Whoa. The plan was here in front of us all along, and yet it took Zach Houston to figure it out and show it to us. There was, yes, a guy in New York doing something similar, years ago, but that guy was aggressive, obnoxious and too expensive, and he only wanted to sell you his awful, Xeroxed poems, not write you a new one. Wasn’t much into the give-and-take, that street poet guy in Penn Station. Zach Houston, on the streets of San Francisco, has a much better, more reasonable and alluring approach: My poem, on your topic, for your price, typed out on a nice old green Hermes Rocket while-U-wait. The guy’s been able to support himself for five years doing this. He’s probably not cranking out the next Paradise Lost, granted, but if you’re paying the rent – in San Francisco – with poetry, you are officially an alchemist. (FULL ARTICLE: Cindy Carpien, NPR)
Art News
Here’s How You Pay the Bills With Poetry
April 17, 2012