderick replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 8:22 am
I admire how you extend the “mash-up” prompt to include not just two, but at least three sources. Your use of “hip” and “confection” brings to my mind previous Wordles. Your poem here shows how a “mash-up” can harken back to an entire lineage of poems & influences.
Cynthia Short replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 8:43 am
This was great and gave me a good laugh this early morning…and you are nothing like a baked potato..I would say artichoke, slathered with hollandaise-many layers of wonderfulness!
David Moolten replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Great parade of fruits, tubers and greens, which of course are delicious metaphors for all kinds of things pertaining to love. You’ve woven your own words and Shakespeare’s together very deftly, as well as the food/non-food phrases. The potato works very well here, with the idea of being baked and done. Although, given the prompt, it could also have been mashed…
Linda Fraser replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Two poems from you today, Shakespeare and a recipe. How did I become so fortunate? I would say, “Nay, you are not a tattered weed!” You are only a poet who understands how to crochet the fruits of love into juicy poems. Well done, sweet Rallentanda! Thank you.
Donald Harbour replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament,
And only herald to the gaudy spring, Within thine own bud buriest thy content, Verily I say this thine poetic offering, This besieging of the stony walls, Not a tattered weed of small worth held, but held on high the charm is firm and good. I like your use of Shakespeare, but then you already knew that since thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d.
Regards,
DH
Joanne Johns replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
I’m claiming this as my favourite for this week, even though I’ve only read three others so far.
You’ll find mine here:
http://beyondtheblog.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/lifestyle
I wrote an entire series based on this prompt:
A storage model circus, Grow your own mind reading man, Central Corpus Clips, I quickly phoned and Hey Cranberry Boy.
They’re all based on a process I came up with for another poem last week, The Original Game, which may as well have been part of the prompt.
Yeah, I went a little overboard this week, didn’t I?
You’ll never read this
A letter to someone I don’t know…
Mash of : ‘A friend not yet met’ and ‘Bridged’
Death is a friend not yet met,
a feast beyond compare,
The chasm of chance gapes at passing feet
a place to meet and greet
the origin of care.
scarring soles, scaring souls
and grinding time into history.
Death has the smell of roses
sweet aroma
not decay;
Travelled feet walk well trodden paths
viewing familiar failures
to be met with eyes
bright as children’s
waking early Christmas day.
winding webs
tracing trails of deceit.
barbara_y replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 7:08 am
nice. I like a couple of the splices especially well: origin of care/ scarring soles, scaring souls
and
viewing familiar failures/ to be met with eyes bright…
David Moolten replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 9:43 am
You’ve joined the two sets of words/lines together quite well, combining not just meaning but sound as well (e.g. met/feet/greet or waking/winding webs).
Cynthia Short replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 11:28 am
I like what you did here, and they also stand nicely on their own. I especially liked, “grinding time into history”…thought-provoking.
Linda Fraser replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Wordsculptor,
Your poems mesh well together. It’s like you have created a bridge between life and death. The walking and traveling of one poem counters the death stop of the other. Very good choices. Thank you.
Hey All,
after a gap of 2 months, am back with my new post. It is not related to the post but am glad to begin writing again. The reason for my absence from here is what my post talks about:)
http://etopiakilla.blogspot.com/2009/10/birds-view.html
Thanks.
* i meant it is not related to the prompt & not the post :S
stupid me.
Here’s mine, a mash in the end of two orphan lines removed from two other poems. It’s called
Early Sunday Morning (After Hopper)
Sorry folks, didn’t manage to mash anything together this week! But I’ll enjoy reading all of yours.
Rallentanda replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 6:39 am
Thankyou Derrick for your charming and generous comment.
‘It is absurd to divide people into good and bad
People are either charming or tedious!’
Oscar Wilde
Mashed two poems of similar subject, came out with something I’m pretty pleased with. Critiques welcome and invited.
Resurrection
Here is my poem. I enjoyed the mash because it never occurred to me to try doing this before. Thank you Matthew.
Living In The Eastern Woodlands. My poem is WALKING TO OUR VIOLIN LESSONS ON SATURDAY MORNING
I gave it a try. It was a bit like ease dropping.
http://lotuspapillon12.blogspot.com/2009/10/wife.html#links
Donald Harbour replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
I could not leave my comment on your site.
Ieisha, this is a very moving piece. You used the term Maafa Cycle. In Kiswahili maafa is the term for disaster. The Cycle a term for the Black Holocaust of the Atlantic Slave trade. There is the truth of so many metaphors in the poetry. I read your meaning. I truly found it relevant and substantive. A great painful joy to read. Thank you for sharing.
Regards,
DH
Ieisha replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Thank you Donald. The poem is a part of a group of poems that I am slowly slogging my way through. I felt that mash up invitation was a good chance to look at some of my poems again. I found a fragment that I had put aside and decided to make those lines the voice of the “owner”.
