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Forums / Poetry and Inspiration Discussion /
Are You A Guerilla Poet?


  • celadia
    Jun 11 8:28 AM
    Reply
    In Toronto, as I suppose in many places, guerilla poets stop people on the street to read them their poetic compositions. Some even prowl the highways and call truckers on CB radios. Are you a guerilla poet? What do you think of the idea?

  • polly filla
    June 11
    Reply
    it seems like harrassment to me

    I prefer the idea of painting slogans in public places

  • Barbara
    June 11
    Reply
    I've never heard of that before, but seems kind of... um....rude to me.

    Here... let me stop this random stranger on the streets of Toronto, and read them a poem... I can title it "Why a Stranger Punched My Face" Oh, look ... guy with a Hell's Angel jacket! He'll love my poetry!!!
    Next stop, the docile streets of New York!

    I can see it happeneing in an art type district of a city, though.

  • Barbara
    June 11
    Reply
    http://www.guerrillapoets.org/about/ (just for information... not pushing their site, or ideals... just clarifying what a guerilla poet really is)

    • poetes.maudits
      June 12
      Reply
      lol. They even have bongos and wear tams... without dreadlocks. Oh man, I love a good cliche.

      • HalyeyBabyKingAE
        June 12
        Reply
        if i was going to do that i'd go with the kind with fake dreads attached

        • poetes.maudits
          June 14
          Reply
          LoL, you'd better not. I had nearing halfwaydownback dreads until a few months back- seeing someone with fakes looks really really retarded.

  • ea
    June 11
    Reply
    yes, I am. I highjack people's photoblogs and write poems in the comments based on the pics. Are they pissed off? Sometimes! You bet! Just like hosts of contests sometimes are here.

    • Matt Holck
      June 11
      Reply
      lol

      • ea
        June 11
        Reply

        as Dorothy Parker said,

        "There must be a magnificent disregard for your reader, for if he cannot follow you, there is nothing you can do about it."

    • HalyeyBabyKingAE
      June 12
      Reply
      i have written poems for people and given them to them.
      but you have to have boundaries

    • CaptainRedd
      June 16
      Reply
      Good for you! Heheh, that's a great idea.

      • ea
        June 17
        Reply
        Thanks You should try it! You don't even need fake dreads.

        • CaptainRedd
          June 17
          Reply
          Grand! (I didn't think I had the face for dreads . . .)

  • celadia
    June 11
    Reply
    Most of you seem to be against this, I suppose if it's done right, it could be somewhat okay, by the way, those women with the truckers were reading erotic poems, what do you think of that?

    • ea
      June 11
      Reply
      that sounds like it could be fun, but I guess it would depend on if the G.G. was hot or not.

    • polly filla
      June 12
      Reply
      I think that's a bit dodgy

      in reality, it could be dangerous

  • positive anarchy
    June 12
    Reply
    If the poems were short, it could work...

    but anything over five lines and people are gonna tase you!
    ~Hippie

  • The Bear
    June 13
    Reply
    I have heard of something where people put poems written on scrap papers and things deliberately inside library books, books in bookshops, magazines in the newsagents, in bus shelters, on the seats of taxis, trains, buses, on cafe tables, anywhere in fact where people might use a few moments to browse them.
    I don't. I have left fly leaflets this way though.

    • polly filla
      June 13
      Reply
      I have to be super-careful about fly-posting (had many threats&constant hassle, being an original flyer-girl and all)---so it really irks me when I see crap little leaflets pinned to lamp-posts advertising church coffee-mornings/the circus/suicide help-lines/mother & toddler groups et al, because I'M NOT ALLOWED.

    • polly filla
      June 13
      Reply
      I used to leave flyers in phone boxes---I thought: if it has a blank side, and is not too rude, the phone-box user might use it to write on, then take it home

      of course, with mobiles now, it's not the same

  • celadia
    June 13
    Reply
    I think that's a good idea about the leaflets, sometimes when I'm ordering pizza I think of reciting a poem but I never have, I'm afraid they'll say 'we're busy'. But leaflets; good show.

    • polly filla
      June 13
      Reply
      well, I recited some poetry to someone in a cupboard (in a warehouse party) once, and there's still some suspect questions asked about 'the incident'

      plus, the person I recited to makes too much of a deal about it all...even now, years later; it's like his reason for best-friend-status, or something...

      I wouldn't advise it---you might get stalkers

  • squeezy
    June 15
    Reply
    I recite at festivals, open mics and salon-style workshops. It's good for me (I know the audience is likely to be into poetry and give decent feedback) and probably nicer for the people listening to me than if I were to grab them in the street.

    I'd be wary to stop people in the street because I live in London and (as someone pointed out) you might end up getting punched or - at the very least- shooed away by a local copper or security guard as a potential nutter!

  • celadia
    June 17
    Reply
    I guess Torontonians are lucky they live in nice, polite Canada. I thought it was done everywhere. It isn't done in Ottawa where I live.

    • BeJay
      June 17
      Reply
      Nice? Polite? Canadians? Really?

      • Barbara
        June 18
        Reply
        Yes. We're nice and polite. Got something to say about it? Huh? Huh?




  • Shadow Fairy of Twi
    June 25
    Reply
    I could see myself doing this, but not in a rude way. More like the happy missionaries. "Hi, have you read any poetry today?" rather than "Hey! Stop! Listen!" Thing is, I don't read my own work aloud. So I'd probably had out flyers with my poetry, like parking tickets and stuff

  • Just Rob
    June 25
    Reply

    If you aren't

    what's the point?

    I grab microphones as often as I can, preach to the unenlightened!

    If you have nothing IMPORTANT to say, what's the freakin' point?

    Yer just masturbating with words...
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