“If poems touch our full humanness, can they quicken awareness and bolster respect for this ravaged resilient earth we live on?” asks Stanford Professor John Felstiner in his new book, Can Poetry Save the Earth?
I love Magnetic Poetry, and when I saw these directions on how to make magnetic poetry myself, I was thrilled with the possibilities for myself, my students, and my child.
When I had a studio at Art City years ago, Magnetic Poetry kits had just started getting popular but they were expensive. However, one showed up in a goody bag at a poetry reading I went to at the Chateau Marmont for a kick-off reading for the perfume “Poeme.”
Next thing we knew, Magnetic Poetry was showing up not just on the Art City refrigerator but on any metal surface all over the yard. One of my favorites was a on a blue metal bowl which I found in the refrigerator one morning while I was looking for half and half for my coffee.
I even did a few Magnetic Poetry installations. At Burning Man, I’d bring my collections of magnetic poetry for “Poetry-A-Go-Go” where we’d do magnetic poems all over my VW westfalia camper van as we hung out in the heat of the day, and invite passer-bys to contribute lines as we plied them with cold drinks. We found a few drawbacks: You had to get too close to the van to read them and we’re still finding small words in odd places.
For a few art shows, I took the door off a defunct and funky refrigerator, spray painted it purple then did red over parts, and provided some starter poems including the one that follows and other appropriate decor including cookie sheets where I’d have my college students race against each other to compose poems in teams.
“here” was published in ArtLife Limited editions Read more…
art predator 