Poem as Mixtape

I am currently reading Adventures in Form: A Compendium of Poetic Forms , Rules & Constraints, edited by Tom Chivers, and published by Penned in the Margins in 2012. It's such a good book, particularly because it shows you how people have done surprising, interesting, challenging things with their poetry, which I find both useful and inspiring.

Buy Adventures in Form here.

I love to use a form as a way to get my poems into shape, and I love the way other poets use form, I'm particularly excited about the way Terrance Hayes used the sonnet form in his book American Sonnets for my Past and Future Assassin, which I may have raved on about previously on this blog. Google it, it's widely available and there are lots of the poems online.

One poem that particularly caught my attention in Adventures in Form was You Wave Me by Chrissy Williams (the start of it - titles only - is in the image). It's in the Found Materials section and uses song titles to form a mixtape poem. Chrissy used the rules that the mixtape should have two sides (pleasingly retro), one word must link each song title to the next and each side can be a maximum of 45 minutes. This requires writing, maths, and putting together something musical that might actually work as a mixtape (and bearing in mind she shared hers to Spotify (although I can't find hers there now) I figured it's got to work in shuffle too).

I could not pass by an idea like this, so I've made my own poem as mixtape, which took me ages, and involved many family members, and has been really good fun. I'm breaking my rule of not publishing any of my poems here to share this with you. I was thinking of seeing if Lies, Dreaming, could use it for their Carly Rae Jepson's Emotion inspired podcast, but I don't really know how to do it as audio, so you get to read it instead!

Find Lies, Dreaming under the Poetry as F*ck banner here.

The last song in Chrissy's You Wave Me poem was Vera Lynn's Wish Me Luck (As You Wave Me Goodbye), and I used that to inspire my first song.

Wish in the Dark
(Directly) After You Wave Me by Chrissy Williams

Side A

I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (with Flowers in My Hair)                                          Sandi Thom 2:31

Sheena is a Punk Rocker                                                                                       The Ramones 2:49

Sheena’s in a Goth Gang                                                                                          The Cramps 2:44

First of the Gang to Die                                                                                               Morrissey 3:38

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face                                                                   Roberta Flack 4:20

Can’t Feel My Face                                                                                                 The Weeknd 3:33

I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’                                                                                    Scissor Sisters 4:48

Dancing Barefoot                                                                                                      Patti Smith 4:16

Walking Barefoot                                                                                                                Ash 4:14

Walking on Sunshine                                                                                 Katrina & the Waves 3:58

Sunshine on a Rainy Day - Edit                                                                                            Zoe 4:46

Side B

Rainy Days And Mondays                                                                                         Carpenters 3:38

I Don’t Like Mondays                                                                               The Boomtown Rats 4:19

I Really Like You                                                                                            Carly Rae Jepsen 3:24

All I Really Want                                                                                            Alanis Morisette 4:44

Girls Just Want to Have Fun                                                                               Cyndi Lauper 3:58

Ain’t it Fun                                                                                                               Paramore 4:56

Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now                                                                  McFadden & Whitehead 3:40

I Think We’re Alone Now                                                                                               Tiffany 3:48

Alone Again Or                                                                                                   The Damned 3:38

Oops! … I Did It Again                                                                                      Britney Spears 3:31

My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark                                                         Fall Out Boy 3:06



Following in Chrissy Williams' footsteps I have made my poem as mixtape available on Spotify as Wish in the Dark.

Find the Wish in the Dark playlist here.

Do you fancy having a go at a poem as mixtape? Or just letting me know what your first song(s) would be, comments are very welcome.