Odes to Tools as “living poetry”

Odes to Tools in southern California
Odes to Tools in southern California (photo by Nicelle Davis)

I was surprised and honored tonight to learn that poet Nicelle Davis has been distributing poems from my chapbook, Odes to Tools, as the first exercise in her new Living Poetry Project. The project’s goal: “to physically take poetry everywhere I go and share it.” She says some very flattering things about my book, but what’s even better, she went to the trouble to distribute its contents to people who might appreciate it. This is of course the very sort of thing I hoped might happen when I decided to license the poems as Attribution-Share Alike under the Creative Commons, rather than just applying a standard copyright. But it’s still very humbling to have people like one’s poems well enough to aid in their dissemination.

To bring Odes To Tools with me in my hometown, I decided to hand write Bonta’s poems onto Thank You Cards. I gave these “love letters to tools” to people who work with them everyday.

I met many kind, generous, and funny people while sharing Odes To Tools with my community. For this (and many other reasons), I’m grateful to Dave Bonta. His book has helped me connect with the physical, intellectual, and emotional aspects of my home—it has helped bring poetry closer to those who construct the home I love.

The gratitude is mutual. Thanks, Nicelle!

(Be sure to read the full post — it includes many more photos.)

8 Replies to “Odes to Tools as “living poetry””

  1. Oh my, this is just completely wonderful, isn’t it? Nothing you could wish for more, I imagine. And if you hadn’t made the generous and far-sighted choice you did re copyright, and if the poems weren’t what they are, such a sweet bridge between art and life, physical and metaphysical, modest down-to-earthness and big thoughts and feelings, there’d be no point wishing. What fabulously encouraging news to read in the New Year. Sorry to gush so – it’s rather hard not to. Congratulations to you and to Nicelle!

  2. I love the way the man on the left in the picture is holding what I assume to be his Thank You card. It must take enormous quantities of chutzpah to have done.

    Totally awesome.

    1. Yes, I was very impressed by that, too. I would never be able to go up to a complete stranger and start talking about poetry. Then again, it can’t be any more nervous-making than what missionaries for religion have been doing for ages.

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