Thread: The Makeover of Francis Farmer

Dazzling girl,
seam dressed in heaven
blondness, one, born
with fortitude of an army.

Should have kept your looks
behind the books
award winning papers
bringing you to Moscow.
Communist, Collectivist, Socialist, Maoist!
let them call you names but, please, don’t.
Don’t!

Left winger flys to Follywood.

Paramount, of that much importance.
you, spat on screen
like some kind of handy candy
till you rolled your eyes up to the top, then you...

Screaming at the screen, at a tinsel star,
broad wanting the bowels of Broadway.

No one hears a face.
you trumpet-talk at angry ears.

Ennui, ennui
A matter of time. Oh, tedium take this drink.
again and again.

Bite the breath test.
throw an ink well at the judge.
slap your mother in the face.

Mother Lazarus turns you in.
Asylum, befitting a fine little makeover.

Five years of applications.

Room furnished with pads
apparel, white, with straps
tainted food
gnawed on by rats

Heartenervated

Lent out to soldiers.
orderlies, orderly, line up.
you had nobody, no body.

Experiments on
guinea pig by pigs.
pills long lost their appeal,
electric shock, no longer shocking.
Bored doctors knew the drill.

After the Lobotomy,
after the crime which cries,
the makeover is complete.
head as empty as a living doll.

Mother applies your lipstick
and teaches you how to smile.

Hello Laurie,

As usual, you fascinate me with new things. You always have a big story behind your poem. Well, then this is what I understood from the poem. I may be wrong. lol


The narrator in the poem gave the account of a talented girl. Her gift attracted a large audience but she became foul-mouthed along the way. Something grave happened to her along the way (I'm not so sure)... like a crime or some sort of disqualification.

Well, I've got to stop at this point and relish with joy the prospect of the right explanation.


'No one hears a (face)...' please, did you mean a 'phase' instead?

Overall, I'm so glad you have returned to your writing-ways, Silver moon.

Francis Farmer was a famous, very beautiful and intelligent actress. She was committed to an asylum (Sedro Wooley, Washington, as I recall) where the orderlies allowed local men to rape her at night for money. Her reports of this were, of course, discounted. Curt Cobain was fascinated by her case.

As a NW journalist, I was familiar with Farmer a long time before Cobain rekindled interest in her heart-breaking story. I was thinking about asking SilverMoon if her interest in Farmer came through the Cobain material or other source.

At this point, I'm asking her about your post and if she wonders whether or not reader familiarlity with the actress has a positive or negative effect on the impact of the poem.

This is a rather nice treatment of subject. WAY better than Cobain's lyrics, for sure. I though the last couplet was really masterful, one of those finales that manages to encapsulate, yet spin, the whole piece.

Thanks Lin for the explanation. I should have googled the name in title before asking but the subtlity took me in so quickly. It made me curious.

Hi, Fox. Thank you, again, for enjoying my poems. You've got everything down, here. This poem is about Frances Farmer who was a famous Hollywood star. Yes. She was very strong and outspoken. Yes. She had some problems but none that deserved a criminal lobotomy! This happened many years back when doctors where able to get away with such crimes. This is a story which is very close to me and angers me so. So in a way, it was very cathardic for me to write. Laurie

Originally Posted by lin

I though the last couplet was really masterful, one of those finales that manages to encapsulate, yet spin, the whole piece.

I agree with Lin. Very nicely done and this last couplet is really good. You've said a lot in those last couple of lines.

The anger you feel at this comes through, but does not destroy the piece or make it overbearing. Nicely done.

lin, very pleased that you dropped in on the subject. Cobain's song does not do her or the subject matter justice. So, my influence did not come from his material. It was rummored that Francis had Bi-Polar Disorder and I think that Cobain's diagnosis of the same "might" have been part of what drove him to write his lyrics. But here is where I stop about Cobain.

