Uses For Lipstick

This poem won for me my first ever literary competition. Okay, so it was only a £20 book token, but it means the world to me. It was in a competition organised by my local lending library, to write a poem inspired by the movies.

As a consequence of drawing its inspiration from movies, I have created a short film, which can be viewed on my you tube site, using the poem as soundtrack to very short clips from some of the films that had inspired the poem.

I consider it to be one of my list poems, and I am always on the lookout for more list poems. I had an idea early yesterday, for another list poem, things that should not be forgotten. While that must not be forgotten. Like flowers in the buttonholes of smart suits, the values that have so often been forgotten these days. The list is endless, and I suppose that is the point. To come up with a short, emotive list of things that must not be forgotten.

I like the idea of using poems as the sound track to short films, and often this can be a good vehicle for using archive film that is copyright free, otherwise I am careful to adhere to what I consider to be fair use. I have led lot of friends that are professional artists and musicians, and even one that works in the film as an art director. I am very respectful of copyright and what it means to the livelihood of individual artists, not all of whom make a fortune from their work.


Uses For Lipstick

Seduction. A message on a mirror
or the name on a wooden grave-marker
in Ice Cold In Alex.
Triage
in Pearl Harbor,
marking those that would live
and those that will die.
Marlene Dietrich wore it smudged
in the mornings
so her nights might have seemed
more interesting.
James Cagney wore it too
because great actors know
how to use make-up,
and his films were just in black and white
it was another kind of seduction. 
.


http://www.youtube.com/user/worthingsp?feature=mhee