Bobbi’s Mom
After the weeping wears down,
the fog of loss and regret
After the last interview (because
inquiring minds want to know)
After the blur of has-been celebrities
trading her confidential secrets for
visions of their own names in print
After her life has been ransacked,
laid out in pieces like a tacky
Hollywood lawn sale, as customers
lay claim to a bit of her charms
We will remember the girl who had to
grow up too soon, the bronzed beauty
with the punk-ass husband who put a KICK ME sticker
on her back and showed her his belt
and helped her to addiction she couldn’t kick
We will honor the icon – but let’s not forget
she was a daughter, a mother, and a fragile soul
No one can outrun an Achilles’ heel
© 2012 Amy Barlow Liberatore/Sharp Little Pencil
The Sunday Whirl: Belt, Fog, Sticker, Interview, Weeping, Visions, Blur, Ransacked, Confidential, Customer, Charms, Trade.
Rest in Peace, Whitney. You will never be forgotten.
Sharp Little Pencil 
pmwanken
Absolutely perfect. Loved this tribute.
My wordle was a bit of a tribute this week, as well: http://whenwordsescape.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/foggy-trafficking/
Good to see you back among the wordlers!! 🙂
Sharp Little Pencil
Paula, I am so darned glad to be back! Still behind on comments, but thx for leaving an exact link to the poem you want me to read. SO helpful. And yee, that golden voice attached to a threadbare ego will be missed. God love her, as a singer, I truly believe she had the best natural chops of her generation. Amy
viv blake
Sad life, sad poem about a story all too common – and a completely original take on the wordle. You might want to look out for typos in the last two stanzas.
Sharp Little Pencil
I’ll check it, Viv. I was writing fast, and for once, straight to the computer, so I might have been a bit manic when I was writing. Will edit, and thanks again for your eagle eye!
The Wordle itself simply fell into place. It was fate. God bless Whitney, broken girl… and golden voice. Peace, Amy
contemplativemoorings
She once said she was her own worst enemy…And she did have her one tragic flaw which is always magnified a thousandfold when one becomes a celebrity…
Still we shouldn’t martyr her…She made her choices…
Sharp Little Pencil
It’s a disturbing mix, because I was not only a singer, but once under the thrall of cocaine myself. If you have never been in that situation, it’s hard to explain how all-encompassing the need becomes. I am lucky to be clean and sober for over 30 years.
I don’t think of her as a martyr. I think of her as a girl who, like Judy Garland, was pushed into stardom from an early age and didn’t have her ego fully developed before the flashbulbs were in her face. Both had mothers who pushed too hard, although Cissy Houston was supportive. Still, a stage mom is a stage mom. I could have been a child star; my mom insisted I have a childhood. My daughter was a drumming phenom at age 9, but I insisted on the same. She has her head on straight. There’s responsbility all around, but it starts with parents who will protect you. Stardom can wait; childhood comes around only once. Just my thoughts… peace, Amy
Poetry & Icecream
Well said Amy!!!! I totally agree with you!. Such a sad, sad story and I feel for her little girl. I remember when she first started out, fresh and full of hope. I wonder where she’d be now if she hadn’t met Bobby Brown 😦
I love the 4th stanza and the last stanza sums it up well. An excellent poem..
Sharp Little Pencil
Norma, I met Bobby Brown early in his career and when I said “punk-ass,” I knew what I was talking about. Arrogant, mind-gamer, waste of air. She would have been better off going to college or at least completing high school before Cissy pushed her into a career. It’s about forming one’s ego fully before making life choices… Peace, Amy
Debbie
“a fragile soul” . . .thank you for this tribute, Amy.
Sharp Little Pencil
Souls become fragile when bodies are abused, both by others and by oneself, right? Thanks, Debbie. Amy
Daydreamertoo
With you all the way on this. She was a fabulous singer and had it all until ‘he’ destroyed her through his drugs use. He got clean, she couldn’t. What a sad shame to die so young because of what we allowed someone else to do to us.
