I used to stand on the corner in San Diego with poems sticking out of my hip pocket, asking people if there was a place where I could read poems. The audience is half of the poem.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I'm pretty much all for poetry in public places - poetry on buses, poetry on subways, on billboards, on cereal boxes.
I've done a number of readings at poetry lounges in Vancouver and Los Angeles. I've compiled a book of poetry that's completed, and two others I'm working on.
Poems are perfect for something to listen to while you're walking around because they don't take very long.
Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public what is known in private.
My poems were just kind of all over the place. They had no focus, no location, nothing. Kind of a series of images that could have been set anywhere. A lot of the poems were just exercises for myself.
But at the beginning it was clear to me that concrete poetry was peculiarly suited for using in public settings. This was my idea, but of course I never really much got the chance to do it.
You can find poetry in your everyday life, your memory, in what people say on the bus, in the news, or just what's in your heart.
I've never written poetry. I'm not a poet, but I think the nearest you get is either the short story or the novella, in that you can't waste a word. There is no hiding place: everything's got to be seen to relate, and the prose counts.
You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some of it with you.
You just go where poetry is, whether it's in your heart or your mind or in books or in places where there's live poetry or recordings.