Collaboration … is not quite the same as open, unattributed, dynamically generated poetry. The question as we move forward is, can true, open source poetics be accomplished? Can a poem’s quality, beauty, value to its community be its most important features, rather than the famous name of its author?I think the answer is yes, and to test that hypothesis I’ve registered wikipoetics.org. Nothing is there yet. My intention is to establish a truly collaborative workspace for poets and, in fact, anyone to participate in the creation of meaningful, culturally significant poems. Like Wikipedia, each entry–each poem–will have a title and a refereed method for registered users to edit/contribute. Occasionally, anthologies will be published as ebooks, available for download at a nominal cost. I’ve enlisted Patrick Herron at Duke University’s John Hope Franklin Center to help build and promote wikipoetics.org.
Would anyone else like to contribute to the project? Consider this an open request.
Aaron Belz. How cool is this? Poets, check in with Aaron by commenting on the post or via Twitter, where he is @aaronbelz.