High-Tech Poetry

And so the work of non-poetry work begins again in 2013.

A water-cooler friend told me this morning that she met, over the winter break, a poetry editor for the Colorado School of Mines student magazine, High Grade. High Grade publishes art and fiction, as well as poetry. The poetry seems typical of college-age stuff, wonderful, awful, funny, dramatic, self-revelatory, and perfect in every way. Here's the PDF of their 2012 issue. There's even a poem about boogers.

I was intrigued, because this is a school known for its technical education, not its liberal arts. However, their website informs me that they are very interested in the intersection of arts and sciences. In March 2012 they hosted the first artistic conference for science and technology universities. MIT and other "tech" schools also have literary journals and participated in the conference.

(The idea that technically oriented people also like [and write] poetry is not foreign to me, in part because I learned much about observing the world, being a solo creator and a sentimental goose from my computer programmer dad.)

Before my conversation with my friend at work, I was thinking similar thoughts listening to KQED's Forum program during my drive to work. Michael Krasny interviewed Robin Sloan today about his book Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. It sounds like a delightful book, about the world of super geeks and magical technology, and the interview is worth listening too. But the thing that caught my ear (enough to note it in my little book at 65 mph) was the discussion about how important art and books are to folks in the high-tech industry, a concept which seemed to surprise some people.

I'm thinking I need to investigate how to teach poetry classes in high-tech companies around Silicon Valley. A project for the next Cupertino Poet Laureate. (Yes, I'm dreaming ahead of myself ...) Maybe I can bring employees and kids together to write poetry about technology, or just to write poetry.

So, it seems the work of poetry work is still possible. But, as Sting would say, "Break Over!" (Which song is that??)