Beth Camp Historical Fiction

Saturday, October 19, 2013

October 19: Rhyme sometime . . .

Can't think of anything worse
than rhyming in verse,
for words, you know,
are perverse.
They come out in pure form,
when you least expect it,
that double x entendre
that's not deflected,
that shakes the norm,
not out of some lost library book.
You getting warm? I'd rather speak straight.
Look, I hear it on the street,
blue collar blues wailing out the beat.
You gotta eye that wild hombre on the corner
stringing, rapping his fate.
He was born to sing his own song,
as I sing mine.

Today's challenge from OctPoWriMo is to write a poem in verse.

Most true rap is too strong for me. From what I've heard, I guess I like the rhythm of "soft rap" and the glue of rhyme that holds a song together. Lots of energy and gritty story-telling in hip hop, a new art form that keeps right on changing.  Here is a Youtube clip of a musician who took to the streets . . .

 

The musician is Joshua Bell. The experiment was set up by the Washington Post. Bell played Bach for about 45 minutes on a Stradivarius violin worth about $2 million. Few stopped to listen.

Jump over to Octpowrimo to read what others have written.


4 comments:

  1. Good job! Yep, we all have to do our own thing, the thing we do best. I do like these lines: "Look, I hear it on the street,
    blue collar blues wailing out the beat."
    Thank you. xoA

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    1. Thank you, Annis. I really was hoping to catch a 'rap' beat here and I love the sound of rap, even if I don't always like the words. But I respect the struggle against 'what is' and the hope for 'what could be.'

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  2. Lol...I expected Joshua to start rapping, then, from reading your paragraph intro. Great poem Beth; my fave words echo those of Annis.

    I'm not a rapper fan by any means, but I've heard some who truly reflect their cultural strifes imaginatively and effectively without the words bitches, which is always nice. :)

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    1. Thank you, Shah. Your comment made me laugh as well. Joshua Bell was doing an experiment, his instrument and music the highest of classical art; yet he was on the street, and I have a fondness for Bach. But for me, it is the surprise of finding art in unexpected places. If I had the courage and the know how, I would have recorded my piece and posted it to let my rhythms speak. I'll look into doing this a little later (today's the last day of the quilt show).

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