Poet pumped up on... Purple Power Dave Harm puts poetry to music as a fundraiser for Relay For Life. For Dave Harm of Diller, the ultimate goal behind Purple Power is that one day nobody will know what any of the poems are about. Purple Power is a CD collection of 12 of Harm’s poems about cancer set to music. The proceeds from sales of the CD’s will go to the Gage County and Jefferson County Relay For Life organizations. “All the poems on this CD were inspired by Betty’s having cancer,” Harm said. In 2000, Betty Harm, Dave’s wife, was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer. After a modified radical mastectomy, eight chemotherapy treatments, and a 30-day radiation treatment, she has since been in remission. “The goal from day one on this project is that years from now nobody who would listen to this CD would know what it means, that cancer has been eliminated,” Harm said. The CD’s are available at Beatrice Bakery, Blue Rose Antiques, Git ‘N Split, TY’s Tobacco corner and Pro Auto Tune in Beatrice and Diller Telephone, Diode Cable, and C & C Food Mart in Diller. Copies can also be purchased through Harm’s website, www.daveharm.com Harm said proceeds from the CD sales will go to the Relay for Life, with Jefferson County sales going to the Jefferson County Relay and Gage County sales going to the Gage County Relay. In addition, for Relay teams looking for a fundraiser, he said the CDs are available at a discount. Harm said the idea of putting some of his poems to music started four or five years ago. “I got a CD in the mail from a band in New Hampshire,” he said. “They said they liked my poetry on the Internet and were interested and they were interested in creating a song from one of them.” From there, Harm said he thought it would be fun to find more bands interested in turning more of his poems into songs, but that project wasn’t meant to be. Then last year while surfing on the Internet, he found a site with royalty-free music composed by Kevin MacLeod. He contacted the composer, told him about the idea for the project and got the OK to use the music. From there, Harm said he spent 30-40 hours listening to hundreds of MacLeod’s songs trying to find the ones that felt right for this project. “I wanted the music to be spiritual, reflective, and meditative, and to have some kind of meaning to it by itself,” he said. Harm said he found 12 he really liked, and then went back through all the poems he had written to choose 12 to include. Then it was a matter of matching the poems and songs and figuring out how to space out the reading of the poems to fit with the music, a process that probably took another 30 hours, he said. Harm said the next step was getting it recorded, which was done at Platinum Recording Studio in Lincoln. “I had never been in a studio before,” he said. “It was very time consuming.” Harm said even though they were just reading, they still made mistakes. Recording the CD, which runs 40 minutes, took about six and a half hours. With all that, and finding a company to produce 1,000 copies, he said the total project took close to 100 hours and more than 500 miles of driving back and forth to Lincoln to complete. “It was a lot more work than I thought, but it was enjoyable work,” Harm said. All Harm’s poetry is inspired by actual experience, he said. “There’s nothing fantasy or made up,” Harm said. He said he got more into it in 1996 and began sending poems that were included in the Poet’s Pen column in the Beatrice Daily- Sun. Harm has since had two books published, was named a United States Poetry Ambassador in 2006 and writes the weekly poetry column The Poets Quill that appears in the Daily-Sun. |
Celebrating Life....
