First, poem by Mathias Jansson (Celebrity Free Verse Poetry Series)

FIRST
by Mathias Jansson

First I didn’t know
I’m so honored
So proud
The first I’m the first we’re the first
Dreaming one #1
The biggest dream
I’m so honored
I’m just so honored
I kind of have the biggest one
Like a little accident
That little surprise!
Totally First

SOURCE: “Kim Kardashian breaks silence on Vogue cover,” interview with Seth Meyers (hollywoodlife.com).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mathias Jansson is a Swedish art critic and poet. He has contributed with visual poetry to magazines such as Lex-ICON, Anatematiskpress, Quarter After #4, and Maintenant 8: A Journal of Contemporary Dada. He has also published a chapbook at this is visual poetry and contributed with erasure poetry to anthologies from Silver Birch Press. Visit him at mathiasjansson72.blogspot.se, or his author’s page at Amazon.com.

Bloom, poem by Winston Plowes (Celebrity Free Verse Poetry Series)

BLOOM
by Winston Plowes

I’m addicted to me –

Sugar this woman open
like a hip shifting
and explain to millions why.

SOURCE: “Kim Kardashian: In Search of the K Factor” by  Alyssa Giacobbe, DuJour Magazine (Spring 2013).

PHOTO: Kim Kardashian by Bruce Weber, DuJuour Magazine (Spring 2013).

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: In this erasure I have tried to distil the found words of Kim Kardashian into something hopefully poetic.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Teacher, compere, performer and poet, Winston Plowes spends his days fine-tuning background noise and rescuing discarded words. These are re-sculpted over a glass of wine into poetry birds he releases by night to fly to new homes in poetry journals and online destinations worldwide. He lives in a floating home in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, UK, where he tries to persuade his two black cats that it’s a good idea for them to do the same. Visit him at winstonplowes.co.uk.

Velvety Good Years, poem by E. Kristin Anderson (Celebrity Free Verse Poetry Series)

VELVETY GOOD YEARS
by E. Kristin Anderson

A series of hypnotic poses,
holding the easy grace, pictures
hand the city to beautiful recipes.

I’m in my room,
forcing myself to feel my face,
the pores filled with eyes.

My red tone
     so new
       on your skin.

SOURCE: “Express Train” by Julie Schott, Elle (July 2014) — interview with supermodel Karlie Kloss.

IMAGE: Karlie Kloss in Elle (July 2014).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: E. Kristin Anderson‘s first nonfiction anthology, Dear Teen Me, based on the popular website of the same name, was published in October of 2012 by Zest Books (distributed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). She’s worked at The New Yorker magazine, has a B.A. in Classics from Connecticut College, and is currently an online editor for the YA & Children’s section of VCFA’s literary journal Hunger Mountain and a contributing editor at Found Poetry Review. She’s published poetry in many magazines worldwide, including Post Road, the Cimarron Review, [PANK], Asimov’s Science Fiction and forthcoming work in Cicada. She also has poems forthcoming in the Silver Birch Press Great Gatsby Anthology. Her first chapbook, A Guide for the Practical Abductee, was just released by Red Bird Chapbooks, and her next chapbook, A Jab of Deep Urgency, is forthcoming in October from Finishing Line Press. Her work also appears in Futuredaze, an anthology of YA fiction and poetry, and in Coin Opera 2, an anthology of poetry about video games. She blogs at EKristinAnderson.com.

Tyra Writes a Novel That Is (Also Maybe) a Theme Park, poem by Sarah B. Boyle (Celebrity Free Verse Poetry Series)

Tyra Writes a Novel That Is (Also Maybe) a Theme Park
by Sarah B. Boyle

Ok so,
I’ve been writing Modelland for five years.
Modelland, this fantasy world that I’ve created,
          if you find one of these
                    (which I call a “smize”)
it increases your chances
          —by 91%!—
of getting into the school that creates Intoxibellas.
The models have magic in the school,
          most definitely,
so it’s a total fantasy adventure novel.
This is something that I know.
                    (I don’t know about magic
                    but that just comes from the creativity
                    and there’s no rules
                    and you just kinda make it up.)
I’d write until four o’clock in the morning.
          I spent so much time in libraries.
I got carpal tunnel because I type with two fingers
like this           loolooloolooloo.
Yeah, so this was
          my heart
          my baby
          my soul
          mm hmm.
I look up to Walt Disney.
There was a man with a message,
a very very clear objective of what he wanted.
Ooh ooh ooh, yes.
The message of expanding the definition of beauty
is bigger than me.
Like, I want years from now for people
to experience Modelland
          (or whatever it is),
          and for the mom to go,
                    “You know that was a girl named Tyra that started that,”
          and the girl is like,
                    “Who cares? Let’s go on this ride!”
I want to make you feel special.

SOURCE: “Tyra Banks Reveals Cover of New Novel,” Good Morning America (7/21/2011).

IMAGE: Tyra Banks sporting a smize (eyebrow jewelry),  xposurephotos.com (July 2011).

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: It started as a joke, writing collaborative poems about America’s Next Top Model. And then my friends and husband were also jazzed about the idea. So, we’re working on that in our spare time. And I haven’t written so much in ages. It turns out Tyra Banks is my muse. Watching ANTM, and looking at her various projects across the media landscape, it is clear that no one says no to Ty-Ty. And when no one says no to you, you do all kinds of crazy stuff. And all that crazy stuff is pretty compelling, even if it isn’t exactly “successful.” Here, I just tried to stay out of Tyra’s way—as if there is any stopping the woman—and let her manic energy speak for itself.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sarah B. Boyle hails from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she writes and teaches high school English. Her work has appeared in Menacing Hedge, Storyscape, and elsewhere. She has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.