Ahem. Now that all of you have demonstrated how well – and how quickly  – you can respond to a writing challenge put up by the interim committee folks, it is time for a new Post Writing Challenge. This time, we're going to get musical.

All of us are inspired by music – even if it's headbanger noise like the Prof listens to, or that boring folk-stuff some of the rest of us favour. There's no disputing about tastes. But some singer-songwriters are influential when it comes to our thinking. Which brings us to the Challenge:

Create a work – poem, short story, essay, song lyric, cartoon, photo, drawing, video (or whatever else you can think of that we can share online) – inspired by, and somehow connected to, a line (or two) or stanza of a song by the following influential singer-songwriter:

Neil Diamond.

Yep. Him. I'm told Mr Diamond is 'polarising'. I think that means people either love him or hate him. Let me explain why I fall into the first category¹.

Neil Diamond has a lot in common with William Blake. Like Blake, he is underrated, particularly by the fancier crowd. Like Blake, he combines two media beautifully – in Blake's case, words and pictures, in Diamond's, words and music. Like Blake, Diamond's lyrical simplicity often conceals a profounder message. Like, 'You are the words, I am the tune…play me.' Now, don't you wish you'd said that?

To get you started, here is a link to a list of Neil Diamond songs. Pick one.

A few other observations:

• You do not have to like Neil Diamond to participate in this Challenge. You may parody, mock, or otherwise complain about the man who thinks 'brang' is a verb form. Irritation is also a form of inspiration.
• DON'T tell us what song you're referring to. Let us guess. That's part of the fun.
• DON'T be too subtle. If nobody guesses the connection, then it's no fun, either.
• Just mail the results of your genius to the Post.

Last but not least:

• THIS ONE TIME ONLY, I'm going to insist you stick to the rules. Material that relates to lyrics by Bob Dylan will be held over for another occasion. I mean it.

So youtube Mr Diamond's oeuvre, or go listen to your CDs, or read the lyrics online. Receive inspiration. Then create.

The usual caveat scriptor applies: We're too cheap for prizes, you only get smileys from the likes of us, there's no deadline, we just publish when we get stuff, yadda yadda.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

18.07.11 Front Page

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