Citizenship is brushed to castes
with color-coded schemes dividing
cleaving chasms in gentrified suburbia.
Still crying crayons bleed in murals
and concrete blooms as we paint offenses
or doodle poems with defensive pens.
But soon the cleaning crew in overalls
march carefully restoring concrete grey
as they cannot invoice sense in poetry.
keine Angst, es ist nur Gentrification by Sebastian Thiele with Creative Commons License
Today Claudia runs the bar at dVerse MTB, and this is the technique we should use today..
1. Fold a sheet of paper in half
2. On the left half of the page, list 10 nouns
3. Think of a career or occupation choice.
4. On the right half of the page, write 10 verbs that correspond to that position.
5. Open the paper and connect each of the nouns with a verb.
6. Using any of those combinations, write a 3 stanza poem, 3 lines per stanza – or more
I used three pairs of words that came up. Brush – Citizenship, paint offense, invoice sense…
Come meet us as bar opens at 3 PM EST.
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February 4, 2015
Björn Rudbergs writings 
Ah, there are certainly some things that cannot be invoiced, and one of those is ‘sense in poetry.’ And I am not sure the ‘cleaning crew’ will make much of an impact.
I like the image of the ‘Still crying crayons’ bleeding in murals. They seem to have a life of their own, one we cannot control and suppress as it might appear elsewhere when the cleaning crew tries to delete it.
Yes, I like the still crying crayons, did you know, in case of a power outage, crayons burn for 30 min. If you have any….
Ah.. what a great idea.. I have to get some 🙂 On the other hand our house is full of candles already
I always enjoy your poetry, Bjorn. Thanks.
janet
Hey Bjorn–this is an exercise that I’ve done many times and like a lot. A very interesting poem–I especially love the trope of concrete blooming–that is a wonderful idea–thanks! k.
Congrats, brother, you took the prompt to new heights, & the alliterative match-ups were brilliant. I, too, dig the /crying crayons/ & /cleaning crew/ & /clearing chasms/, & the pox on any Big Brother notions that Poetry, with a capital P, needs to makes sense; it is too busy creating music, cinematography, love, & wit.
def. things that cannot be invoiced out there… loved esp. Still crying crayons bleed in murals…. hope those pens and spraycans never get silenced
I took like the crying crayons bleed in murals….if only one could invoice sense! I like this poem on many levels – alliteration, images, message. I always look forward to a posting from you. I greatly enjoy your poetry and creativity.
“restoring concrete gray”…it’s sad to live in a world where self-expression isn’t appreciated as much as the concrete gray of the status quo
As always, so many layers in your writing. In this gray world we desperately need some color.
I specially like the last line: they cannot invoice sense in poetry ~
All I can see right now is the concrete grey so I really like crayons bleeding in murals ~
art makes cities BEAUTIFUL… hate when crews hunt to silence the artists’ voice… but they will fail as long as the art lives.
Fascinatin’… engrossing… really like that pairing of invoicing with an un-mathematical (is that a word?) reality.
Your poetic energy is bottomless… 🙂
Concrete blooms as we paint offenses…. the rebel in me loved that! and your conclusion ‘you cannot invoice sense in poetry’ is brilliant. Great picture too.
Alas not all street art survives. Well done. 🙂 — Suzanne
Street art and word art with design and poetry in the mix. Fine poem, Bjorn. It feels so “modern”.
Very smart. Your concrete grey and claudia’s grey ice cube both say ‘color me’…layered between “defensive pens” freedom of expression and the suffocating by some of art;
nice…you worked this well…i got a word list from my students at school but i am still figuring it out a bit…lol…of course i am a huge fan of street art…even if scrawl as it is just another art for people to express themselves….
Very cool the way you put this together. Love the alliteration here, Bjorn.
This is great. I especially like these:
“Still crying crayons bleed”
“doodle poems with defensive pens”
“they cannot invoice sense in poetry”