Prince is one of the most iconic artists of my life and when I heard he died on Thursday, I was propelled down a rabbit hole of memories of my life and how Prince shaped it. Last night I went to watch Purple Rain movie outside with thousands of people wearing purple and grieving. It was so cool. Then we went to the Prince memorial outside of First Avenue and then we danced all night to Prince songs inside First Avenue. When we left at 3:38 am, there was still a block long group of people waiting to get inside. It was so surreal and awesome and sad.
Today, I knew I had to feature a poem about Prince and I read this one last year by Tanya Olson. It was featured in the The Best American Poetry of 2015. Enjoy!
54 Prince by Tanya Olson
There exist 54 Goldilocks planets
54 planets not too hot
54 planets not too cold
54 planets where the living
is juuuuuust right
in that particular planetary zone
54 planets like Earth
but not Earth Similar
not the same 54 planets close
but different Different
except for Prince
Assless Pants Prince
High-Heel Boots Prince
Purple Rain Prince
Paisley Park Prince
I Would Die For You Prince
Ejaculating Guitar Prince
Jehovah’s Witness Prince
Needs A New Hip Prince
Wrote Slave On His Face Prince
Took An Unpronounceable Symbol For His Name Prince
Chka Chka Chka Ahh Prince
54 planets each with a Prince
and every Prince
exactly the same
as the one we know on Earth
54 lace 54 canes
54 planets 54 Prince
These 54 Prince swallow 54 worries
The 54 worries become 54 songs
54 songs made of 54 bars 54 bars
using 54 chords 54 downbeats
where they pick up the worries
54 off-beats to lay the worries down again
54 worried skank-beat Prince
birth 54 worrisome funk-drenched songs
Once an Earth year the Prince
gather around Lake Minnetonka
When the cherry moon smiles
they thrust under their heads
Under the water the Prince sick up
the old worries Under the water
worry sacks rise empty again
It takes a worried man the Prince say
to sing a worried song
while beneath the surface of Lake Minnetonka
the perch in the shoals
and the gobies in their holes
nibble at the worries
our skimmed from the top worries
scraped from the bottom worries
spooned from the middle good enough worries
There’s worries now the fish sing
but there won’t be worries long
