Poetry Publishing Assignment

As a project assigned by our English teacher, we had a month to write a poem, publish it, and present it. It sounds simple but as soon as I got the assignment, I ran into a problem. 

What should I write about?

I wanted to write a poem that I truly believed in, and on a topic that I really cared about. So I chose music! 

After the hard part of writing the poem was done, now I had to get out into the world to publish it, making my poem known to as many people as possible. 

I began my process by first taping several copies of my poem to bulletin boards, such as the one located in my building and the one in Mechies Frozen Yogurt.

Of course, I also taped my poem to various poles near my house. Hopefully ensuring that the abundance of dog walkers and pedestrians will be able to stop and read it while on their way.

After publishing the poem on bulletin boards like many other people, I realized a problem. What would make people want to read my poem? After all, it's just a blank piece of paper. It wasn't like that was uncommon or anything! Which is why I decided to find a way to attract attention to my paper, and that is getting a bouquet of roses. I placed a single rose next to or on top of my poems. This way, if they didn't notice the paper, they have to notice the flower!

I left a rose and a copy of my poem on many park benches and seating areas, where people can rest and get a chance to read my poem. I also left them in bus stops and at busy intersections, where many people frequent.

Physical publishing aside, I published my poem on several social media accounts, including Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and Blogger. 

I don't have many followers, so the responses were few, but I still got some likes and reposts! Someone even added me to their list of poets and fans of poetry on Twitter. 

I even got my mother to post my poem to her social media, which are mostly based in China. That way, I was able to reach to all the way across the world.

The responses were very positive! To translate, her friends generally say that it was very well done, and that they had to use a dictionary in order to read it! One person even asked if he could repost the poem elsewhere, which made me feel pretty great.

That's the end of my poetry publishing journey! Overall, it was a pretty unique and interesting experience, and I had a lot of fun working with my friend in order to get my poem all up around the neighbourhood. Hopefully I'll get the chance to do something else like this sometime in the future.