Poetry

How I Stay in Shape by Marilyn Monroe

A poem with found text from a 1950s magazine

Now I spend at least ten minutes each morning working out with small weights. I have never cared especially for outdoor sports and have no desire to excel at tennis, swimming, or golf. I’ll leave those things

to the men. Despite its great vogue in California I’m personally opposed to a deep tan. By nature I suppose I have a languorous disposition. I move my weights in circles until I’m tired.

Now I have to worry about eating too much. Before I take my morning shower I start warming a cup of milk on the hot plate I keep in my hotel room. When it’s hot, I break

two raw eggs into the milk, whip them up with a fork, and drink them while I’m dressing. I supplement this with a multi-vitamin pill, and I doubt any doctor could recommend a more nourishing breakfast.

Every night I stop at the market near my hotel and pick up a steak, lamb chops, or some liver which I broil in the electric oven in my room. I usually eat four or five raw carrots with my meat

and that is all. Frankly I’ve never considered my own figure so exceptional.

Note: This poem contains found text from a story in the September 1952 issue of Pageant magazine, written in a first-person voice and attributed to Marilyn Monroe. Although I know that Marilyn Monroe enjoyed writing, I don’t know if the magazine article was written by her or by a ghostwriter. Ghostwritten stories advertised as being written by the stars themselves commonly appeared in fan magazines at the time.

If you want to write a poem in the voice of someone else, you might enjoy my exercise on how to write a letter poem.