The Game

Herb is always eager for people to try their hand at poetizing.  In almost every performance he gives an illustration of just how that might happen using words solicited from the audience.  He passes out 3X5 cards and asks people to write down ONE WORD…any word.  Then, usually at the end of his performance, he takes the stack of cards and weaves them into a poem ON THE SPOT!  Talk about working without a net!

The idea, he says, is to be able to use anything in your poems.  The art of writing poetry starts with durational application…you put your butt in the chair and keep it there with the firm intention of writing a poem.  That doesn’t mean we’re all going to be Robert Frosts or Langston Hugheses, but we’ll have a start and there’s no telling what might happen.