Poetry From the Skies

Just stumbled across this interesting story of a book author promoting his book by dropping cash from a plane. You can check out the article here. Apparently, another publicity stunt…

Just stumbled across this interesting story of a book author promoting his book by dropping cash from a plane. You can check out the article here. Apparently, another publicity stunt helped him become a bestselling author in Indonesia a few years back.

Since I'm always wondering how to drum up interest in poetry, I started wondering if dropping money from the sky would help the poetic cause as well. Something tells me no, or if yes, then it would be for all the wrong reasons. However, maybe there's a way to slightly change Tung Desem Waringin's approach.

Instead of dropping money from the sky, maybe dropping poems from the sky would work. Maybe litter the streets with 8x11 sheets of paper with poems on both sides. Maybe do this once a week over every decent-sized city in the U.S. After all, if people are bombed with poetry long enough, there's a chance they may actually read--and (gasp!) enjoy what they're reading.

Or maybe I should get my head out of the clouds.

Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.