When people have music or art events around here, I like to roll up with my typewriter and take orders for poems. I call this business The Rapid Memo Typing Service. I don't even really call them poems... I like to pretend that my whole job is just the typing of words.

How I do it..

I set up my table, with a sign up sheet for people to write down their orders. My table and signage doesn't always look the same but here is what it looked like last time, at a punk show and art event, so the picture is a little dark..

Here is from another really recent one, a fundraiser at a bike shop. That's what all the junk in the background is, haha. Bike tubes and tools and grease and stuff. The table they put me at was also covered in grease. Tres punk rock. The event was really fun! In this case I typed for free and people paid me in the tickets they bought at the door :

I usually like to then roll the poem up into a scroll, and my latest idea is to put the scrolls in a bowl (yes it rhymes but no one has ever noticed! ), and then people come pick them up. Each poem costs $2. These are some scroll holder thingies I made from cut up zine pages that were messed up. I hand colored them to make them a little more blingy. I also use ribbon, and stickers. It just depends on what I grab when I leave the house:

I have thought long and hard about the value of a poem

I have occasionally earned money from my poetry. Usually I don't get paid anything for my poems though lets be real. But I digress. When I do the Rapid Memo Typing Service, I charge anywhere between $2 and $5 per poem. I charge so little because then there isnt a lot of pressure on me to make a masterpeice every single time. But I dont do it for free because actually I tried that and weirdly theres this whole marketplace psychology that sets in, and when I do it for free people are actually more rude to me? They like complain and want me to do it again and stuff! It's nuts! But if I charge a nominal amount they are really happy. Sometimes I trade for little zines or art at the events. I am not real concerned with making money doing this. The whole reason I do it is because its a practice. I like to push myself. I like to see how long I can stay in the creative zone!

I have typed for 6 hours straight at events before

I get a ton of orders at events and usually type for hours straight! Last time I didnt even finish and I left some people hanging. I have learned to put on headphones because people will talk to me! But even when I put on headphones they still talk to me. Usually over the course of a night, my table will fill up with little sassy notes, chastising them for talking to me. I like to be IN CHARGE when i am doing these poems. :) It's fun to be a lot more bossy than I usually am. :)

I write what I want: A meditation

This practice is a meditation for me, and a time of healing. For real. Part of the meditative practice for me is remembering to connect with my audience person, but to also write what I want. This can be a really tricky thing for artists, especially when performing live. To remember to stay true to oneself!

I focus really hard on that person while I am writing. I think about their essence, the words they said to me. I listen to my intuition about them. I respond. I don't always write in a literal way about the prompt they write down. Sometimes they might write "doorknob" and "water" or something, but I will use my intuition and incorporate those words into a poem that is about them, or to them, or is somehow responding to them. In this way, I am communing with that person for a while. Sometimes it works, and connects amazingly and me and the person have this like beautiful moment when they read it. Sometimes it doesn't really work, and then I just try not to feel bad. Sometimes you don't connect, or the "muse" kinda goes quiet. It comes out flat. Its not really anyone's fault. That's why these are only $2.

And now for a couple of the poems

This one is kind of light hearted, about ghosts:

This one is more heavy, and its about depression and being stuck in bed:

Thanks so much for reading. I am Dflo. I make art, poetry, music, sexy recipe songs, and in my real life, I am a creativity and life coach kind of person who is into community projects. Please comment if you make similar things! I want to connect with others who have similar kinds of interests!

The Rapid Memo Typing Service is available for creative ideas!

If you have some kind of project you want to collaborate on, let me know! I would love to type live on a radio show for example. Or maybe you have a live stream, and can call me on a phone and have me type orders from people. I dont know. But I like doing it and it would be fun to try it over the internet with Steemians.

xo,

Dflo