a spark

Thank you for your comments and emails expressing an interesting in participating in the Poem Road project. I'm happy that you're excited about participating. And a big thank you to Liz and Lynn at Poetry Thursday for their generous support of this idea.

I had chosen June 30th as a tentative deadline for submitting poem photos for inclusion in a video collage that I offered to create. So I realize this post might seem a day early.

Several of you have expressed an interest in participating but needed more time, and that's perfectly okay. But two weeks after my original post, I've only received photos from one participant. What's become clear to me after reading your comments and emails is that Poem Road can be whatever YOU want it to be--it doesn't have to hinge on any involvement from me.

Here are some thoughts you've shared so far:

Laura: "I love the idea...of doing some stealth ninja poetry posting who knows where..."

Julie ZS: "I suggest people putting this blog website on the sign so others will be able to figure out the project."

Wandering-Woman: "I, too, love the idea of ninja poetry posting, and in any language...my ninja posting would have to be in Spain and therefore in Spanish. A collection of poetry road photos in all kinds of languages from all kinds of places."

January: "I love the idea of poetry as a movement."

Kaleidescope: "I wonder if the poem road has to be a video? Perhaps the poem road could be our own posts--a la poetry thursday, ie, we link our pieces of the road on a comment to a post on this site."

Aurora Fox: "What if we had a law that every newly cemented sidewalk had to have poetry in it?"

Irene: "I was thinking my boys could recite a poem in the city and I could videotape it."

Beloved Dreamer: "When I used to be a runner...I had a poem road. As the miles went by my mind was filled with words."

Liz: "I also keep having all these thoughts about how cool it would be to get regional Poetry Thursday participants together in the future and creating "poem roads" in bigger cities."

Lynn: "I really can see this being an ongoing project."

I would like to give Poem Road to YOU--to all of you. Take this idea and fly with it! Create your own Poem Roads in whatever form, shape or fashion you like. Place a poem in a favorite location and post photos of it...create a video using poetry (lots of possibilities there)...get together with other poetry-loving friends (a la Liz's suggestion) and create a group Poem Road...be a poetry guerrilla, secretly posting poetry in public places...BE a Poem Road.

And this site will be here for you to use a communal gathering place. Once you've created something for Poem Road and posted it on your blog, leave a comment here with the permalink--just like we do at Poetry Thursday. And I'll feature your Poem Road projects in the posts here.

Anyone who's been reading my regular blog for any length of time knows that I'm all about the "spark." I'm very pleased to have been able to provide a spark for Poem Road. Now go out there and make it sparkle. :)