Magnet Poet
1. Magnets and words go together for me like peanut butter and chocolate.
2. When I was a little girl, my grandmother had Terrier dog magnets. They were my first introduction to magnets and I remember thinking they were magical, the way they stuck to each other. I tried hard to make the ones that repelled each other stick together because I thought they should, but they wouldn’t.
3. The first time I saw magnetic poetry was in a café in Radford, Virginia, that no longer exists. The booth I sat in had a portable magnetic stand. A friend joined me and we played with the words as we talked. It was like two conversations going on. I couldn’t think of a more fun way to spend time but eventually had to pull myself away.
4. Magnetic Poetry was invented in 1993 by Dave Kapell. Suffering from writer’s block while trying to compose lyrics to a song, he wrote down interesting words on paper and rearranged them in different ways for inspiration. Everything was fine until he sneezed and the paper words went flying, so he glued the words to pieces of magnets and stuck them to a pizza tin. From there they found there way to the refrigerator and the rest is history.
5. I love it when a word escapes the hold the fridge has on it and I find one while sweeping the floor. Picking it up to read, I always feel like what it says is a prophetic message just for me.
6. Once I found a green word outside in the grass that said “GROW.”
7. Over the years some of the novelty of magnetic poetry has worn off, or maybe I’ve stopped playing as much as I used to because the words are just too small for me to read easily now. I want big words that stick to other places besides the fridge.
8. Once I arrange a collection of words in an order that feels just right, I hate to interrupt it or move it. But I’m not the only one who plays makes fridge poetry. I don’t know who left so many interesting the messages on my fridge. Some are my own messages that have gotten so old they are now new to me again.
9. This post is dedicated to Ampersand who likes to take photos of magnetic poetry words that have traveled far from the fridge. She, who has a better camera than me, has recently re-inspired the magnetic poet in me.
February 22nd, 2008 10:52 am
You know, I’ve got one of those softwares that help you write your novels, and it has an exercise similar to this, which presents a list of words and you can move them around to form sentences. It’s pretty interesting. 🙂
February 22nd, 2008 10:59 am
One of my favorite books on writing is Poemcrazy: freeing your life with words by Susan Goldsmith Woolridge. She writes about pasting magazine cut out words to tickets (the kind on a roll that can tear off) and using them to experiment. I did this before magnet poetry and had a blast with it. http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl/9780609800980.html
February 22nd, 2008 11:10 am
I like the pictures better then the words.
I remember trying to teach you to play Keno ( a gambling game from the lottery in MA) and you told me how much better you would have liked it if it were letters instead of numbers. I laughed to myself, because I like numbers and scheme of them.
February 22nd, 2008 11:21 am
i love the magnet words.. and great use with the pictures..
February 22nd, 2008 11:23 am
Those are some of my favorite pictures of Dan, Jim, and dad. Sometimes fridges act as memorials too.
February 22nd, 2008 12:03 pm
I never thought to put my magnetic poetry on my fridge. I am not even sure where my little magnetic words have gone off to. Now I want to find them!
February 22nd, 2008 12:35 pm
This makes me smile.
I particularly like this combination you have:
Promise, I shiver.
February 22nd, 2008 12:48 pm
Such a nice post from a magnetic poet!
I enjoyed it, Colleen.
Thank you!
Margie
February 22nd, 2008 1:09 pm
Like PB and chocolate. Now that’s good. 🙂
I still want to get myself a set of those. One of these days….
C’mon over to the blog party Colleen…
February 22nd, 2008 3:00 pm
I have two sets of magnetic words on the file cabinet behind my chair at work. I use them for inspiration. My co-workers use them to compose creepy lines of poetic injustice.
February 22nd, 2008 3:16 pm
I made my own set of magnetic words with one of those rolls of magnets and printed up the words. It was fun because I could tailor them with names and stuff we say. We used to always come into the kitchen to find some outrageous saying. It got rather interesting, to say the least.
February 22nd, 2008 4:14 pm
such fun! i used to have a box of magnetic words and now have no clue where they are! 🙁
February 22nd, 2008 8:05 pm
Yes, you’re right: finding and reading “escaped” words would be prophetic…sort of like finding a fortune cookie. Hey, why don’t you and Mara start a new form of Scrabble-Dominos game? Instead of letters criss-crossing, you’d criss-cross magnetic words. 🙂
February 22nd, 2008 11:40 pm
Before kids, I was a middle school teacher…..I had these magnets on my old school style metal desk. You would not believe some of the things these kids could make up. We would print them out in a class journal with a Polaroid pic.
You brought back some fond memories!
visiting from Michelle’s
February 22nd, 2008 11:46 pm
I once had a magnetic poem on my fridge that turned out pretty well… it contained the phrase, “incubating your flood.”
February 23rd, 2008 2:20 am
I need to make some magnets like this….and some other things from magazines that I like. I don’t buy magnets…I recycle them from all the calendar and advertisment magnets that I have from previous years. One used magnet goes a long way.
February 23rd, 2008 10:56 am
I remember the terrier dogs and did the same as you with them.
I created my own magnetic word thingy using magnetic strips that you cut and pasted words on them for my kids to play with on long car trips. I used metal stove burner covers for a base. It was done as an educational excercise and done long before I had ever learned about magnetic poetry.
I got some magnetic poetry for a gift about 15 years ago and put it on the fridge and I and the kiddos loved it!
February 23rd, 2008 9:53 pm
I remember when those little Magnert words came out…They made great Christmas presents that year for so very many people I know who are writers and who LOVE words. I had a set and I have no memory of where they could be….
I love your Fridge covered with all those words and the lovely pictures of your two brothers and your Dad….!
Very sweet, Colleen. I also love that you found the word “grow” out in your garden. THAT is perfection!
February 24th, 2008 9:15 pm
oh how I love your verve in life- !!!!
February 25th, 2008 1:50 pm
What fun! I used to have lots of sets of magnetic words when I taught school but I gave them all away when I retired (and bought a new refrigerator). I enjoyed seeing your pictures and reading the captions. Thanks for sharing.
Hugs and blessings,
February 27th, 2008 1:30 pm
Yep, this is big here in France. It is great fun at parties, among the “deep talkers” who always gather in the kitchen.