You know how those refrigerator poetry magnets work? You buy a set and leave them on your fridge, and people come by and assemble them into little poems.
And how many of us have been stuck in a commute, staring at long lines of trucks? Many of which are blank, no company logo or cute graphic. A canvas waiting. A 21st century mobile sheet of paper.
Well, be bored no more! All we need is truck-sized versions of the refrigerator magnets. Participating truck owner/operators get a word or two, how many depends on the size of the truck. They attach a word or two to the side of the truck.
And now the magic part: the poetry happens when trucks happen to line up next to each other! Yes, it's random acts of poetry, waiting to emerge from nothing and make sense or not, and then to fade away as traffic separates the trucks. It's found art, impermanent art; it's rock lyrics waiting to happen; it's food for thought; it's ideas about to gell, suggestions to be put forward, pithy sayings and admonitions and reminders and queries and innermost thoughts to be expressed and displayed and then dissolved into traffic again.
So what if it mostly doesn't make sense or generate anything profound. That's why you let it keep happening and wait for the great ones. Of course, you do try to seed the results by picking good words. Same as the fridge magnet makers do; good initial word choice helps.
A light year beyond looking for clever/cute license plates!
A group expression! No individual person creates the poem.
A delight for weary commuter eyes!
Burma-Shave on the move!
Language in motion, poems on the move, instant literature engaging traffic, or possibly the other way around, but either way a fresh new short poem every day, every way.
Now, instead of resenting the fact that more and more trucks are on the roads, you'll look forward to more and longer trucks, as that builds towards critical mass to enable more and longer poems.
Of course, it doesn't have to be magnets to attach the words, and presumably wouldn't be. Instead just some common way of attaching words to panel trucks. Signs or paint or something.-- jpk, May 23 2002 So *this* is what the graffiti vandals are trying to accomplish.-- half, May 23 2002 I'm usually looking at the backs of trucks, though.
How about if you paint copies of great artworks on the back doors of trucks? I'd like that.-- waugsqueke, May 23 2002 Instead of "phone this number to say I'm a bad driver" sticker you could have a "phone this number to add a word to this truck" sign instead.-- Aristotle, May 23 2002 Now, look here, jpk. We have this cherished little notion here that first postings are usually garbage. You and your ilk threaten the status quo. So watch it!
Though I do take comfort in the fact that you've been lurking, as blissmiss indicates, for over a year. Croissant.
(and welcome, in case the ferritic nature of my remarks is not obvious)-- beauxeault, May 23 2002 this is such a good idea, why stop with trucks? If everyone on the hb put a few words down each side of thier car (or scooter for po) think what we could create?
I spend my commute making up sentences from the letters on passing cars, this would be much more fun.-- rbl, May 23 2002 I don't like this idea. It's word pollution. And again, I point out that it's rare we drivers are positioned perpendicular to a row of trucks side-on that we could even read this vehicular prose.-- waugsqueke, May 23 2002 I thought this would be poetry about trucks, which is quite baked by the country music crowd. Thank goodness it ain't.-- RayfordSteele, May 23 2002 Conjunction Junction, what's your function?...-- muzer, Oct 06 2003 Really good. +-- bristolz, Oct 06 2003 random, halfbakery