Donald Harbour replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
I would love to read your completed work on the group. Please keep me in mind.
DH
Ieisha replied:
October 9th, 2009 at 12:21 am
Oh, of course. There are more to be found on:
lotuspapillon12.blogspot.com
I mashed two poems I didn’t like much — I’ll try this again with ones I like and see what happens!
here’s this one:
http://therer2doors.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/disambiguation/
This was a fascinating challenge; I’m curious to read everyone else’s results!
Here’s what I wound up with:
Atzeret (Slonimer Mash-Up)
http://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/2009/10/readwritepoem-atzeret-slonimer-mashup.html
My poem is color-coded to distinguish mashees.
http://theresebroderick.wordpress.com
Well, I tried!
http://firmlyrooted.blogspot.com/2009/10/objectivity.html
I couldn’t do the mash-up, so I rewrote an older poem. Here it is:
http://ravenswingpoetry.com/2009/10/07/athenas-epistle-to-medusa/
Two drafts mashed into one, not really sure how good it turned out, but… perhaps I could interest you in some fresh Baklava?
I was really scratching my noggin over this one for a while…but then I just thought – “Go ofr it!” so this week I have 2 offerings.
You can find them here under “A Double Dip of Mash Up”.
http://cynthiashort.blogspot.com
Cynthia Short replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 11:55 am
PS – if you look directly below the mashed poems you will find a sonnet I wrote for the group here on RWP – “New Formalism” where some of us are attempting to emulate the great and wondrous poets of yesteryear…
This was Rallentanda’s grand idea, and it made me do something I knew nothing about – the sonnet!
Here’s my Mash Up Poem. I enjoyed the heck out of it. Chose two poems written exactly a year apart and enjoyed seeing how randomly (and wonderfully) they fit together.September 7, 2008/9 and Now
http://juliejordanscott.typepad.com/jjspoetry/2009/10/rwp-95-poetics-of-the-mashup-september-7-2008-9-and-now.html
I mashed three poems I wrote earlier this year for the Mini-Challenge Digging. Would love feedback.
http://djvorreyer.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/readwritepoem-95-the-mash-up/
[...] to William Shakespeare, and to all those (I am one) who love the work of that genius. This was for Read Write Poem #95 compose a mash poem by combining two of your works or yours and another writer. Hence, that which [...]
I have to admit that doing this “mash”, or what ever you want to call it, made me feel that I was back in Mrs. Stevens 8th grade English class. So this is for you Mrs. Stevens, where ever you are resting today and continuing to dish out 8th grade hell to others. “My gorge rises at it.”
Hamlet redux, ’tis not nobler
Two of my own poems created this mashup. A challenging exercise!
Poem for RWP #95
I will try the mash-up, soon, but this week I am about A Body of Work challenge! So far there are two in the series, but the day is young (you don’t have to read them all, or any, of them)! :-0
Mementos: Two Women Speak as More than One
[...] http://readwritepoem.org/blog/2009/10/08/get-your-poem-on-95/?utm_source=microblog&utm_medium=s... a few seconds ago from web [...]
ENTREPOT…………..
Dusty sunlit shelves filled to capacity
Holding precious items for an eternity
Silently resting, awaiting resurrection
That redeeming day of satisfaction
That time when eager hands grasping
Will lift that mysterious parcel lingering
Release it from bondage, I say
Let it see the light of day
Leave on that shelf and empty spot
Mysterious items, like many human beings
Sometimes fill dusty shelves unseen
Awaiting the time for their moment
This wait is pure agony spent
David Moolten replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I like the idea of people as “mysterious items” on “dusty shelves” waiting for their day of redemption (a form of purchase/payment). There is the poignant sense with this metaphor of a tragic but ultimately redressed overlooking.
Cynthia Short replied:
October 8th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
The ideas in this were very interesting and lovely..as of souls in purgatory waiting for the next life…
Rallentanda replied:
October 9th, 2009 at 2:17 am
Well if any of this is true I’m not waiting in pure agony on a dusty shelf.I want nice accomodation preferably with harbour views!
looking forward to reading as many offerings as i can. didn’t have an opportunity to write on this prompt this week, but stoked to see what’s on the horizon. keeping this one in my back pocket, pints up to all-lawrence
my mash…2 old poems with new additions
Three Amigos
http://www.waynepitchko.blogspot.com
http://birdswordpoetry.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/untitled-2/
not a mash…
Well, I wrote the poem in time, but looks like I’m a day late in posting it. These darn time differences….
Here it is: Mash Up
Deb Scott replied:
October 10th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Oh, you don’t *have* to post on Thursdays. Quite a few people leave links afterwards. (Tho’ it does help folks find your work.) You *can* (if your platform allows you to do that) send a pingback to the GYPO link, which is handy.
Well, my results were interesting (I think), but I will definitely be revisiting this…
http://freckledwriter.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-summer-whispers-to-old-winter.html
I didn’t write on the prompt. But here is my first link as a member –
Untitled