By Tomaz Silva/Agência Brasil - Agência Brasil, CC BY 3.0 br, Wikicommons In case you've been living under a rock for the past month, the Summer Olympic Games just concluded in Rio de Janiero, Brazil on Sunday. Despite much of the poor press leading up to the games, I personally think they went off quite well.
If you've read my previous post, you know that I have an ongoing project with the intent to write poems based on Oscar winning films. One of the things I like about that project is that it gives me definitive inspiration in the form of each film.
While watching some of the events during the first week of the Olympics, I had another brainstorm for a series of poems. I am calling them my 2016 Olympic Poems. These Olympic poems would each focus on a gold medal winner from the United States (yes, I know it's hometown bias) and be limited in form by the winner's name. Similar to the poem I wrote based on my own name, I Am, these poems will be written with the first letter of each line spelling out the athlete's full name.
If you've read my previous post, you know that I have an ongoing project with the intent to write poems based on Oscar winning films. One of the things I like about that project is that it gives me definitive inspiration in the form of each film.
While watching some of the events during the first week of the Olympics, I had another brainstorm for a series of poems. I am calling them my 2016 Olympic Poems. These Olympic poems would each focus on a gold medal winner from the United States (yes, I know it's hometown bias) and be limited in form by the winner's name. Similar to the poem I wrote based on my own name, I Am, these poems will be written with the first letter of each line spelling out the athlete's full name.
By Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil - Agência Brasil, CC BY 3.0 br, Wikicommons It might sound like a contrivance, but I find that by limiting myself in such a way, I am forced to be more creative with how I select words to get across the points I want to make. My other challenge for this series of poems will come from the sheer volume. I knew the US would do well in the medal count. We usually do if for no other reason than the number of people we have competing. What I did not expect was for the US to win a staggering 46 gold medals! I also did not expect so many multiple gold medalists. I'm looking at several Katie Ledecky, Michael Phelps and Simone Biles poems, just to name a few and I will have to get REALLY creative with some of those so as not to repeat myself.
Now, I'm not setting a time limit for when these poems will be completed. I do already have the first two (Virginia Thrasher from shooting and Katie Ledecky from swimming) in rough draft phase and will release those as soon as they are polished up a bit. Poems for team events (I'm looking at you basketball!) and relay events (RUNNERS and SWIMMERS!!) will take longer but I am planning to do them each as one long form poem for the entire team.
So check back often and see if your favorite athlete has a new poem written about them.
Now, I'm not setting a time limit for when these poems will be completed. I do already have the first two (Virginia Thrasher from shooting and Katie Ledecky from swimming) in rough draft phase and will release those as soon as they are polished up a bit. Poems for team events (I'm looking at you basketball!) and relay events (RUNNERS and SWIMMERS!!) will take longer but I am planning to do them each as one long form poem for the entire team.
So check back often and see if your favorite athlete has a new poem written about them.
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