Thursday 6 October is National Poetry Day and the theme is ‘Games’. Medway based ME4 Writers wanted to celebrate the day in some way, so decided to make a game for people to play: ‘Poetrymon’.
Sam Hall, the founder of ME4 Writers said ‘We wanted to mark National Poetry Day in some way, and instead of holding an event, we thought we’d try to create something more interactive. Poetrymon is hopefully going to be a fun experience. The prizes are the works themselves; nicely crafted, one-off poetry postcards.’
Several of the writers are going to distribute one-off poetry postcards around the 5 Medway towns on National Poetry Day… and you have to find them, by following clues that will be placed on the ME4 Writers’ blog on Thursday.
The postcards are from cards hoarded over the years and they have been customised to make them unique. ME4 Writers are gluing poems onto the back of the postcards, then setting them free for people to find, this might be in a cafe, or on a park bench (or sheltering from the rain under a park bench, depending on the weather!)
The postcards have not been attributed to the individual writer, but have a colour coding system so you can find out more about the writer of your card if you want to. This is in keeping with the collective ethos of the group, who quite often don’t acknowledge individual authorship until after a work has been produced – this can be seen most clearly in their ongoing City Project; the Encyclopaedia Citaecephale, which is a collection of musings and writings around the nature of living in cities published in a series of mini-magazines. Sam says there will also be some copies of the latest issue of the Encyclopaedia set free at the same time as the poems.
Please pick up and keep a poetry postcard if you see one about, or give it to someone who might like it for National Poetry Day. The first 10 people to send ME4 Writers a photo of themselves one of the poems will win a limited edition ME4 Writers badge!
If you don’t manage to catch one, the writers will be documenting their work on YouTube with live performances of the poems as they set them free. You will be able to find out more information on their blog.
Links – ME4 Writers
National Poetry Day
Barry Fentiman
