Electronic Corpse: 

Poems From A Digital Salon

On September 7, 2012, inspired by the early 20th century French surrealist parlor game, Exquisite Corpse, M Ayodele Heath began hosting digital salons: group poetry writing exercises on his Facebook page (Syllabic Sundays, Metaphoric Mondays, Wildcard Wednesdays, and Free Verse Fridays). Each poem begins with a line from a published poem. 

To date, over 130 of these exercises have been created by poets of all experiences and geographies – from state poet laureates to the casual journaler; from South Carolina to South Korea to South Africa. We've selected the best.

These poems reflect the way in which social media has transformed the ability of artists to engage with each other regardless of physical constraints or externally driven outcomes. 

It’s a truly unique and layered book.  The anthology has two sections: collaborative poems and poems from the most frequent contributors.  The reason for publishing individual poems is our hope that by seeing the individual poem, the determined reader might excavate that poet's voice within the larger voice of the group. Almost like a soloist in a choral piece.  In addition, the e-book will have a clickable index of links to all the first lines so truly curious readers can compare and contrast.

The most  important part of this anthology is for archival reasons.  Unlike pre-digital artistic communities, there will be no cocktail napkins or scrawled notebook pages to reconstruct the ways in which artistic communities engage.  In regards to social media - entire conversations can be lost if one person deletes their account.  This book archives one digital salon over the period of a year.

Svaha Paradox Salon

The Svaha Paradox Salon, responds with agility to under-exposed artists whose voices are marginalized due to the way in which they are performed in the minds of the dominant culture. And together, we share the results with audiences. 

Svaha Paradox Salon resumes where the Pittsburgh based organization Sun Crumbs left off in 2003. Through involvement In various art communities, Christina Springer seeks out artists whose exceptional work requires support from non-traditional sources. Svaha Paradox Salon provides the encouragement necessary to complete these projects. 

Making It Happen

We need your help to take the book out of the computer and into the real world.  M. Ayodele Heath has done a magnificent job running the salon, selecting, logging and editing the poems. The manuscript is in the hands of the excellent design team.  Krista Franklin has created a stunning cover.  We are going to print. We've raised the necessary funds to have this book in your hands by April 5th.    

And we need your help to cross the finish line.  We know we have a great product. But, we need to communicate that to a wider audience.  That means throwing a fantastic launch party, taking the book to conferences, designing and implementing collaborative readings, promotions and advertising. 

Sample 

#87: The five cool stars above this town look down

The five cool stars above this town look down
from their hill. They'd rather sleep, they are lost
knitted into our dark cloth of sky, light bursting through at the seams.
No one seems to recall when they appeared, but
now they stay out of habit (or obligation) to sailors and drunks.

Once upon a time, they were a boy band
caught between harmonics and hormones,
their future fueled by delicate chemistry,
a powerful mixture of
testosterone, adrenaline, ambition, and heartache

Spiraling into control, like a galaxy—
red dwarfs and supernovas, all the same to this town—
the five stars still seek the heart, exploding liquid lava light through what is in the way.

In their stuttering light, a long blue moan
splinters into iridescent shivers
as a one-time fan tightens her shawl. Turns the other way.

Even More Ways To Help 

• Get the buzz going.  Spread the word about "Electronic Corpse: Poems From A Digital Salon" by sharing our campaign on Facebook, Google +, and Twitter

Thank you so much!