Poetry as Tourist Attraction - by M.L. Brown

I approached a couple of tourists on a Santa Barbara, CA beach, and asked if they wanted to listen to a poem about a blue whale. They reacted with enthusiasm, which made me happy since I was feeling shy about the whole endeavor, but was determined to forge ahead. The most amazing thing was that they seemed to actually listen to the poem!

Participating in SPACE got me to consider other spaces that might resonate with my poems. I usually think of a place as the thing that inspires a poem, rather than the other way around. Next year I might go into a knitting store and read some knitting poems, or to the Botanic Gardens and read some fire poems. All sorts of ideas started to come!