Poems-For-All is a fantastic literary project founded by Richard Hansen. Hansen prints poems in miniature-sized books and urges readers to spread them around. A full description of the project’s manifesto fills the backs of the little books. It reads:
“They’re scattered around town—on buses, trains, cabs, in restrooms, bars, left along with the tip; stuffed into a stranger’s back pocket. Whatever. Wherever. Small poems in small booklets half the size of a business card. A project of the 24th street irregular press, which cranks them out to be taken by the handful and scattered like seeds by those who want to see poetry grow in a barren cultural landscape.”
Poems-For-All is rooted in Sacramento, CA where Hansen and his wife run the used bookstore, The Book Collector. I interviewed Hansen about Poems-For-All to gain some insight into this intriguing bite-sized poetry project:
BLACK CLOCK: FREE?! What is the motivation behind offering the poems without cost?
RICHARD HANSEN: Everything, it seems, is for sale. I own a bookstore, I sell books. And I just wanted the project to be free of all those strings; I wanted their value, if they have any, to be derived by something other than cost. And I am totally freed of the burden of commerce. I don’t have to set a price, or collect coin. Again, I already do that in my bookstore. So, it’s a thrill to make little books of poetry and dispense them freely, and for free, for no other reason that it pleases me to do so.
What have been the positive and negative consequences of this?
Negative consequence: We are a value driven society. We try to ascribe monetary value to everything around us. And when something doesn’t have a monetary value it can often be taken for granted. Some equate free with “it must not be ‘worth’ anything.”
Positive consequence: The “return” from giving away little books of poetry is sweeter and more rewarding than any[thing] money can provide. Seeing the joy of discovery. Or hearing about it. It’s good karma, if you believe in it; kindness given with kindness returned. (Often in wonderfully intangible ways.)
Can you tell me a little about the submission process?
If I feel like a poem will work well in the project, it goes in regardless of what school of poetry it comes out of, or in what form it’s written. I take in submissions via email, the web form on the website, and mailed manuscripts. I find it easier to process and track digital submissions, so the email and web form submissions tend to move into publication faster. When I accept a poem it’s given a number. Every poem in the series has one. To the chagrin of many poets who’ve submitted, I don’t work them into published form sequentially. #1018 may get published before #987. The entire process is subjective and non linear.
The scattering around method is great! Have you found any of the poems in a really bizarre place, or have you heard of your poems reaching really far-off places? I’m sure the internet has contributed to a wider audience–can people receive poems internationally?
I put them in bizarre places. It’s my tradition, every time I travel, for example, to put the little book with Peter Orlovsky’s Writing Poems is a Saintly Thing (PFA #23) into the Gideon’s Bible in the hotel room. The poems do reach far-off places and people can and do request them from all over the world. I’ve sent books to Australia, Scotland, England, Germany, Pakistan, Israel, Canada. Even, Texas.
What is the impact you’ve seen as a result of the internet access?
Huge. References to the project appear in all manner of wonderful places around the net. And there’s the Poems-For-All website. Many folks find out about the project from the web.
How has this project contributed or connected to the bookstore you and your wife maintain?
The bookstore is the base of operations, if you will, for the project. It’s where people can find me, most days, to drop off submissions or pick up poems. There’s also a window display and a little display inside where folks can pick up random samples from the series. We have folding parties at the bookstore and poetry events related to the project there. I do a lot of the production at the store. It isn’t uncommon to have the paper cutter on the counter, building books when not helping customers. While Poems-For-All was never intended to be a marketing tool, it does indirectly help promote the bookstore. People who come looking for the little books sometimes become customers.
The bookstore is also the only place (currently) where you can get copies of Poems-For-All pointlessly small blank books. These are sold for 50¢ with all the money raised going to Loaves & Fishes, a local organization that helps the homeless. I’m surprised by how popular these have become and we’ve raised over $250 since this little sideline effort started six months ago.
I was wondering if you could tell me a bit more about the literary community you are a part of in Sacramento and the ways in which Poems-For-All contributes to it?
Sacramento has a diverse literary community with several established organizations. The Sacramento Poetry Center (SPC), for example, just celebrated its 30th anniversary. I’ve been on their board and presently do a lot of design work for them. And SPC has been very supportive of Poems-For-All. We just held an event there on March 1st, 2010 celebrating the local poets who’ve been published in the series. In addition to SPC’s Monday reading series, there are a number of others, including Poetry Unplugged on Thursdays, a Brown Bag lunchtime series at the library and the Rattlesnake press reading that takes place at my bookstore on second Wednesdays. I think Poems-For-All is well received in Sacramento. There are over 50 local poets represented in the series, for example, and I’ve had the privilege of being allowed to include the project in a number of events. I’ve tried to make the project a ubiquitous presence in Sacramento; something complementary to all the wonderful things going on in the name of literature here.
