Poetry Challenge #123.5-Reverso
“If I could turn back time…”
Icon! Diva! Pop Idol!…personal role model Cher is 80! (Her birthday was May 20, 1946.) All my life, she has been there—loud, alive, unappologetic! And dang, at 80 still rockin’!
Cher looks as fabulous as she does because she has had a little help. She doesn’t hide it, even jokes about having had rhinoplasty, breast augmentation, a facelift, braces, along with “regular Botox, dermal fillers, and facial fat grafting.” But those abs! That stamina! That voice!
Best yet, Cher has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording, Kennedy Center Honors, Cannes Best Actress, Golden Globe for Supporting Actress, Golden Glove for Television Series, Golden Globe for Best Actress, Billboard Icon Award, Donatello for Best Foreign Actress, 17 Top-10 singles (12 as a solo)… and so many more!
If you ask me, she didn’t only sing “If I could turn back time…” she did it!
The first woman to regularly show her belly button on TV. Check out those abs!!!
If Cher can reverse time, so can we…if only with our words! Let’s try!
Poetry Challenge #122.5
Reverso
A reverse poem (Reverso)is a poem that conveys two contrasting meanings when read from top to bottom and then from bottom to top. The meaning of the poem changes but it needs to make sense whichever direction you read. Or, as Marilyn Singer, a Reverso Masteroso put it:
“A reverso is a poem with two halves. In a reverso, the second half reverses the lines from the first half, with changes only in punctuation and capitalization — and it has to say something completely different from the first half.”
Here’s an example of Marilyn Singer’s reverso poem, aptly named “In Reverse” from her picture book collection of fairy tale reverso’s Mirror Mirror.
1. Choose a theme or topic.
2. Write a short, simple poem. (short and simple because we don’t have much time, say 3 to 5 lines)
Rewrite the poem backwards. For instance, if you begin with a 3 line poem: 1-2-3, then line 4 will repeat line 3, 5 will repeat 2, 6 will repeat line 1. Like this: 1-2-3-3-2-1
Here’s the tricky/fun part: rework the punctuation, capitalization, etc. to give the second half a different meaning.
(You might want to write on paper so you can cut the lines up and rearrange them easily.)
Ready????
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
And when you’re finished, click on the video and dance Like it’s 1999!…Like Nobody’s Watching! …Like Cher!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 8 years ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.