A Throwback and a Review
- Madyson Podojil
- Dec 5, 2017
- 6 min read
Talk about a THROWBACK! This was one of my final projects in my Sophomore year english class. I was assigned to pick a "Poet Laureate" to present on, and believe me, this project took ages to complete, as there was also an essay portion, an outline, and a self evaluation.
I actually hated this project, but I didn't hate the content. My poet was Haley Rose, author and illustrator of "The Weirdos." I actually have a signed copy.
I'll let my essay below, and my powerpoint above tell you all you need to know about Haley Rose herself, but for now I'd like to do a formal review of her amazing poetry book.
"The Weirdos" is a short book, really. However, Haley Rose puts herself into the stories she writes of, and has a kind of eerie feeling to her writings. This feeling is only increased by her "goth-esque" illustrations, similar to what you see here on the cover. The book is an anthology, and each poem is handwritten by Rose herself. That's what makes this book so out of the ordinary, is that each poem is illustrated by her own hand, and each page was scanned into a computer as to keep her handwriting shown. I've loved this book for years, and I never get tired of relating to Rose's misfits throughout. It's a pleasant and easy read, that you can get through in minutes due to its short nature. But you'll definitely come back to read again. It's definitely a collection for the "weirdo" in your life!
Rose is also a singer/songwriter, and she has expressed before her interest in writing a poem when she needs to get the creativity flowing. She's a unique artist and was born with the talent needed to produce beautiful poetry. I highly encourage everyone to check this book out if you still can, and also try to find some of her other poems online, such as "Braindead and Broke." So now, a little background on Rose herself:
Haley Rose Kopcho, A Biography
Many young girls of today’s world dream of being famous. Fame comes in many forms, whether it be finding a job as a singer, writer, or even just being the star in a spouse’s life. Sadly, most girls are told that the want to be famous is an “unrealistic dream.” Therefore they give up, only to be hired into a profession that does not truly make them happy. Unlike these other girls, Haley Rose Kopcho (Figure 1) stands out from the crowd. Born in 1988 in Dallas, Texas, Miss Rose constantly had her head in the clouds. She dreamed of making it in the world, but only if she could do it on her own terms (“Haley Rose.” Famous). Now, at the ripe young age of twenty eight, she is not only a published poet with her very own book, but also a successful singer and guitar player with a loving husband. However, fame is not all it is chalked up to be. For Haley, it has been a long and winding road. Haley Rose’s poetry captures the feelings she has had of self doubt and of not quite fitting in, and these themes are mirrored in her personal life.
On her personal social media, Haley has posted photos of her at around the age of ten, wearing a white feather boa and holding a microphone (Kopcho, Haley R. “Haley”). She knew from a young age what she wanted to do with her life, and despite the negativity, she kept fighting for that dream. Haley says her main goal was making it as a singer, but through writing your own songs, you become a poet in the process.
She began recording herself singing and then uploading the vocal covers to the internet when she was twenty years old (Skinlikeadoll). Around this time, she also began busking on the streets with a purse tied around her ankle for tips. There was a danger of drug addicts robbing her in the area she performed in, and that is why she kept her earnings on her body at all times. At age eighteen, there was a period in which Haley lived in a car with her cat, Peekaboo. At this time, busking was her only source of income (“Haley Rose Ficarro”). After covering other people’s songs for about three years, she finally wrote her first song. The title of the song was “Fade Away”, and it was completed around the time she was twenty three. This was around the same time in which she started to write poetry as a side hobby. Often times it served as just extra inspiration if she hit a hard place when working on her song. “Fade Away” was about the time she was “madly in love with a boy and moved hours away to a shitty apartment in the barrio to be with him,” and within a week, she found out he had been cheating on her (Skinlikeadoll). Although the song was not officially recorded until 2014, it gained a lot of attention from just being online (“Haley Rose on”). Shortly after she wrote a second song called “Sid and Nancy,” based on the relationship of Sid Vicious (guitarist of The Sex Pistols) and his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen (“Haley Rose.” Twitter). They were described as being a “punk rock Romeo and Juliet,” a relationship Haley herself would one day have.
Haley’s internet fame began to skyrocket with her two roughly recorded singles. Once she made her own Twitter and Instagram, she began to post poems she had written as well. Many of her poems are self illustrated and come from a perspective of a character she created. Examples of this from her published book, “The Weirdos,” are poems like “The Ballerina Princess” and “Sara the Sorrowful Songbird” (Kopcho, Haley R., Ms.).
Starting in 2011, she began working with a band called “Blood on the Dance Floor” when she met and shortly dated the lead singer, Dahvie Vanity (Skinlikeadoll). Although their relationship ended, they continued to be friends. They even toured the Vans Warped Tour together. This is where she met her current husband, Ronnie Ficarro. Ronnie played guitar for a band called “Falling in Reverse” at the time, but now makes his own music, occasionally with Haley. Playing the music festival only increased Haley’s fame, and she was well on her way to being a shining star. In 2012, she not only featured on Blood on the Dance Floor’s album “Evolution” but Dahvie Vanity signed her to his record label, D4rk Fantasy Records (Kopcho, Haley R. “Haley”).
In 2013, Haley finally put together many of her poems that had gained a lot of interest online into a book called “The Weirdos.” The small, self-illustrated anthology was not easily published. Her many fans demanded that Harper Publishing Company allow “The Weirdos” to be published, but after months of persistence, they refused to budge (“Jacked”). It was difficult for an amateur poet to get her small book of only eighteen poems published by a big company. So again, Haley Rose decided she would do it all herself. She set up “Dreamgirl Press,” named after her first full length iTunes EP, and funded the project herself. Haley set up preorders for her fans to order her book, and to all those who preordered, she wrote a special thank you note inside each cover. Those who did not know of her previously fell in love with her poetry, which meant Miss Rose was not just a musician, but now a published author. She would continue posting and writing her own poetry, but she only worked with Blood on the Dance Floor until late 2014 due to being mistreated by their tour manager (“Haley Rose Ficarro”).
This was a difficult time for Haley seeing as Blood on the Dance Floor brought her much of her current fame, and D4rk Fantasy Records owned her iTunes releases. However, as she had her whole life, Haley held her head high. She was determined to make it on her own, and she did just that. Haley kept posting youtube videos of her singing and playing the guitar, and in late 2015, she became Haley Rose Kopcho Ficarro (Figure 3) at the Stanley Hotel.
This is the same hotel that inspired Stephen King’s “The Shining”(Kopcho, Haley R. “Haley”). She now makes music with her husband, does commissioned art, and still has all of her fans. When young girls are struggling with the temptation of just "settling" they need a strong figure to look to. For many, that figure could and should be Haley Rose.
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