Sad, fitting tribute. And ‘He’ paid tribute to her on stage! What a nerve.
Sharp Little Pencil
I can’t tell you what a schmuck Bobby Brown is, after personal and professional contact with him early in his career. Creep.
But her mom and dad should have kept her in school and allowed her to develop as a person before letting her pursue music. Sixteen, and singing about being some rich guy’s love toy for her first hit? Eeeeew. The Houstons may be big on church, but they got the moral values wrong, and she paid the price. I’m an overprotective mom of a child prodigy and PROUD that I didn’t push her. Thanks hon, Amy
brenda w
From many moons ago, I’m understanding that “kick me” sign. Thank you for recognizing Houston, and villifying abuse. It’s nice to see you, Amy. 🙂
Sharp Little Pencil
Brenda, thanks again for giving us another wonderful Wordle. I didn’t tackle it until after learning of Whitney’s death before church SUnday morning, and the words fell in place. Also gave me a chance to vent on that despicable Bobby Brown. She couldn’t take all that, she was too young when she started… thanks for your kind words, Bren. Amy
Raven
SUPERB!
Sharp Little Pencil
Wow, thanks so much. Hard subject, but the Wordle fell into place. Brenda gives great words, which helps… peace, Amy
MISH
BEAUTIFUL !!
Whitney Houston is my all-time fave female artist. She is “THE VOICE” (courtesy Clive Davis) and there will never be another voice like hers – not in this lifetime, anyway…
Sharp Little Pencil
Agreed, without hesitation. The greatest natural talent, one who gave it all on stage. In fact, her push into early stardom is what set her on the road to her demise, because she was not prepared for stardom so young, just like last generation’s great natural talent, Judy Garland. Amy
Cathy
Beautiful done.
Sharp Little Pencil
Thanks so much, Cathy. I’m coming over to see your blog now! Peace, Amy
Inside the Mind of Isadora
She was a great performer. Her voice was a gift from God.
Performers are thrust into a life that for many can lead them
down the wrong paths. It is such a shame that we cannot enjoy
their gifts without invading their lives.
R.I.P. Whitney Houston
Sharp Little Pencil
Well said, Izzy, and thank you. Rest in peace, indeed – the peace that evaded her on this earth. Love, Amer
Inside the Mind of Isadora
~~~~ : – )
Sharp Little Pencil
????????
Semaphore
I too wanted to write a tribute, but at these times it’s often difficult to find the right words… So I will content myself with reading your poetry, and saying, yes, that’s what I feel too, exactly so, that’s how it hurts.
Sharp Little Pencil
Sam, if I had not had Brenda’s Wordle in front of me, I could not have found the words… peace, Amy
oncealibrarian
“…but let’s not forget
she was a daughter, a mother, and a fragile soul”
I so often think of that when celebrities die, especially when young or in ‘newsworthy’ circumstances. The manager of the Welsh football team died recently by his own hand and the media had a field day dissecting his private life and his reasons for doing it. How much harder it must make it for the family.
A lovely tribute, Amy, well done.
Sharp Little Pencil
The media here are the same. There will be weeks of pictures of drug-addled Whitney on the tabloids now. Loads of speculation… yet, for all her self-abuse (probably to “medicate” the pain of her husband’s abuse along with stardom much to early in life), she had the greatest natural voice since the early days of Barbra Streisand. She ended more like another great voice: Judy Garland. I do pray for her family, for their strength. Thanks, and peace, Amy
kaykuala
A beautiful tribute to Whitney, Amy! It is often a common human tragedy that clearly bears the same format. A icon who succumbed. Not that they failed to handle success. The hangers-on who benefitted and desired more that quickened the destruction. According to reports Bobbi’s mother was ok with her . Pity!
