Back home in Detroit, when I was writing up a storm, I used to perform in the same venues, on the same stages, on the same nights, with musicians—and occasionally with actors too—which was great fun. I felt it put poetry in its native home, with music and drama. It also prevented those poetry open mic type readings we've all been to that go on for hours till your head is spinning from trying to listen so concertedly for so long.

Anyway, one night at such an event, a writer friend of mine asked if I was working on a new book. I joked, "Yeah, this one's all covers." He knew what I was referring to: music covers, where musicians record other musicians' songs.

Of course, the idea was silly, and would be if, like some covers, the poet doing the covering merely gave an exact rendering of the original. That works with music when the intent is to demonstrate your skill in giving a perfect replica...which gets into all kinds of philosophical stuff I could bang on about for hours. I won't. This is already the third paragraph. (Oy!)

Here's the deal: This may or may not be a new genre. The idea is to "cover" someone else's poem (interpreted broadly—it could be a short bit of prose, a part of a script, a song lyric, etc.) by interpreting it in your own voice. Re-write someone's poem, but NOT because you think they could improve it. Again, keep music covers in mind: a cover isn't a musician's attempt to improve another's song, but to pay homage to it, get inside it for oneself. Sorta like an actor interpreting a role that's been done by others.

Does that make sense?

Found poetry counts too, BTW, if it's done in this spirit.

Let's leave the parameters really open right now. Remember, what you're writing is a tribute, in your own voice, to someone else's work. You could re-work the actual words and images, or you could read, sing, animate, act out, or write out in calligraphy someone else's poem. There are a couple of poetry collabs out there that you can mine for material.

As always, we should work with writing here on hitRECord, or with writing that's definitely in the public domain (the not-so-tiny stories collab might be a good place to mine for that), to avoid copyright issues. (Does anyone here know how that usually works with found poetry? I've always wondered...and it's one of the reasons I've never really tried it myself.)

Part of the idea behind this is to keep poetry submissions to hitRECord from being static. A few get set to music, but so many good poems just sort of sit there. Let's use them! (It goes without saying, mine are all game.) This can also be a good way to hone writing skills, especially when we're feeling less-than-inspired.