The Freemont Poetry Project
On July 13, 2003, Dave Barry invited readers of his blog to submit poems to Poetry.Com, using the first name of "Freemont," and incorporating the line "The dog ate mother's toes." By the end of the week, hundreds of such poems had been posted to the site. Poetry.Com has since pulled most of them down, but many can still be found elsewhere on the Web, having been posted by their original authors.
Any list of these poems has to start with the original, which also includes the instructions the rest of us followed:
- A Sad Day, by Freemont A. Harkins (Dave Barry)
Sites with one or two poems:
- "Caligula Cartilage," by Freemont C. Amd (Marlo Dianne) [scroll to July 21st]
- "Family Frolic" and "Death Is Not Death," by Freemont X Ash and Freemont Exo Reader (Judith Laura)
- "Doggy" and "Haircut," by Freemont Hemingway and Freemont Grabowski (Bill Grabbe) [scroll to July 24th]
- "Ewwww." and "I Can't Find My Freemont Poem," by Freemont J. Moo Hootenanny and Freemont C. Antfindmypoem (Jennifer Rutherford)
- "Yuppies," by Freemont B. Jolley (Brian Jolley)
- "Headache," by Freemont D. B. Manilow (Charles Eustler)
- "No Bad Dogs," by Freemont E. McCassar (Ase Ur-Jennan) [Word document]
- "Tommy's Birthday," by Freemont O'Connell (Tori Billings)
Sites with many poems:
- 11 Poems, by Freemont "Itchy" Harkins (Will Clarke)
- 11 Poems, by Freemont Perot (S. Ross)
- 10 Poems, by various Freemonts (Elizabeth LaFleur) [15 others appear lost to history]
- 5 Poems, by 5 Freemonts (Jeroen)
- 3 Poems by Freemont X (Brian Thomson)
If you're one of the many Freemonts whose poetry is on the Web, and you'd like to be included in the above list, please drop me a line and I'll get right on it.
Finally, Poetry.Com's official response (which was linked to from their front page for a few days before they pulled the plug on the project) is a really rather impressive example of spin control. Whoever wrote this ought to consider a career in politics.
(Note: I am not Dave. Dave's site is here. I'm just an Alert Reader.)