This paper provides a descriptive analysis of a mash-up poem created by mixing lines of two poems by José Olivarez and a song by The Beatles. The poems’ names are River Oaks Mall and You Get Fat When You’re in Love, and the song’s name is All You Need Is Love. The first poem describes some attempts to keep a secret in different situations when the author admits “it’s hard to hold onto a secret” – while also revealing that denial is some of “the best ways to confess” (Olivarez). This work of Olivarez may seem outstanding in this mash-up since the other one and the song share a common topic – love. It depicts the necessity of love, especially when some people tend to dehumanize and even hate other communities. The second poem illustrates what love is capable of, while the song explains that human abilities are limited, but love is all people need to do what is essential (The Beatles). The process of mashing-up lines from the poems and the song required creativity. However, once I got acquainted with all the texts and selected the first line, the following ones started to come to my mind continuously. The mash-up of those works has united their subjects into a new, unique composition.
The ideas related to the arrangement of the lines came to me during the process of mashing up, but the most challenging thing was selecting the opening line. I felt that it would be the most significant part of the entire poem, and I had to concentrate and find the most appropriate words for the beginning of my poetry to fix a theme and emphasize its importance. However, I knew the closing line the exact moment I listened to the Beatles’ song. When I thought about it, I realized that the phrase “love is all you need” answers all questions in the world, and it is perfect to be the last line in the mash-up poem. Then I asked myself, “what can people possibly desire if they have love?” and the answer came to me on its own. They could only wish for “a little extra love,” which gave me an idea for the poem’s first line.
In general, I wanted to demonstrate the importance of this feeling by contrasting the presence of love in the first part of the poem and its absence in the second part. When a person is in love, it fills him; love makes “it hard to fit inside your pants sometimes” – it becomes impossible to hide this feeling obvious even to anyone who is looking. In turn, when relationships are broken, a lot of people actually change physically due to stress and negative emotions. At the same time, there is a lack of love inside that makes a person fulfilled. Staying without it, he starts to see the love of others everywhere – “every other kid in jeans, t-shirts, & Love.” Thus, I wanted to explain to the readers the significance of being constantly in love – to a partner, to the family, to animals, and to yourself. That is why I constantly repeated the line of the Beatles’ song emphasizing that love is all we need.
Nonetheless, there was no specific message that I tried to convey through my final mash-up. I tried to close my eyes while imagining love, then opened them and put on the lines that seemed the most similar to the feelings I experienced. I am satisfied with the ultimate work, and I would neither add nor remove any lines as I believe there are no missing or excessive points. Although I am not the author of the original works, the final mash-up is still a product of the creative process, meaning that my poem remains a piece of art, even in the assembled form. I believe that art does not have a beginning or an end since it is a continuous path, and there is no going back to change some elements or fix them.
Furthermore, creating this mash-up project has significantly impacted my goals and objectives related to the upcoming research project since my interests have extended. Breaking several texts into separate lines and then building them into an entirely new composition has shown me that representatives of different time periods can describe feeling in a similar way. That similarity allows other people, such as myself, to see familiar elements in the works of poets and singers and put them together to create a picture of their thoughts. Those who believe that each person is unique and there is no way to represent their feelings may disagree with me. However, I think that art is a phenomenon that unites people and their inner worlds, and we can share our thoughts with those living in the past and future ages.
Works Cited
Olivarez, José. Citizen Illegal (BreakBeat Poets). Haymarket Books, 2018.
The Beatles. All You Need Is Love. Web.