inside Turner Classics

 

inside Turner Classics

 

 

Frank O'Hara's blues,

with Lana Turner sax

moody temperate soul

she drank, he sank into the cushion

of his writing,

pleading for her to get up

 

but her party was over before it started

a film n'oir of black and white dreams

in living blond

 

and his little tv was obsessed 

his heart her tube

electrocution of elocution

 

a jersey shore

sand in his eyes

he wept

then crashed

 

and his pen no longer begged

for her reincarnation in a poem

 

movie stars transcend

and poets find certain clouds of endearment 

to make sky pilots

out of tragic women

 

it's raining at the moment

i think i feel some tears falling

 

even though the poem is silent.

never got a chance to say goodbye

 

thank you Lana and Frank

i replaced the tube

and still watch that little tv

in my mind,

 

just before i pick up my pen

and emulate...

 

the words in blond demeanor

remind me of an ex

who looked something like

she did

before the fall.

 

 

erin-cilberto

1/7/16 

Reviews

[Kirsty Woodward]

I've just finished watching La La Land and clicked over to this poem.
How incredibly fitting with those first two lines.
I love the sixth stanza of this.

Kirsty.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you, Kirsty, i do need to see that film...

j.

[Kelly Scheppers]

a film n'oir of black and white dreams
in living blond...

Your title speaks volumes here, Jacob...and what amazing color it brings into view! I am a big fan of the classics, and the Turner movie channel. Frankly, all this needs is a bowl of popcorn!

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you, Kelly!

j.

[Manu]

This title caught my attention and so is your poem
Amazingly written piece. It keeps you glued till the end.A very interesting poem though I am not aware of the person/star you were referring to, this still kept me engaged.
Loved these two lines !
and his pen no longer begged
for her reincarnation in a poem.
Memories are really precious and all that seem on the front are not always true.
I am glad to have read something like this.
Beautiful Write.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind words, Gorthi...
j.

[James]

Got to be one of my favorites, Jacob. I really enjoyed this. I'm a classic movie nut and I always seem to write better after watching a flick from the "Golden Age"

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind words, James.

j.

[W.k.kortas]

I may, just maybe, start watching TCM with the volume off and reading your stuff while catching, say, "The Days of Wine and Roses".

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kindness, W.k.

that was a really good flick.

j.

[Blotted Ink Productions]

A trip down the proverbial "memory lane." Loved it!

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you,

j.

[Ken Simm.]

Jazz and Blues and the middle of the twentieth century. Film noir and the paintings of Edward Hopper. Smoke filled rooms and so much more. I see and hear all these and more in this amzing write. Whether you intended them or not I'm afraid.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

i really like what you saw and felt...thank you, Ken,
my intentions are that my reader feel some connection to what i write...

j.

[Ana Papaya]

I love this one, I like the old movies.
The tube replaced, with a lightbulb in your mind to shine your bright ideas and thoughts...

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind words, Ana,
j.

[h d e rushin]

Lana Turner......wasn't she the one discovered sipping a coke at a diner on Sunset Blvd.? Those old Turner Classic movies make the room your sitting in mitotic or meiotic. They said that Hedy Lamarr was so beautiful that when she walked into a room all the other women would just turn around and leave......Now that's beauty.

You mind is moving like no one else's my friend...dana

[jacob erin-cilberto]

and Hedy Lamarr was brilliant...invented some kind of device that was used in sonar for submarines...

thank you for your kind words,

j.

[.]

A very inventive piece, Jacob.

Just as you wrote, the stars do transcend. I grew up as a youngster watching these Turner Classics on television on Friday/Saturday nights. I was always mesmerised by the natural beauty of such women as Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth, Hedy Lamarr, Elizabeth Taylor et al. Great actresses who could break a heart with a flick of the hair or a simple stare. So, i really appreciate the sentiments behind this poem. It brought back great memories for me. And while nearly all of them are gone now, they will forever remain in my heart and mind and young and beautiful on celluloid forever.

A very heartfelt poem. Of longing for those days of real Hollywood stars and those that entertained and inspired us. A great write!

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for sharing how you related to this piece, Doodley....yes, a natural beauty...but also one that often hid a sadness...life seemed so simple back then...but was it? Maybe not as black and white as it seemed...

j,.

[.]

Yes, indeed, Jacob. Rita fell to alcoholism. I am pretty sure Lana suffered from it as well. Behind the glitz and glamour is always a seedy underside.