technical stuff: how it works

HOW IT WORKS: If you have received a letter, you must closely follow the steps outlined therein. Let me be clear about this: if you do not, you will NOT encounter a bizarre run of bad luck, your friends will NOT all turn against you, you will NOT doom an orphan with a rare dermatological condition to a life of suffering and misery. But you WILL miss an opportunity to continue the flow of poetry along the chain.

The steps are:

• i) consider the theme. breathe it in. walk around inside of it.
• ii) write a poem.
• iii) post a copy of your poem (WITH YOUR NAME AND A POINT OF CONTACT, eg. EMAIL or PHONE NUMBER) back to each of the four poets listed in your letter.
• iv) then, ever so gently, remove the poet at the top of the list. Move the second poet on the list to the first position; the third poet to the second position; he fourth to the third. Add your name and mailing address to the bottom of the list. (Ie. move the names and addresses up and tack yours to the bottom. You can do this with the help of liquid paper or sticky tape)
• v) make photocopies of the new letter.
• vi) mail these letters to as many people of your choosing who know how to do unique, divinely explosive, takethetopofyourheadoff things with words. In two weeks (plus postage time) you should begin to receive poems, one each from the poets you sent your letter to. In four weeks, you should receive more poems, one each from the poets they sent letters to. By the sixth week...and so on. After several weeks your name and address will drop off the list.
• vii) of these hypothetical poems by your hypothetical poet peers, some will touch the sublime. Select these, but select well: you will be responsible for their appearing in print. Mail your selection back to me ASAP, at PO Box 4127, Melbourne Uni P.O, Parkville, VIC 3052, from whence they will be compiled annually into a lovely little chapbook, to be distributed by word of mouth and in good book places like Collected Works and Readings.