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Monday, January 11, 2010


SWAN LANE
Boots strapped on, he's dancing down streets where puppy dogs meet and big dogs mate. He strolls the alley, where Gordon met his fate, and rats come up for air. Watching his ankles, hat over his eyes, that's not snow when pigeons fly.
10012+10

MUSIC STREET
(back story)
I once wrote a stage play called Music Street, although I'm not sure if 'stage play' isn't a bit over the top, I do remember at the time I called it a Music Play. Anyway, it was an all singing all dancing production written for the stage. It was set in a Manchester street, which has long been demolished. The name of the street was New Brown Street and the first street off it on the left, if you were coming from Market Street, was called Swan Lane. In my Music Play I changed the name of New Brown Street to Music Street and Swan Lane to Swan Lake. The play was about two teenage gangs and the first half of it was set in 1969 when the area was starting to be boarded up ready for the pending demolition. The second act was set ten years later in 1979 after a new indoor shopping centre had been constructed. But you don't really need to know all this, it's just my long winded way of telling you that the ABOVE^ American Sandwich poem is based on one of the original songs from the first act.

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6 comments:

  1. The American Sandwich game... Flash Fiction in 51 syllables, with a poetic filling.
    Write a piece of flash fiction in just three American Sentences. Allen Ginsberg's American Sentence has seventeen syllables. Your task is to use as few words as possible to fill the sandwich.
    Take a bite...
    Okay, it's your turn to have a go at the American Sandwich. Simply write a piece of poetic flash fiction in three Sentences. Remember, each American Sentence has seventeen syllables.

    Post it on your blog and leave a permalink to it in my comments (on the American Sandwich game.. site). Come back to see what other people have written and visit them too. Please comment on participants work, to help build a community.

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  2. I'll play the American Sandwich game next week, Andy - I've finished with my year-long found poetry challenge, and that will be a fresh change for me.

    Really enjoyed Swan Lane - it's highly evocative, even without the back story.

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  3. Thanks Julia, and I'm looking forward to your contribution.

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  4. Andy Sewina,
    Thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment. Glad you liked the drifting haiku. I think that last line "within" really makes the poem. I'm all about snug these days. Too cold for me.

    I enjoyed the Swan Lane. I can hear that as a song, perhaps even more to today's urban sound.

    Thanks again for your visit. Stop by any time.

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  5. Hi Andy,

    I agree with Julia that Swan Lake does its work without the backstory. I think it's really well done.

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  6. I don't remember Mcr pre-Arndale - remember this though.

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