Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry
Poetry of the People
Musings on poetry and such
Way back in the 80’s, in the time before the interwebs, my college friends and I threw a birthday party for Lloyd, a guy who loved Spam. I’m not kidding: he ate it almost every day, and not because he had to. We made an elaborate Spam boat decorated with marshmallow and cocktail toothpick rigging on a sea of blue-food-coloring-tinged icing. No one could have imagined that the meat product would become one of the most common terms online. Lloyd, did you know? Continue reading “Thankity You!”
I always enjoy giving the museum a good look-over after an event. I find the words and lines and poems that people have left behind. The museum encourages wordplay and almost everything in the space can be written on. Here are some of the treasures I found after our last event Nov. 16. Continue reading “Post-ROMP: Poetry Left Behind”
A visitor to the museum on Nov. 16 wrote this response to it and gave it to me:
Down Perkins Road, nestled in the trees is a quaint little red barn, welcoming the quiet reader as well as the playful poet. A museum of poetry, this is going to be a new experience. Not knowing what to expect demands an open minded approach; who will be there, what will first be encountered, will on the spot reciting be expected? As it turns out, there are no expectations of unprepared performances; only a relaxing atmosphere that begs the curious reader to look deeper for the next interesting piece left behind by a former guest. Blocks of wood with witty phrases litter the shelves; telling the unskilled poet that it is okay to experiment a little. The ROMP casually opens a new door to creativity that was closed prior to visiting the museum.
–Alvin
Thanks, Alvin. Come back any time.
Last night, I was entertained by words. They were Joy Harjo‘s. She was at the NSU Ballroom in Tahlequah, and she read poetry, played songs on both the saxophone and flute, read from her memoir Crazy Brave, and shared her wisdom about writing, stories, poetry, and living the journey of life.
I just finished reading Crazy Brave last weekend. It is a short, fluent, plainly-spoken yet lyrical overview of her childhood and schooling and the path that brought her to poetry. When I finished the book, my first thought was: Well, this is Part 1 surely. I wanted to ask her that last night, but there was no time. However, she did confirm that the memoir ended where she had originally intended to begin it. Continue reading “The Knowing Heart”
I will be in San Diego this weekend spreading poetic love, wisdom, and fortunes. Specifically, I will be leaving the following playing cards with fortunes on them wherever we happen to go in the city. The fortunes are couplets I created for the poetic fortune machine in the museum, but they work well on playing cards, too. Continue reading “A Poet in San Diego”
In the museum, there is a place called the Secret Corner. There are poems about secrets and a book of secret poetry. There is a large comfy chair covered in red velvet there, and you need to sit in it and just look around and think and then write if you want to. There are pictures and drawings and sayings all around. There is also a box for secrets.
Continue reading “Clearing Out the Secrets”
Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry 