Yardley, PA 1997

Todd Anderson, the author of Hot Writing created a collection of 17 digital poems aka interactive poetry. Yardley, PA 1997 being one of them introduced us to a whole new type of poetry I didn’t know existed. I thought this was a very interesting take on keeping those who don’t really enjoy poetry to be entertained. Not me, I love poetry. But I can definitely see someone playing around with this and making multiple different poems. I deeply appreciated the fact as readers who get a say on how we’d like this poem designed as well as how we’d like this poem to sound. I played around with this poem quite a bit.. I would literally press each key multiple times just to see what would happen but that in itself was a bit poetic. I was like “ Secret! Secret! Secret! Secret! Secret! Secret! Secret! Secret! Secret! Secret! Secret! Secret!” a whole bunch. I have noticed that with the few e-lit pieces we have completed, they all have a different experiences in terms of how I feel. Throughout this piece, I felt a sense of nostalgia.. like when as kids we’d have xylophones in school or little fun entrustments to keep us distracted at doctors offices. I also tried  playing multiple keys at once, and the tension definitely arose. It was a bit chaotic, as if I had to read the lines really fast so it doesn’t disappear. 

I did find this reddit post where a user named “Toddwords” was answering a few questions about their work with Hot Writing and Yardley PA 1997 gets brought up through the thread. Im obviously not too sure if this is the real Todd Anderson answering these questions but I thought it was kind of interesting. (https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/5xbwwh/i_am_todd_anderson_creator_of_hotwriting_the/) 

Avenue S 

So for this one, I decided to review the piece “By date” because when I initially started, I will definitely say I was getting a little overwhelmed with all the clicking and where it was taking me. However, clicking through by date was a lot more fun for me because COVID for me feels like it was yesterday. Each date that was provided was a date I vividly remember 5 years ago. I was an essential worker during that time working right by Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, NYC during the time. That hospital was practically ground zero of Nyc due to the high number of cases of covid plus deaths. They literally had body bags outside because there was no room inside. I had to go into work everyday, and if you know anything about the city of Elmhurst, its never quiet. But during covid, it was a ghost town. So the fact I got to choose the date made this a lot more relatable. But again, thats what this e-lit piece is meant to do. The experience depends entirely on your own interaction of it. Honestly, I feel that if this piece included words, it wouldn’t work. The pictures of the desolate city, graffiti, and drawings all create an experience. A haunting experience.

I will say that this piece is about being isolated during this time of covid but going through this piece did not make me feel alone. I felt a sense of connection because its as if we were living this horror at the same time? The dates were like a journal entry and we were living it together. For example, on May 19, 2020..it was my 21st birthday and I didn’t really do anything because covid was at its peak and that date in the poem portrayed the same experience. Masks and social distancing. Lastly, it seems that this poem will not have an ending…because covid is perpetually open in our lives. I still talk about that time as if it was yesterday and my future will be shaped by everything that we went through in 2020.