NEW!!! Famous song titles challenge., 14 to chose from! Options

[Psyche]

Greetings to all poets and writers!

A NEW challenge, this time featuring the titles of well-known songs!!

You may reply with any form, sonnets, villanelles, ballades, it's your choice! Free Verse and short stories are very welcome.

There are 14 titles below to chose from. You may use them in any order, so long as you don't change them. (Of course you don't have to capitalize as shown in the list)

You're challenged to use 8 of the titles, but if you can fit in more, or the whole 14, that's wonderful!

Here goes:


The Sound of Silence (Simon & Garfunkel)

Suzanne (Leonard Cohen)

High Noon (Frankie Laine)

Return to Sender (Elvis Presley)

Time to say Goodbye (Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli)

The Great Pretender (The Platters)

The Sound of Music (Julie Andrews)

Earth Song (Michael Jackson)

We are the Champions (Queen, Freddie Mercury)

Strawberrey Fields Forever (The Beatles)

I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor)

The Music of the Night (Michael Crawford, The Phantom of the Opera)

Bridge Over Troubled Waters (Elvis Presley)

My Way (Frank Sinatra)



All the songs can be found on Utube, if you wish to get inspired!! There are several versions by other famous singers, but they can't all be featured here.

Good luck to all!

[Psyche]

Poets are invited to make suggestions for future challenges.

Just drop a line in this forum with your ideas, and we'll set up the formal invitation.

Bye, Syl

[Larry]

Man, The Great Pretender

I will survive the music of the night
for at high noon the sound of silence reigns
and though it’s time to say goodbye, my plight
is knowing that the sound of music’s strains

will vibrate with the earth songs. Its demise,
caused by tectonic plates that tore apart,
when nations of the world tried to surprise
each other with their bombs. The planet’s heart

and mountains now return to sender’s blast;
for though we are the champions of lust,
mushrooms bridge over troubled waters; cast
a pall across my way of deadly dust.

Gone are my sweet Suzanne’s strawberry fields;
forever with pretense that each war yields.



Songs used: The Great Pretender, I Will Survive, The Music of the Night, High Noon, The Sound of Silence, Time to say Goodbye, The Sound of Music, Earth Song, Return to Sender, We are the Champions, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, My Way, Suzanne, Strawberry Fields Forever


p.s. Syl, Bridge Over Troubled Waters was originally composed, recorded and sung by Simon and Garfunkel in January, 1970 and was their best ever single plus it received a Grammy for Record of the Year and another for Song of the Year. Elvis, Aretha and other artists released it later but theirs never attained the level of worldwide greatness seen by the original.

[Psyche]

Oh my, Larry, you've used the 14 song titles!

Not only that, you've deftly fitted them into what I'd call a protest poem.

So true. There are some hard truths woven into your sonnet.

Excellent title, gives one a hint of what's coming. Stunning.

Man, The Great Pretender

I will survive the music of the night
for at high noon the sound of silence reigns
and though it’s time to say goodbye, my plight
is knowing that the sound of music’s strains

will vibrate with the earth songs. Its demise,
caused by tectonic plates that tore apart,
when nations of the world tried to surprise
each other with their bombs. The planet’s heart

The above stanza linked to the one below is perfect. It's really what's happening in our cruel world. Not long ago, after hearing about still another catastrophe, it suddenly occurred to me that maybe Revelations (or Apocalypse) is not as far away as we imagine. It struck me that even though I'm not at all young, I might actually be around when it happens. It was like a sudden illumination...

Jesus says to be always ready, there will be no warning. Unless you've read the signs, as you've expressed so well in your sonnet.

and mountains now return to sender’s blast;
for though we are the champions of lust,
mushrooms bridge over troubled waters; cast
a pall across my way of deadly dust.

Gone are my sweet Suzanne’s strawberry fields;
forever with pretense that each war yields.

Amazing work, Larry.

Syl



Songs used: The Great Pretender, I Will Survive, The Music of the Night, High Noon, The Sound of Silence, Time to say Goodbye, The Sound of Music, Earth Song, Return to Sender, We are the Champions, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, My Way, Suzanne, Strawberry Fields Forever


p.s. Syl, Bridge Over Troubled Waters was originally composed, recorded and sung by Simon and Garfunkel in January, 1970 and was their best ever single plus it received a Grammy for Record of the Year and another for Song of the Year. Elvis, Aretha and other artists released it later but theirs never attained the level of worldwide greatness seen by the original.

Thanks for telling me that, Larry. It's a lovely song. So is The Sound of Silence, which was one of the background songs used in the movie The Graduate. Wonderful composers. And good movie.

[JustDaniel]

I'm Left

The sound of music says that it is time
to say goodbye. I will survive; my way
is to the great pretender be and climb
into the light until high noon and play

Strawberry Fields Forever, though I hear
the music of the night and feel the sound
of silence. Why'd Suzanne return to send
'er shatt'ring earth song, leaving me aground?

There's no bridge over troubled waters now
because she blew it up before she left.
She didn't even leave me with a plow
to scratch my fallow ground. I am bereft

of strength, but I will live another day;
you see, we are the champions of display.


Song titles used, in order:
The Sound of Music
Time to say Goodbye
I Will Survive
My Way
The Great Pretender
High Noon
Strawberry Fields Forever
The Music of the Night
The Sound of Silence
Suzanne
Return to Sender
Earth Song
Bridge Over Troubled Waters
We are the Champions

[Larry]

Bravo Daniel,

A great use of all 14 song titles with a nice sonnet to boot. I am so glad someone else answered the challenge because I have, for the most part been doing it alone. Don't get me wrong. I have always enjoyed a challenge and sometimes the old muse needs a kick in the behind to get it started.

Enjoyed every innuendo and word play you created.

Thanks,
Larry

[Psyche]

And another Bravo!!!! from me, Daniel. So glad you took up the challenge in your own great style, using the sonnet form that you so deftly manage.

Kudos to you, hope you continue to be so wonderfully inspired.

And as I've said before, if you have any ideas for new challenges, do post them in this forum.
Members have almost abandoned ship. Eira and myself are the only staff around, and she's been having the flu' and lost her energy. But she'll be back soon.

We need more staff, I don't know why Lori doesn't come and discuss the issue with us. I only see her now and then on Facebook, but I don't visit often, no time!!

There's no bridge over troubled waters now
because she blew it up before she left.
She didn't even leave me with a plow
to scratch my fallow ground. I am bereft

of strength, but I will live another day;
you see, we are the champions of display.



Love these final stanzas, Daniel. Sad but true. And the writer of We are the Champions was Freddie Mercury, who was certainly a champion of display...LOL.

It's sung at many sports events to this day, something I don't believe he ever imagined. Maybe not in the USA, where he didn't gain all that popularity due to his being bisexual...very bad in those days, where even Elvis was not allowed to move his hips when he sang in small towns.

OK, love what you two poets are doing! I'm thinking of a Pandora challenge, the reason I'm delayed is that my desktop crashed and I need to buy a new one. Using an old laptop...not my preference at all.

Syl