The source which drove me: Yes. I've always been fascinated with the case and viscerally attached to it. Why? My mother, a brilliant woman who was a Radcliffe graduate, was subjected to numerous shock treatments in her life. This was during the 50's when I was five. Too many times witnessing my mother coming home as a zombie. A colorful woman, shut down. But this was their "answer" back then. If "Mother's Little Helpers" didn't do the trick, "shock em".

wonders whether or not reader familiarlity with the actress has a positive or negative effect on the impact of the poem.

Very good question. I am pleased to say that Fox, here, was able to get the story without knowing the history. So, I feel I did my job here.

I do believe familiarity with the history has a positive impact on the poem in that people familiar with the story would be able to "fill" in between the lines, hence, they becoming more of a "participant."

Not knowing the Francis Farmer story? I do feel the poem can hold it's own. But then I will have to really wait and see how other readers "feel" about the poem without knowledge of the intricate details of her background.

Thank you so much, lin, for your kudos! Has made my day.

The anger you feel at this comes through, but does not destroy the piece or make it overbearing.

I'm very glad to hear this, van. I say that good writing stems from "The marriage between the intellect and the emotions". I did have to stand back on several occasions. I've leared through writing classes that you should never demonize your demons. I did attempt to distract attention away from their horns through play on words such as:

Bored doctors knew the drill

How I struggled with the last two lines. I like my endings to wrap up with power. Real problem with what tense I was going to use. Almost settled with:

Mother applies her lipstick
and teaches her how to smile

Thinking it would keep her small, but that's already been established. So glad, I kept up with the present tense.

Thank you so much for appreciating this piece. Coming from you this means allot! Laurie

Left you limp with good reason, love. I'd love to gush, but then I resort to rambling. What was done to Frances Farmer was deplorable and the mere mention of her name results in injustice gnawing at what's left of my insides. That subhuman woman isn't entitled to be called Mother. Nasty backstabbing bitch. Frances did not walk the beaten path, so they fried a brilliant mind, again I say, deplorable. I won't even attempt to address the rapes, I'll rant for sure. This is a brilliantly written, extremely evocative piece, I would have been enraged even if I wasn't aware of her story. The wordplay is delectable, and since I'm starting to gush, I'll leave it at you've outdone yourself, Laurie, you were drained with good reason. Now go replenish yourself so we can bleed you again.

Yes, Lisa. I was quite drained attempting to create a piece which was comprehensible, despit my FURY with her mother, doctors and rapists. To be born from such a mother! Most likey jealous of her beauty, intellegence and fame. Now before "I" go on a rant, I leave this as a simple thank you for your appreciation. Laurie

wow. your an amazing writer. I had to read it twice to understand it completly but, it was really deep and haunting, and it was just wow. keep writing. you have amazing talent

Thanks, un named. I do tend to haunt in my work. Laurie

Laurie,

Very well written work of art. Makes one furious that a so-called dr. can perform such deplorable acts of "surgery" on another human being! Just so she will be "normal". Back then, the famous Kennedy's daughter also had a lobotomy because she was "mentally challenged". The youngest patient was a 4 year old because of behavioural problems. Dr. Walter Friedman performed "the transorbital lobotomy by thrusting an ice pick up between the eyeball and eyelid then through the roof of the orbit, and making the lateral cut by swinging the thing from side to side". They used lobotomies for what is now known as ADHD,ADD, bi-polar. Even depressed homemakers had it done back then. Sad!

May Frances rest in peace.

Thank you, Cindy, for your kind remark. Wasn't aware of these atrocities all in the name of acting normal. Ironically, today it's "popular" to have Bi-Polar Disorder. People will brag about it. It was rummored that Francis did have Bi-Polar Disorder....and, yes, may Francis rest in peace.

The lobotomy is a myth. There is no evidence that a lobotomy was ever performed on Frances Farmer. Francis is the male spelling, the correct spelling is as I've just done it.

I think the idea here is great but I also think it could use a serious trim. Too much is a list of facts rather than a poetic expression. I honestly think you could do much more with this. It's also suffering from very bad punctuation, in particular all those lower case letters following the full stops.

This is a very promising piece of work but I don't thin it comes close to what it could be if you tidy it up and show me more of the person rather than expecting me to know her through the events.