Fashionable Poem Prompt / Poem Prompt of Fashion — Prompt Seven

Ah, high school! That bitter pill! That handful of dust!

Since Episode 407 of Project Runway dealt with high school students, the following Fashionable Poem Prompt / Poem Prompt of Fashion was inspired by the emotions one experienced while in high school. For this poet, there were two: one being love, and the other being hate. And since love, that day-glo cotton candy field in which unicorns and kittens pranced and frolicked, so often devolved into the nuclear winter landscape smeared with ash and char that is better known as hate, “love” and “hate” play a very important role in the following Fashionable Poem Prompt / Poem Prompt of Fashion. We decided to appropriate the angsty emo-girl that Vivienne used in an earlier Fashionable Post / Post of Fashion into this prompt’s Graphic of Fashion because, really: doesn’t she say it all?

Prompt Seven — “Love + Hate = Angst of the Poet,” inspired by Episode 407 of Project Runway, in which the designers were teamed up with high school girls and their mothers and told to design the teenagers’ prom dresses while following instructions from the teenagers and warnings from their mothers.

The poet will construct a poem the length of her choosing. Each poem, however, must begin with a noun, verb, or phrase of love and end with a noun, verb, or phrase of hate. Enjambment is encouraged. The Hyacinth Girls have fashionably provided for you, Dear Reader, a PDF file containing seventy-five (75) nouns, verbs, and phrases of love and seventy-five (75) nouns, verbs, and phrases of hate. To view this PDF file, click here, or click on the image to the left.

Fashionable Poem Prompt / Poem Prompt of Fashion — Prompt Six

Prompt Six — “Brain Candy,” based on Episode 406 of Project Runway, in which the designers were taken to the Hershey’s flagship store in Times Square and were told that they had five minutes to grab whatever they could as raw materials — from Twizzlers to Hershey’s syrup, from Hershey’s pillows to economy-sized bags of peanut butter cups — to use to create an outfit of fashion.

The poet will construct a poem consisting of fifty (50) lines. Each line must include one (1) of the candies, sweets, or delectable treats* found in the Spreadsheet of Fashion below, which lists ninety (90) fashionably edible sweets (the large version of the Spreadsheet of Fashion can be found by clicking here, or by simply clicking on the image below).

The poet may incorporate the products any way she chooses. For example, the poet could have actual Rolos in a line. Or, to incorporate a Peppermint Pattie into a line of her poem, the poet could include the words “pepper,” “mint,” “pat,” and “tie” in the line.

*yes, I am quite aware that the rhyming here is absolutely horrendous

Fashion Poem Prompt / Poem Prompt of Fashion — Prompt Five

The following Poem Prompt of Fashion should give you, Dear Reader, another clue as to what The Hyacinth Girls are planning for the month of June. It will be most fun! It will be most fashionable!

Prompt Five — “A Fashionable Diet / A Diet of Fashion,” based on Episode 405 of Project Runway, in which the designers are asked to re-style the outfits of twelve women, all of whom have lost a significant amount of weight.

The poet will select another poet’s published poem, such as Wallace Stevens’s “Sunday Morning” or Anne Sexton’s “For My Lover, Returning to His Wife.” The poet will create a poem one of two ways:

1) The poet will remove exactly half of the poem’s lines (in no particular order) to construct a new poem.

2) The poet will remove exactly half of the poem’s words (in no particular order) to construct a new poem.

Because Somebody’s Gotta Be Back in Black

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen of fashion.  The Hyacinth Girls have planned a new project, and will be back in full force in June.  What’s the new fashionable project/project of fashion, you wonder?  A lady never reveals her secrets.  You’ll just have to tingle with anticipation until the beginning of June.

Though, not to be cruel, Viv will reveal a hint:

And we’ll steal the light of the world!

It is late, late, late. It is very, very late, and the Very Bad Band across the street is playing a Beatles song, and somehow I find that fitting.

Most Fashionable Reader! This is my last post for NaPoWriMoFa (National Poetry Writing Month of Fashion)! There will be tears after this. Trust me. Whatever shall I do now? What will I do without my late night calls to Our Most Fashionable Vivienne, which always began with “O MY GOD I HAVEN’T FINISHED MY POEM YET THERE IS NO WAY I AM GOING TO FINISH THIS POEM”?

But there will be things to do. There will be an apartment to clean. There will be poems to revise at a much more leisurely pace. There will be books of poetry to read. There will be the brand new pool behind the brand new vacation home behind my apartment to sneak into at night. There will be Slash: The Autobiography to read. There will be new episodes of House to watch. There will be a shore and an ocean to enjoy in person. There will be new blogs posted by Brenda Dickson to read. And there will, at long, long last, be laughter! Yes, there will be laughter.

What there will be less of. There will be many less cartons of cigarettes purchased. There will be many less bowls of Honey Oat Medley, the poor woman’s Honey Bunches of Oats, consumed while in front of the computer at 11.30 PM. There will be less glasses-wearing pony-tailing mornings. There will be less eyestrain.

But there will still be late nights in front of the computer.

But. Most importantly: THERE WILL STILL BE THE HYACINTH GIRLS! Yes! As Vivienne so fashionably mentioned below, the Hyacinth Girls shall return! We will take a brief sabbatical, of course, to regroup and make ourselves fashionable again. But there is no fashion without the Hyacinth Girls! There is no Zelda without Vivienne! My Dearest, Most Fashionable Vivienne! My Dearest, Most Fashionable Vivienne who has so selflessly pulled me through this month! My Dearest, Most Fashionable Vivienne who has so selflessly pulled me through many, many, many months before this month! And this is for you, Vivienne:

It is the Most Fashionable and Most Famous Blue Heart Diamond. It is over 30 carats. I shall somehow persuade someone at the Smithsonian, where it is currently displayed, to let me have it, and I shall have the Most Fashionable of All Fashionable Diamond Heart Necklaces made for you. Thank you, Vivienne. Thank you.

And now. The last poem of the NaPoWriMoFa (National Poetry Writing Month of Fashion) of 2008:

Consequence

Whenever I think of you, I remember all
the people in this world who never kept me
warm. I don’t mince words; they’re all
I have, my gestures being
broken, unsuccessful. Nothing. Again: nothing
parceled out from nothing, fear from a handful
of dust, something gorgeous for the camera’s

flash. A knock on the door, a game of chess
I’m forbidden to see, wholesome goodness
portioned out like poker chips. O
the sounds crackling from beneath
the stone! O you who were with me,
your heart a tangible matter of infinite hope!
The mute board you carried on your back,

waiting for intimate revelations that were
forgotten by first snow. I was deeply saddened.
Your secret griefs changed me,
my confidence turning
to wildness, a perpetual state of unknowing,
a hostile levity of tongue pressing against
the pills I took. The wildness I could never rein.