I'd like to find a copy of this book so I can see if that punchy cover matches what's inside. Poets.org describes its beginnings this way:
"Lauded poet Christopher Merrill hatched a brilliant plan: invite six other poets to join him in four days of writing in Iowa City. The poets would write for 30 minutes, creating a poem of 15 lines, and then read it aloud to the group. As poets heard the poems, they noted memorable words, images, and lines, which they would borrow to insert in subsequent poems of their own. These rounds continued, until, in a process of call and response and unprecedented collaboration, 80 poems had been composed."
Okay, that sounds either fabulous or terrible. Poetry meets improv and becomes book. I suspect it's fabulous, but even if it isn't, I'm picturing the glee of the poets in that room. Imagine, poetry built on call and response, playfulness, and letting go of your own self-importance. I could dive into that.
Poetry Friday---another ongoing event of "unprecedented collaboration"---is rounded up today by Kelly Herold at Crossover.
I like to play a game with my girls where I start a story, tell a bit, then someone else picks it up. And we keep taking turns that way. This sounds sorta similar. It'd be fun to try the same with poems, or "poms" as Piper keeps calling them.
ReplyDeleteSomehow I don't think the book could be nearly as fun as the process itself. I'd want to LIVE it, not just read about it!
ReplyDeleteOK girlfriends. I think this is something we need to pick up and run with. Only question is what is the best place to do it digitally? Facebook? VoiceThread? something else online?
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