What has been your motivation for starting Poems-For-All? How has the project transformed from an idea to an actual publication?
Curiosity started it all. I used to work at a company where I was in charge of ordering business cards. The printer would deliver them with scrap cardstock cut the size of the business card to fill out the boxes. Soon I had stacks and stacks of these little blank scraps of high quality paper. I just started folding them, playing with the idea: what if I could make these into little books? It’s pretty easy. I started publishing poems I wanted to share with others and the project grew from there.
My present motivation: I like being a Johnny Appleseed for poetry. I just want to scatter like seeds these little books of poetry. And encourage and help others who want to do the same.
Could you share some advice or insight for embarking on a successful small press project?
Love what you create. Whether it’s one book, a journal, a small press–make sure it’s something you’re going to want to be waist-deep in all the time. Projects like this can sap a lot of your time, money and energy away from other things. Know this before you begin. And make sure you, and your family, are going to be okay with it.
Seek out what others have done. Seeking out what others are doing is a great point of inspiration. Get excited by what you find out there and ask yourself what you can do to add to that excitement.
Innovate. Find ways to make the books of your press stand out. Consider moving beyond the conventional dimensions of the chapbook. And just because someone else is making tiny books doesn’t mean you can’t do it differently (or better.)
Flickr.com is a great resource for no-cost images for your covers and other photography needs. Many excellent photographers make wonderful imagery available under a creative commons copyright that often allows you to use the image with just an attribution. Use the advanced search features on Flickr to find CC images. Some photographers even allow you to use their work on publications that are for profit.
Scrounge. Get it cheap or free. Look for discounts from printers and ask for the scraps of paper that collect in the boxes around their cutting machine. Scour the bargain bins and closeout shelves at paper stores for interesting paper, etc. that you can use. Monitor Craigslist for folks who give away paper, printers, etc. (it sometimes amazes me what folks give away that’s useful to a small press publisher).
Eliminate the middleman. Do everything within your power to sell your books without having to go through a distributor. Work out direct arrangements with bookstores and other points of sale whenever possible. The best point of sale is the poet or writer doing an event that gets folks excited about, right then and there, buying the book.
The artwork is fantastic. Who designs it and what is the process?
I’ve designed the majority of the covers. Making them has been a great way for me to hone my graphic design skills. I enjoy the challenge of making each one unique.
Occasionally I’m aided with photos, images, or design ideas from the poet, but more often I just look to the poem to inspire the cover that’s going to complement it. When I first started, the covers were colored cardstock cut to the same dimensions as a business card—3.5” long, 2” tall—that had crude ink stamp markings on the front. Today I design the covers with Adobe Photoshop and then use InDesign to put them into a template that allows me to print them out ten-to-a-page on a letter-size sheet. Some covers are still created with black ink on white paper which I then apply on colored (and/or textured) paper to give the cover its ‘flavor.’
A few of the covers in the series are designed entirely by other people. I had the good fortune to meet linocut artist Marc Snyder who does his work at approximately the same size as a Poems-For-All cover. He suggested three Jean Arp poems for the series and then provided a linocut drawing (the original artwork is actual size!) for their covers. He also did the same for a Kenneth Patchen poem.
In what ways has Poems-For-All been rewarding and satisfying?
The process of making them brings me joy. Designing their covers gives me joy. Seeing people’s reaction when they pick up or are given the little books makes me happy. I enjoy the collaborations between so many poets and artists. I’ve made friends because of them. I love thinking about the next book. With a series that never stops, the question is always “What’s next? What’s next?”
How do you think PFA has contributed to the literary community at large?
There are two ways to look at Poems-For-All books. They are either novel or novelty. I leave it up to those who discover them to decide which.
For more on this great project, be sure to visit Richard Hansen and his press at the Poems-For-All website.
by Katie Manderfield
an MFA candidate at CalArts, an editorial assistant for Black Clock, and is constructing an experimental literary journal for women; her work has been published or is forthcoming in Pindeldyboz, 3:AM, and dogmatika
image courtesy of Poems-For-All
