"#RIPIreneCara" - 11/26/22

Amazing, multi-talented, groundbreaking goddess
Awards bestowed for contributions to iconic "Fame"
Repeat success with irrepressible "Flashdance" theme
Oscar-winning Songwriter, pianist, actress, producer
Industry outsider bucking Majors unbeknownst
Unbridled lioness-artist-iconoclast ahead of her time

Beauty, brains, talent - long underappreciated imho.
Watched original film "Fame" again, seminal cinema
Ranks up there with "Coal Miner's Daughter" and
"The Buddy Holly Story" inspiration to countless
TV show it lead to an unabashed weekly highlight
Gravity defying Leroy and Debbie Allen both so brilliant

My life has been so connected to that show/film.
The character Bruno who did electronic music made
Me wanna play the synthesizer. A (rare, on screen)
Gay character taught me what all that meant and how
The arts were a place where private pain-isolation
Could transmute into transcendent self-expression.

The music Irene Cara sang/played so beautifully
Made me know exactly what I wanted to be
When I grew up (or rather, effective immediately).
When they used "Too Many Women" in the remake
The main reason it meant so much was because of
Irene Cara how impressive it had always been to me

Grammy winning, sang, wrote, performed, produced
Along with being an actor/dancer at such a high level.
She literally inspired generations of young artists
To be striving, polymath performers, including me.
Magic is a word reserved for otherworldly, inexplicable
Phenomena; your gifts resplendent, soul's ephemera