by fighting cancer
by fighting cancer
| Artice from the Beatrice Daily-Sun by Bill Hafer 2/16/2008 |
Diller Resident’s Poetry Helps To Fight Cancer A Diller resident has picked up his pen to help put down cancer. Dave Harm has put his poetry to music as a fund-raiser for Relay For Life. The CD is titled, Purple Power. Harm’s ultimate goal behind Purple Power is that one day nobody will know what any of the poems are about. Purple Power is a CD collection of 12 of Harm’s poems about cancer set to music. The proceeds from the sales of the CDs will go to the Jefferson County and Gage County Relay For Life organizations. In 2000, Betty Harm, Dave’s wife, was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer. After a modified radical mastectomy, eight chemotherapy treatments, and a 30-day radiation treatment, she has since been in remission. Harm’s CD is not only a blend of poetry and music but also of people. It uses four distinct voices to convey the message of hope, courage, strength, and love. And all the people involved have some way been affected by cancer. “The CD has four readers,” Harm said. “We’ll start with myself. I am the only male voice on Purple Power. As a spouse of a survivor, my voice represents a symbol of strength and support. Another reader is my wife Betty. She is the voice of a survivor. Kind of frail and weak, her voice shows how we keep moving forward with courage. The other two readers are young ladies. I met Ashlee Dickinson a few years back and I talked about her family in my first book, Damaged Merchandise. She was a little nervous to start but after she took a few deep breaths she did fine. I still chuckle when I think of her first reading. She took a two minute poem and read it in 20 seconds. Ashlee has lost family members to cancer and hers is the voice of uncertainty. And finally, is my step-daughter, Lisa Engelman. Representing the child of a survivor, her voice is one of hope. Lisa is a natural behind a microphone. She did a fantastic job! She was the star of the show. So there you have it; a spouse of a survivor, a child of a survivor, someone who has lost family members to cancer, and a survivor. Ranging in age from 17 to 50 it symbolizes how cancer doesn’t attack just the young or old, nor male or female.” Harm said even though they were just reading, they still made mistakes. Recording the CD, which runs 40 minutes, took about six and a half hours. The CD, which was recorded in Lincoln, took close to 100 hours and more than 500 miles of driving back and forth to Lincoln to complete. According to Harm, all of his poetry is inspired by actual experience. “There’s nothing fantasy or made up.” “The goal from day one on this project is that years from now nobody who would listen to this CD would know what it means, that cancer has been eliminated,” Harm said. Harm said proceeds from the CD sales will go to the Relay For Life, with Jefferson County sales going to the Jefferson County Relay and Gage County sales going to the Gage County Relay. So why the name “Purple Power”? “At a relay event everyone is wearing a T-shirt showing their participation in this event”, Harm said. “There are a variety of colors for the shirts, but it’s always easy to see the survivors, their shirts are always purple. Then to watch that first lap – the survivor’s lap - is pure power. Hence, Purple Power.” The CDs, which sell for $10, have returned positive reviews to Harm. “I bought one of your Purple Power CDs on Saturday at the Relay kick-off and just got done listening to it. What a beautiful CD! My husband was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins in September 2001 and died in October 2005. It was four years of fighting but sadly, God needed him more. When listening to the CD it brought tears just thinking about all we went through also. The CD expresses the fears, hopes, emotions, etc., of all cancer patients and their families. Thank you for putting all of them into words. The music added, fit the emotion. What a beautiful combination. I hope the CDs will sell, once people listen to it I can’t imagine them not selling. I’m glad your wife is doing well and I pray that she continues to have good check-ups.” – Corinne Koch, Beatrice The CDs are available at Beatrice Bakery, Blue Rose Antiques, Git ‘N Split, TY’s Tobacco Corner and Pro Auto Tune in Beatrice and Diller Telephone, Diode Cable, and C&C Food Mart in Diller. Copies can also be purchased through Harm’s website, www.daveharm.com |
| Article from the Fairbury Journal News by Vicki Check 3/12/08 |
