Thursday, February 21, 2013

A Prankish Poem Published


I did not win a coveted place in the agent’s round over at Cupid’s Literary Connection.  C’est la vie.
However, I will forever be known for the “cockroach incident”, which is something at the very least.
 

Today, for your reading pleasure, I am going to post a poem I helped to "write" back in the dark ages in college.  Well, actually, a quartet of drunken English majors came up with it.  After a night of drinking wine and hob-snobbing our local college literary magazine for its rather “modern” taste in poetry, someone came up with the idea to publish our Scrabble game we had just finished, in order of words played, (and our scores) to see if it would get accepted and published.
It did.

Here it is:

Marla’s Voice
Bar )(
Bad Mad Yarn
No Gem Gag
Our Gave Hem.
Help! Snotty! Mint?
Queen Snot-Rag:
30, 22, 69, 26…Date!
At The Oil Spit Is Wed: Scar, Cruel, Woe, Sex.
Cuz Art We Knife. Zip.
Liar!
 

 
We also contrived a bio for the author, who went by the mysterious one-name of “Dunkirk” .  This was obviously before the time everyone was hooked up to the nines through the internet, otherwise this bird would never have flown.

We even went so far as to send in a recording to be played at the poetry reading. (Someone knew someone in New Orleans who mailed it in for us.)  One of the Scrabble-poets (who does a bang-up Scottish accent) read it, and the recording speed was slowed down to sound like a 45 record played on 32.  (This will mean nothing to many of you.)  I recall it sounded a wee bit like Sean Connery on downers.  We were polite enough not to attend the reading.
We owned up to the prank via a phone message a month after graduation.  My apologies again to editors Rob and Carla.  It was nothing personal.  Just college high-jinx.  And who knows, perhaps it was—in its own odd way, a literary achievement…of sorts.
Well, that’s what I gotta do to get published, apparently.  Any crazy blue-stocking stunts in your closet?

~Just Jill
 

24 comments:

  1. That is classic! Sadly, I do remember all the speeds on a record player...

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    1. Those were the days of putting your thumb on a record to hear Alvin and the Chipmunks sound like bass singers!
      Thanks for stopping by, Alex.
      ~Just Jill

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  2. What a clever prank! I love the tombstone!

    Julie

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    1. Hi Julie,
      Thanks for stopping 'round!
      Always a pleasure...
      ~Just Jill

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  3. High - jinx, is right. LOL.

    You all had some lousy letters. Sorry, my competitive trash-talking streak gets activated when people talk Scrabble. :P

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  4. Weren't they though? You would think English majors could come up with better words...
    Musta been the vino.
    ~Just Jill

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  5. Clever way to be published. I assume those four small numbers were your scores? Hmmmm. English majors, eh?

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    1. My score was the 69, so there! Did you see those letters?!
      Thanks for stopping by,
      ~Just Jill

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  6. What was the cockroach incident? Now I want to know and I LOVE, LOVE that poem. Sometimes literary poemy type things are so painfully pretentious!

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    1. Cockroach is in previous post about Versitile Blogger Award...
      Thanks for poppin' by.
      ~Just Jill

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  7. Have I heard of the cockroach incident? I rather believe I may have... If not, someone else did it, and I say hurrah! And how delicious to meet someone else on the board of a college literary magazine. My crowd was just a tad nutty... And imagine my shock when I discoved that they had digitized our various efforts! Oh, my! I do hope they preserved your faux Scot's slow recording. At least it was not like a 78 played at 33...!
    Many thanks for the chuckle!

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  8. Alas. Dunkirk shall speak no more...
    Thanks for stopping by Diana. Always nice to hear from you!
    ~Just Jill

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  9. As a former English major, I find this quite funny. I would love to hear how the lit analysts "interpreted" this one!

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    1. Me too. They probably thought us to be very existential, non?
      Thanks for stoppin' by!
      ~Just Jill

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  10. LOL Jill you prankster!!!!! Love it. Thanks for sharing. Sorry to hear about not getting into Cupid but I know so many people who didn't and still got agents or book deals in some way. Keep your chin up!!!!

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    1. Thanks ever so for the encouragement! Cupid's contest was for a manuscript that is, like--so last year, so I'm not too heart-broken. Onward with my current WP which has all of my love and devotion at this point!
      Thanks for stopping by!
      ~Just Jill

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  11. Ha ha ha! I love it when people get creative with Scrabble! :-)

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    1. Hi Kay, Nice to meet you. Thanks for stopping by.
      ~Just Jill

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  12. Hahaha brilliant prank. I don't think I ever came up with something similar. :-)

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  13. Boy, you're high brow. My friends pulled pranks like stealing pallets from behind grocery stores to put people's beds clear up high. *giggles* Took me a while to find my more intelligent self.

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    1. And you've done quite well Hart!
      Always nice to have you stop by...
      ~Just Jill

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  14. A unique story to go with a quirky little poem. The creative influence of alcohol strikes again.

    Lee
    A Faraway View
    An A to Z Co-host blog

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Please use your words and comment freely! We really should meet!