Hank
Sharp Little Pencil
It’s the company one keeps as a celebrity that dictates so much… media coverage as well as physical and emotional health. It wasn’t her fault – frankly, her mother should have known better than to hand her daughter, no matter how gifted, over to Clive Davis rather than ensuring she had high school, a regular prom, and a chance to be “most likely to succeed” rather than a gold record on her bedroom wall.
If you’re born to be a musician or any artist, it’s your parents’ job to try to talk you out of it. Then if you still go for it, it’s because you HAVE to, not because you’re trying to please anyone. And there’s the added benefit of feeling like you’re “your own dog,” rebelling against your strait-laced parents, ha ha ha. Peace, Hank. Amy
Mr. Walker
Amy, a lovely poem, timely and true. I like how you used “blur” and “ransacked” in light of the media blitz that will no doubt follow.
Richard
Sharp Little Pencil
Thanks, Richard. The words set forth by Brenda simply fell into place, probably because I was thinking a lot about Whitney and all the ways her life could have and should have gone… peace, Amy
Buddah Moskowitz
Great poem, and her loss is real sadness to me.
Sharp Little Pencil
Thanks, Buddah, and to me as well. Being a singer and having been around some stars, I saw the pressure they were under. This girl had it ALL, and lost it all in the process. I cried and cried, even though I wasn’t all that surprised that she was about Judy Garland’s age when she died… Love, Ameleh
Paula Scott Molokai Girl Studio
Amen.
Pie Jesu domine Deus eis requiem.
Sharp Little Pencil
If only the tabloids WILL let her rest… Pax, Amy
Old Egg
We fall in love with their skill and charisma and suffer every slip they make on the ladder they have climbed and then are dumbfounded at our sense of loss when they fall. We never want our heroes to have feet of clay.
Sharp Little Pencil
I grew up keenly aware of my love for Judy Garland and of her death – how and why she died, and I believe the connection to the Stonewall Riots of 1969, in which gay men of Greenwich Village said, a couple of days after her funeral, ‘We have had enough harassment from the police!’ These days, the intense media scrutiny is so hard to avoid… and that bastard Bobby Brown didn’t help matters…
Tilly Bud
That’s a cracking last line, Amy. A good tribute poem.
You have a few typos that spoil the reading, however:
grown u to soon/grow up too soon
and
and an helped her to addiction/and helped her to an addiction
I hope you don’t mind me pointing them out; the poem’s too good to be spoiled by typos.
Sharp Little Pencil
On the contrary, Linda, this is the type of feedback I appreciate. Your are the first to point them out, and I thank you very much. Second pair of eyes = better writing.
So glad you liked the poem as well… hard to address her talent without dealing with her fragile humanity… Peace, Amy
Renee Espriu
Everyone has a mother and she will be missed especially by her daughter because in the end she can’t be replaced. Thank You Amy.
Sharp Little Pencil
Amen, Renee. Peace, Amy
brian miller
sobering look at this…for sure…beyond the glitze it just another fragile person…
Sharp Little Pencil
She found power through her voice and ruin through other means. Thanks, Brian… Amy
Lindy Lee
Very good tribute to a fine talent. Agreed, judge not…
Sharp Little Pencil
Having trod in the footprints she made (in other words, not famous, but in the business), I understand how easily the missteps are made. Thanks so much, Lindy. Amy
Roger Green
It’s always hard to say, the “shoulda”s. Shoulda stayed in school, shoulda kneecapped Bobby Brown…I think, oddly, of New York Mets such as Gooden and Strawberry who gained fame (and wealth) early; both, by potential, shoulda been in the HOF, but lost their way.
Sharp Little Pencil
And I think of creative folks like Judy Garland and Billie Holiday… fame kills some folks; makes others stronger. Look at Dick Van Dyke, who made it through years of alcoholism and sobered up to ripe old age. Incidentally, I was a New Yorker during Doc and Strawb’s golden years and a huge Mets fan back then. PEace, Amy (PS I should’ve kneecapped Bobby Brown when I met him. What a jerk.)