Earlier this month at Today’s Little Ditty, Michelle H Barnes shone the spotlight on reader Jesse Anna Bornemann. She challenged us to write a poem inspired by words in a song:
Pick a Beatles song (or, if you’re not a Beatles fan, a song by your favorite band), write down as many words from the song as you can, then compose a poem that uses at least three words from your list. Don’t tell us the song that inspired your poem—see if we can guess!
Like usual, I find my best inspiration at the last minute! Can you guess which song (yes, it is a Beatles tune) I chose my words from? If you want even more poems that rock with this month’s challenge, check out the August DMC Wrap-Up Celebration.
Kaleidoscope Skies
even when kaleidoscope clouds
fracture the sun
with dark
lies
diamonds dance deep
in her eyes
‘cross a bridge to
looking glass
skies
Each Friday, I am excited to take part in Poetry Friday, where writers share their love of all things poetry. Kat hosts the Poetry Friday Roundup today at Kathryn Apel. She shares good news from Down Under and two lovely Aussie novels-in-verse. Hurry over and check out all the poetry morsels offered up today.
I enjoyed your poem and think you met the challenge well. After reading through the reply posts, I just had to look up the origin of the song myself. I had no idea! Thank you for this tidbit of information.
Thanks, Joyce. I’ve learned from the comments, too!
Great song pick, Kay! And I LOVE what you’ve done with it. It’s got a very otherworldly/Alice in Wonderland feel to it. Gorgeous.
Thank you, Michelle. This was a fun challenge to try. Thanks for all the Spotlight interviews that keep our creativity inspired.
Kay, beautiful words are used to reflect your thoughts. Kaleidoscope is one of my favorite words. Years ago when traveling in NYS with my children, we came upon the world’s largest kaleidocscope-absolutely gorgeous what that invention can bring to the imagination. Have a great Labor Day.
Thanks, Carol. I love kaleidoscopes. How cool to see the world’s largest one. I used to make them out of chip cans with my daughter when she was younger.
It’s clear that you had fun playing with this challenge, Kay. Those skies and lies are ominous! I’m glad her eyes are still dancing.
Thanks, Laura. The song offered lots of good words to have fun with.
Such a great assignment, and I love what you’ve done with it!
Thanks, Ruth. It was a fun prompt to respond to.
Ooooh. I do like those dark lies and fractured sun. Of course, I too had to go and consult google, to read up about all this controversy. I am not at all surprised he took a song title from that line. Isn’t it gorgeous!
Talking about the song title… It reminds me of a little boy who was looking for ‘Mummy / I love you / to the diamonds.’ for his Mother’s Day found poem. I’m sure his mother loved it! I sure did.
Ahhh..how could any mom not love it?
Thanks, Kat. I’ve enjoyed learning more about the song throughout this weekend, too. It will add more layers the next time I listen to the song.
This is a great idea! Your poem is well done! I particularly like “looking glass skies.”
Thanks, Keisha.
Love those ‘looking glass eyes’, Kay. You used some favorite parts of this song. I certainly remember the Beatles singing this, but saw Elton John sing it in person, thus my best memory of it. You’ve caught the flavor of it to me, a love poem.
Thanks, Linda. Wow! I bet hearing Elton John in person was incredible.
I love this!! I want to try this with my students! 😍
Thanks, Jane. I bet your students will have fun with it!
Catchy song! Loved it back when…
You captured a nice poem from it!
Thanks, Donna. It’s been playing in the back of my mind all day.
I know! I know! I know!
Oh, those dark clouds,
fracturing the sun like that.
How mean!
But, I can forgive them
for a peek
at looking glass skies
Ha! Thanks, Linda. I kind of like those looking glass skies, too. This song had so many fun words to play with.
I know this well. You included key words. My grandmother’s name was Lucille, often called simple, Lu. I do love your poem. And yes, we always thought this was an homage to LSD. I did not know about his son’s drawing. I am now happily humming away looking at a most perfectly clear blue sky.
Thank you for your post!
Janet Clare F.
Thanks, Janet. Like so many of their songs, it is so easy to hum and sing along with. Enjoy those blue skies!
So I’m sitting here rereading this poem and each read finds me appreciating different aspects to your poem. Then I went and read the original lyrics. That sent me off on a search for what motivated the song in the first place. I remember listening to it when it first came out. It feels so obviously drug induced that it was a surprise to read that it comes from a picture Lennon’s son drew.
Anyway, after all that I came back again to your poem and am in awe of how you have used these lines and kept the essence of the song. Wow!
Oh, thank you, Cheriee. I love the story about the inspiration for the song coming from his son’s picture. You might be giving me too much credit for the poem. I love the mystery and playfulness in the song and hoped to capture some of that, but it’s hard to get the right balance between playful mystery and just not making any sense!