Local poets offer their services pro bono
Free Poems on Demand, a group of about ten Atlanta-based poets, offers poetry for anyone who asks.
- Courtesy of Jessica Blankenship
- Free Poets on Demand offer poems during a Free Market event on Edgewood
What's the going rate for a poem? A first edition of Leaves of Grass will run you six figures, though you can probably find a used paperback copy for a buck or two. If you're looking for a poem written just for you, though, Free Poems on Demand has the right price.
The group of about ten Atlanta-based poets has been popping up at events around the city, offering to write poems for anyone who asks. We caught up with founding member Jimmy Lo earlier this week to ask him a few questions about the group.
How did the project come about?
The Atlanta version of Free Poems started at the Decatur Book Festival in September, 2010. I did something similar in Tucson, Arizona in 2003, with some friends at the University of Arizona (Dawn Pendergast, Aaron Zaritzky, Michael Rerick, and others). I thought that the idea would work great in Atlanta too, and some of my friends were more than happy to help: Jon Ciliberto, Zac Denton, Jeff Dahlgren, Robin Bernat, John Selvidge, and others.
The basic idea: we set up a table and people come up to request poems on any topic. Then they wait—usually about 5 minutes—and when the poem is done, we read it aloud and give it to them. We wanted a way to cut through the staid poetry publishing process that usually makes people think of stuffy metaphors and iambic pentameter. We wanted something immediate, free, and relevant to people's lives. Also, it was very important that the poetry was written on the spot, and in one draft, so that it at once becomes a challenge, a performance, and a form of spontaneous communication between poet and reader.
Reception has been really positive. People are always surprised to find that the poems are free, and that they are one-of-a-kind custom-written for them. It seems to run counter to the trend of cookie-cutter commercialization they are used to. The first event was so successful that we decided to do it again at East Atlanta Village Strut, Chomp & Stomp, Earball at Eyedrum, and the Free Market at CouchCouch Theater. All past events are documented on our website freepoemsatl.org.