What is Purple Power? Purple Power is a combination of 12 instrumental music compositions and 12 poems I wrote about cancer. Merged together to form a 40 minute CD. Why Purple Power? I have received many compliments throughout the years about my poetry on cancer. Most of these poems have been read at the Gage County Relay For Life and from that small start some of these poems have taken on a life of their own. The poem Our Heroes was written specifically for the 2007 Gage County Event to fit in with their theme about heroes. But it found life throughout southeast Nebraska as the poem read at kick-off rallies as well as the closing meetings. Another poem that just seems to keep living on is Relay For Survivors. Written for the 2005 Relay, it was used at the first Relay event in Waverly that year and by the fall it made its way up to Canada. While in 2006, the Red Willow County Relay For Life in McCook used the poem Day One as its cover poem for a tabloid entitled HOPE. It was the second time that Day One graced the front page of a publication. Back in 2004, it was shown on the front page of The Beatrice Daily-Sun. In 2007 it came back to life, when it was used in a fund-raising book for the Clio, Michigan Relay For Life. Why the name Purple Power? At a Relay event everyone is wearing a tee-shirt showing their participation in this event. There are a variety of colors for the shirts but it’s always easy to see the survivor, their shirts are always purple. Than to watch that first lap – the survivors lap – is pure power. Hence Purple Power. What about the readers? The CD has four readers. We’ll start with myself. I am the only male voice on Purple Power. As a spouse of a survivor, my voice represents a symbol of strength and support. Another reader is my wife Betty. She is the voice of a survivor. Kind of frail and weak, her voice shows how we keep moving forward with courage. The other two readers are young ladies. I met Ashlee Dickinson a few years back and I talk about her family in my first book Damaged Merchandise. She was a little nervous to start but after she took a few deep breaths she did fine. I still chuckle when I think of her first reading. She took a two minute poem and read it in 20 seconds. Ashlee has lost family members to cancer and hers is the voice of uncertainty. And finally, is my step-daughter Lisa Engelman. Representing the child of a survivor, her voice is one of hope. Lisa is a natural behind a mic. She did a fantastic job! She was the star of the show. So there you have it; a spouse of a survivor, a child of a survivor, someone who has lost family members to cancer, and a survivor. Ranging in age from 17 to 50 it symbolizes how cancer does not attack just the young or old, nor male or female. Where can someone purchase Purple Power? As of 2011 the only place to find Purple Power is on my website Creating Dreams. Just click on any of the Purple Power banners located throughout the entire site. By ordering through my website, an individual can order one copy or thousands (for their own fund-raiser.) Payment options are handled by PayPal which is one of the most secure methods on the ‘net and they accept all major credit cards. How much time do you have invested in Purple Power? That’s a hard one to answer. This project started when I found some music which I was given permission to use. Than I had to narrow down the songs which, I believed, people would enjoy listening to as well as have that “feeling” they were cancer songs. After that was completed, it was time to match the poems with the songs. Saying “Poem A” would sound nice with “Song 1” was easy, the hard part was getting the poem to flow with the song. To make it sound like the poem was written specifically for that song, or vice-versa. After that was done, it was time to find a recording studio. At the studio, in a dream world everything would have been perfect on the first try, but it wasn’t. Everyone seemed to read a poem at least two times, and occasionally 3-5 times. This 40 minute CD took roughly 6½ hours in the studio. This project just kept progressing in steps. After the recording it was time to find someone to replicate the finished product. With all new questions. Design on the CD? The type of case for the CD? What was going to be on the folders? Every time I thought I was approaching the finish line something else had to be done. In all, I’ve got about 500 miles between our house and Lincoln just doing the steps for Purple Power. A very conservative estimate on the total time would be about 80 hours. How can other questions be answered? They can contact me directly through my website e-mail. Has Purple Power helped in the fight against cancer? Yes it has. In its first year of existence it held two major fund raisers in Nebraska. In 2010 a fund raiser was done in Maryland and so far in 2011 an event featuring Purple Power as its main source of funds will be used in North Carolina. At an event I have sold these CDs for $10 a piece. On line I am selling one for $5 or a bulk order of 30 CDs for the price of $95. That might seem like a bit of money but that is only $3.17 a CD. If you sold them for the $10 suggested price your $95 investment has turned into $300. You get your original money back plus have over $200 for The American Cancer Society. And to help to keep the costs down shipping is free. I want to do my part in the fight against cancer. I've done it before with success and want to do it again. |
FAQ about Purple Power ------------------- followed by 2/16/08 article from The Beatrice Daily-Sun then 3/12/08 article from The Fairbury Journal |
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