Post by Reilley on Nov 15, 2011 10:25:03 GMT -6
One of the best - and hardest - writer's group challenges I have ever seen was a challenge to transpose other types of writing into poetry; grocery lists, instructions, and the hardest - IMHO - obituaries.
Obits are tough, because you have to include very specific things, dates, a person's history, accomplishments, significant events in their lives, etc. In order to do them justice you must be very specific. This exercise is a great one for helping a poet to focus on the message they intend to impart, rather than the form.
So go to it - free verse or rhyme, pantoum, villanelle or sonnet, hell, even a limerick!
It might help to use a celebrity or historical figure, so that your audience knows of whom you write.
Here is my entry from this challenge, an obit of Don Adams, from Get Smart fame, who passed away September 27, 2005
A comic actor that we all loved and hoped would never leave,
He gave the world catchphrases like “…would you believe?”
A bumbling secret agent with abnormally clumsy motif
He’d spill on the boss’s desk and say, “Sorry about that, Chief.”
His wry voice a trademark, hard work his lifelong credo,
He was Maxwell Smart, Inspector Gadget and Tennessee Tuxedo.
At eighty-two he passed away, from a dire lung infection,
No more comic lines would be delivered with that unique inflection.
He gave us the Cone of Silence, rubber lips and the famous shoe phone,
A drivable desk, a robot best man, and hypnotizing cologne.
At Guadalcanal he served in the Marines, not the U.S. Army,
He was born a Hungarian Jew as Donald James Yarmy.
He painted, studied history, was a lot smarter than Agent 86.
He did not want to do a spy spoof, serious acting gave him kicks.
He wanted to be a matinee idol, revered for his dashing good looks,
Until he was offered the chance to perform on TV for Mel Brooks
Along with Barbara Feldon, who played his wife Agent 99,
He battled for truth and justice against vile KAOS swine.
He won three Emmy awards for TV’s best comic actor,
But never grew beyond the role: typecasting was a factor.
He will always be remembered as agent Maxwell Smart.
Although a recent movie of the show found another to play the part.
Don Adams is gone but not forgotten, a true comic master
Of turning even the simplest task into pratfalls and disaster.
Obits are tough, because you have to include very specific things, dates, a person's history, accomplishments, significant events in their lives, etc. In order to do them justice you must be very specific. This exercise is a great one for helping a poet to focus on the message they intend to impart, rather than the form.
So go to it - free verse or rhyme, pantoum, villanelle or sonnet, hell, even a limerick!
It might help to use a celebrity or historical figure, so that your audience knows of whom you write.Here is my entry from this challenge, an obit of Don Adams, from Get Smart fame, who passed away September 27, 2005
A comic actor that we all loved and hoped would never leave,
He gave the world catchphrases like “…would you believe?”
A bumbling secret agent with abnormally clumsy motif
He’d spill on the boss’s desk and say, “Sorry about that, Chief.”
His wry voice a trademark, hard work his lifelong credo,
He was Maxwell Smart, Inspector Gadget and Tennessee Tuxedo.
At eighty-two he passed away, from a dire lung infection,
No more comic lines would be delivered with that unique inflection.
He gave us the Cone of Silence, rubber lips and the famous shoe phone,
A drivable desk, a robot best man, and hypnotizing cologne.
At Guadalcanal he served in the Marines, not the U.S. Army,
He was born a Hungarian Jew as Donald James Yarmy.
He painted, studied history, was a lot smarter than Agent 86.
He did not want to do a spy spoof, serious acting gave him kicks.
He wanted to be a matinee idol, revered for his dashing good looks,
Until he was offered the chance to perform on TV for Mel Brooks
Along with Barbara Feldon, who played his wife Agent 99,
He battled for truth and justice against vile KAOS swine.
He won three Emmy awards for TV’s best comic actor,
But never grew beyond the role: typecasting was a factor.
He will always be remembered as agent Maxwell Smart.
Although a recent movie of the show found another to play the part.
Don Adams is gone but not forgotten, a true comic master
Of turning even the simplest task into pratfalls and disaster.
