Poetry On Demand – for National Poetry Month and Forever

So, if you don’t know it yet, I do this thing called Poetry On Demand.

It’s LIVE, INTERACTIVE, ON-DEMAND-POETRY-MAKING (yes, I’m yelling).

I’ve been doing it for close to five years now. At festivals. In classrooms. On stages. And tomorrow morning – on the freakin’ radio, yo. Check it.

8:10am on 97.5FM – CBC Radio. Windsor Morning with Tony Doucette and Jonathan Pinto and the rest of the morning crew.

What is this wild and crazy thing I write of?

It’s simple.

I offer you a basket of words. (I choose the words that go in the basket, and I can cater them to your every event/theme. It’s easy.)

You choose three words randomly, without looking. (Magic happens here, so don’t be alarmed if the words you pick are deeply connected to your life.)

For each word, you think of another. Example: you choose HEAT. Then I say: What do you think of when I say the word HEAT? And you say: SUN. Or LOVE. Or SNUGGLING. Or PHOTOSYNTHESIS. Honestly, any old word will do.

When we’re done our INTERACTIVE WORD CHOOSING AND ASSOCIATION, I have six (6) words that I have to use in a poem THAT I WRITE IN 3 – 5 MINUTES. 

Wait, what?

Yeah. I wrote that. I write you a poem using words that YOU just gave me. And I do it in less time it takes you to..um…pee or get a Tim Horton’s coffee between 8:30am and 9:00am on a weekday morning. (And poetry is BETTER THAN COFFEE.)

Since I’ve been doing this for 5 years, I’ve collected quite a few poems on demand. In fact, I’ve self-published FOUR VOLUMES OF THEM. (Damn it.) A fifth will be out in the fall.

It’s National Poetry Month and Poetry On Demand should STEP UP and be recognized, yo.

*TOOT* TOOT* You’d think that was the sound of my own horn, but it’s NOT. My friends, it’s the sound of POETRY’S HORN. Because that’s what we need to do. TOOT POETRY’S HORN.

I promise you’ll change your tune about poetry…unless it’s already along the lines of ‘I LOOOOOVVVVEEE ITTTTT!’.

Let’s let poetry live in our lives like our favourite foods. Words are ingredients. Let poetry be your meal.

And mama’s your chef.

Buon Appetite!