Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Pickelhaube

The girl in the pickelhaube hat
Wore the darkest of mascara
And a bob blacker than that.

Her legs were long and smooth,
Hands clasped at her knee
As she sat upon a stool for some quick photography.

Now, gone is the girl
And gone is old Berlin;
But her grand-niece has the pickelhaube,
And her easy smile, again.
______
for dverse Meeting The Bar--Imagism

21 comments:

  1. marlene dietrich... she's a legend.. i may sing lilli marlen in the pub one day... just haven't got her legs.. smiles

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  2. Love it!
    Excellent work with a respectable rhyme. :)
    What a great hat name. Who knew?

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  3. I really enjoyed this. You make it so easy to picture her.

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  4. I think I've told you before how I love this old World War I soldier's ballad, as I heard it sung in the folk coffeehouses of my youth, as a sort of folk song..it has that classic quality, once heard never forgotten. Nobody does it like Marlene though...what a beautiful smoky voice. Your poem is a warm look at how some important things may change, yet never really go away, and the image of the lamplight, the hat and the smile is incandescent.

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  5. Marvelous, I felt that the beauty of the first girl is still present and somehow passed to her grand niece. There's a celebration in that. :)

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  6. Heirlooms in body and possessions...

    Now, is this a pickelhaube?? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickelhaube

    I was picturing some very chic little cap, not this! But very interesting, indeed!

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  7. Yes, Hannah. A pickelhaube is one of those spiked helmets.

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  8. A pickelhaube...not comfy but funky, royal, majestic. I want one.

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  9. Love this:

    "Wore the darkest of mascara
    And a bob blacker than that"

    ~Shawna
    rosemarymint.wordpress.com

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  10. Never heard that word before, and it gave the poem a terrific flair! Nice!

    http://charleslmashburn.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/black-words/

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  11. nice...you learned me a new word...nice capture of her...and the carry forward to her new generation...oh the things we pass on...

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  12. That you even know, and can use the word "pickelhaube" in a poem makes me want to rend my garments! Hee hee.

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  13. What a beauty! What a song! She was more than cabaret, she even had a mad fling with John Wayne! Wow, could she hunt and shoot!

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  14. brilliant use of imagism, SP! ♥

    now i vant to be alone...

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  15. This poem zipped me back and forth through time - the spirit of Dietrich lives on in every brave bold woman, unafraid to wear a spiked hat!

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  16. Love this one - and new word for Lynn!

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  17. she was a mysterious, classy dame wasn't she?

    that song, and ohhh that song

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Spirit, what do you wish to tell us?