Poems on the Spot

We’ve been noticing more and more poets out in their communities, offering poems written to order at public events, usually on old-fashioned portable manual typewriters. What a lovely development! Contemporary poets taking on the role of medieval scribe, or tribal griot, or personalized poetry busker, bringing poems to the people on the street or in the marketplace:

• “Poet on Demand” Silvi Alcivar in San Francisco, who takes her portable Royal typewriter to create poems on the spot at weddings and parties, and sells poems and poem-art pieces at her Poetry Store online.
• Zach Houston, a poet and artist in the San Francisco Bay area, whose pop-up “poem store” inspired William Chrome to do the same thing in New York. (See a video profile of him at SFVideo: “The Word on the Street.”)
• “Vendor of Verse” William Chrome, New York City street poet with typewriter.
• The Poem Depot, a project of the Miami Poetry Collective, “a pop-up store that sells original poems” at art events in the Miami area.
• The Poem Store, which is Meredith Clark and her portable typewriter at the Ballard Sunday Farmers Market in Seattle.
• Jena Gessaman, who offers “Poems on the Spot While You Shop” at the Barton Creek Farmers Market in Austin, Texas.

Is there a poet in your town who offers poems written to order on the spot? Tell us, please!