Strategy Response, Week 3

After reading Matejka’s collection this week I became very interested in his use of the modern colloquial. This element is seen in just about every poem in the collection and conveys the poet’s interest in origins and etymologies (like most poets). I always feel like I have a difficult time introducing “everyday speak,” song lyrics, or modern pop figures into my poetry for an odd fear of sounding hokey or not pulling it off successfully—sounding too commercial, maybe? In “America’s First And Foremost Black Superstar,” Matejka uses: jive-ass, this ain’t no shakedown, em’, dig it, Marvel comics, Iron Fist, etc. I would like to try my hand at similar subject matter and pick a pop icon, song, or movie and write with that particular subject as a filter. The poem “Pimp Limp” is a great example of using a modern television show, considered by some as a flash-in-the-pan reality show—Flavor of Love, and used it as a filter for poetry. I suppose I always considered it a personal taboo to rely on pop culture for my writing, yet I feel this stems from not being able to successfully merge it into a draft. I would like to give myself an exercise this week for my free entry and pick a subject or figure from popular culture and write a draft utilizing some of Matejka’s turns. For example, using song lyrics as introduction like in “Domo Arigato, Mr. Mulatto [Dub Style]” would be interesting to try on my own. The lyrics act as a guide for the poems that follow, sometimes creating an odd juxtaposition or engaging in recursivity. I hope to achieve something as engaging as Matejka’s use of pop culture.