“Creativity arises out of the tension between spontaneity and limitations, the latter (like the river banks) forcing the spontaneity into the various forms which are essential to the work of art or poem.”
~ Rollo May

Close your eyes and imagine this scene.

Okay, don’t be silly. Open your eyes ’cause you can’t read the blog if they’re closed…but you know what I mean.

Close your mind’s eyes picture this.

You’re on the train in your own state of mind, with a slight recline looking at the afternoon sun dash in and out between the city’s silhouetted skyline. With the sounds of the tracks ‘click clack-clack…clack’,
with the subway cars steady sway, it’s just another day and another ride.

Then BAM!

A commanding voice ‘pops-up’ from the crowd of commuters.
Moves with elegance as he speaks in a rhythm soothing and controlled;
holding the attention of almost all of those in that unsuspecting audience.
Some appreciating, some anticipating his next words,
and a few waiting for the end, wondering how much he’s going to ask for.

After giving all of himself in words, and asking for nothing in return,
he finds his way back to a seat, back to the norm, to the background of dithering applauses from a responsive new found 40 friends unsure of what they have just experience.

And no sooner does this impromptu poet settle, another ‘pops-up’!…and another ‘pops-up’!…and another!

Just who are these creatives committing this artistic assault!?

The Pop-up Poets – Poets in Unexpected Places, or PuPs as they are sometimes called. And you’ve just imagined one of their public performances that could have just as likely happened in a park, courtyard, garden, or any other random public area.

Pop-up Poets is the unscripted story of poets bringing the stage to the masses.

Now, my inadequate descriptions and your imagination (no matter how wild) don’t do justice to the experience of being ‘pupped’. Catch a taste of it in a video below with Jonathan Sands, an NYC poet. Then head over to the official website of the NYC PuP group and read the first hand account of these awesome occasions.

If you’re a fan, make it official on Facebook.

I felt a creative rejuvenation after reading and watching these incidents. I can only dream of the actual serge of energy when performing in a PuP reading.

Hopefully soon, I’ll give you my own first hand experience. And if you have one of your own, as the audience of the performer, drop it in the comments below.

Until then remember…

~ the Word is Love, Spread the Word.

Ken Robinson makes many well put points about our education system and cultivating creativity.  Enjoy.

This got edited out of a poem that was inspired by this presentation:

We are all born creative
but through conventional education
the burn of imagination is stifled and it dies.
So I say to everyone,
pick up your tool before it’s too late
and shine.