Join Me in Twitter Poetry

Kabalin - Grisogon 1 (f. 68r)
Originally uploaded by filologanoga.

We have been having so much fun with Twitter. We share and spread links and ideas, talk business, blogosphere and world events. There is also a lot of silliness ... we change photos (from personal to marsupial to magician to hero/villain) and share personal facts (some of us share more than others) -- but all in a good humoured way.

The thing about Twitter is that it is highly collaborative ... and it is this that has interested me. So I thought I might try a little experiment -- collaborative poetry. I have setup a new Twitter account called TwitterPoetry.

You can either:

• Log into the TwitterPoetry account: Use the username TwitterPoetry and password twitterpoetry and contribute a line to the growing poem.
• Follow TwitterPoetry: Become a "follower" of TwitterPoetry and see how the poem grows as and when someone else contributes to it.

To see the whole poem, go here.

Let your creative juices flow ... I look forward to reading your/our work!

Comments

[Scott]

Gavin, GREAT concept! I just added the first entry beyond the original. I don't know if we're doing for doggerel or abstract iambic pentameter, but it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Is there a way to get Twitter to display tweets in chronological order, rather than the most recent first?

[Ann Handley]

It's magnetic poetry 2.0!

[Gavin Heaton]

Scott ... can't see a way in the settings to get it to work that way :(

Ann ... that's funny ... magnetic poetry on mobile phones.

[Sharon Sarmiento]

Gavin--You're so creative. This is a fabulous idea. One of the things I've come to love about Twitter is that some of the random lines that come across my feed do have a poetic, artistic quality, I'm sure without the "author" even intending it. It's sort of a living performance art. Now you've found a way for everyone to collaborate together.

[John Hicks]

I agree. Twitter is great fun and can be used for lots of things, including poetry. You might enjoy my attempt at twitter+haiku at twitterku.com. Not much haiku I realize, but a fun use of twitter.

[poet 2.0]

great initiative
Check out more poetry 2.0 on http://poetry20.blogspot.com

[Gaurav Mishra]

Great idea, but what happened to it?

[Will C Mars]

Hey all, I love this idea I'm trying to get tweeting poets together just as a online writing group. We all tweet our own 146 character poems/stanzas and follow each other, be sure to favorite the poems you like!

Here's the popped cherry post!

I don't want a love you have to put on the clothes line. I need at least a low heat tumble dry love, a favorite t-shirt kind of love.

follow@willcmars

[Leif]

Hi Gavin,
I applaud the twitter poetry project, however, I'd like to hear your reflections on it, now that it has been going a year. It seems built by committee poem lacks the cohesion and quality of poetry produced by individuals or collectives with a similar vision and process for editting.

All the best,
Leif