Play For Today: Verses Versus Verses

29 January 2009 | 1:13 AM

Fresh of the heels of my marginally successful attempt at a poetry mashup, I’ve decided to take another stab at the art form tonight. Once again, I’ve picked a fairly random playlist from my music collection, and once again I will cull one line from each song listed therein. This time, though, rather than rely solely on the first line of each ditty, I’ll instead choose the line or lyric that I think is the best that each song has to offer. Here goes:

Experiment #2

Poetry is no place for a heart that’s a whore
Tangled too tight and too long to fight
It’s love that leaves and breaks the seal of always thinking you would be real
All these things we’ll one day swallow whole
Was there a voice, unkind, in the back of your mind?
It’s a helping hand that makes you feel wonderfully bland
I can never say “no” to anyone but you
And here I rest where disappointment and regret collide
Its okay, the struggle for things not to say
You were an island to discover
But where I’m headed, you just don’t know the way
I cannot find the heart I gave to you

Again, it almost works. There’s a strained quality to it – I can’t tell if that’s because the novelty of this form has worn off already or if it’s because the simple act of me having to critically decide which phrases from the songs move me most requires more creativity than I can muster. Oh well, it’s too late for me to quibble with it – it is done.

Oh, and because I know it’ll come up, here’s the track listing, in order of the lines above:

1. “B.M.F.A.” – Martha Wainwright
2. “He Lays In The Reigns” – Iron & Wine with Calexico
3. “Where Does The Good Go?” – Tegan & Sara
4. “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” – Radiohead
5. “Last Goodbye” – Jeff Buckley
6. “Country House” – Blur
7. “The Figurehead” – The Cure
8. “Title and Registration” – Death Cab For Cutie
9. “If You Wear That Velvet Dress” – U2
10. “A Warning Sign” – Coldplay
11. “Turn On Me” – The Shins
12. “Glass” – Ingrid MIchaelson

G’night.

Posted by Andy in Play For Today