Edward Bulwer-Lytton (Wikimedia Commons)

There was an impromptu poetry ‘happening’ over the weekend in the comments section of a post in Speckled dish. It started when Dominica posted an oaty recension of a poem by William Carlos Williams, which was quickly followed by flapjack burlesques of (at last count) Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, Paul Eluard, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Ogden Nash, Marianne Moore, and (this last one took me a moment to identify!) Rudyard Kipling.

Any takers?

Tonight I created a Handmeon of Claudio Arrau performing over seven hours of Chopin’s solo piano compositions. Along the way, I did some writing about how it impressed me. Then I wrote a personal blog post talking about that a bit, mostly to let people know it existed, but also to pitch the idea that if you register you can not only comment on posts, but you can bookmark the Handmeon and request a sojourn.

We may need to highlight this a bit more: If you join Handmeon, you have access to a lot of cool stuff that is circulating, for free, with a lot of interesting thoughts and photos and reflections and meaning attached online to the actual object. You can sign up to host an object, and maybe, just maybe, a current or future host will send it to you, with the understanding that you’ll enjoy it for a while and pass it on.

Having named the Handmeon, the personal blog post, and this post all with the same title, this is also an on-going test of the Google ranking algorithm. I’ll be earching for “Arrau’s Chopin” every so often, and we’ll see what results are returned.

I recently got my nerve up to Handmeonify two of my favorite pieces of art (this and that). I’m fond of these, so it was tough to open the door of the cage so to speak.

But maybe giving needs to hurt a little bit to be real. If it hurts you know you’ve parted with a piece of yourself. You’ve taken a leap of faith. It’s the faith that you’ll be okay. My favorite children’s book The Quiltmaker’s Gift takes this notion to the extreme.

I’m not suggesting that we part with everything like the king in the book. But what would it be like if a few thousand people put a couple of their favorite pieces of art on Handmeon? Not the art you want to get rid of (there are plenty of places for that), but stuff you really care about. Art to be shared among appreciative people, then moved along, like so many one-piece museums on wheels. Roving ambassadors of expression, history, and goodwill. The collective treasures of our culture, all shared for free.

Each of us stands to lose a little and gain a lot.

Sometimes people say “Wow, that’s really cool, but I can’t think of anything to use for a Handmeon.” I start out by suggesting that anything you already use as a gift is fine, plus a whole lot more. The whole lot more is because with Handmeon its as much about what you say as what the physical gift is.

For example, while before Handmeon I’d never given anyone a rock, Mount Washington Tales is “just” a rock. Of course it’s a beautiful rock, in an austere lichen-covered granite sort of way, but it’s still a rock. I didn’t spend $29.95 for it at the Hallmark store.

But if you check out the story, there’s some fun reading to be had (and a lot more once Bruce weighs in, I’m sure). My point is that with Handmeon you’ve got a lot of leeway to make something “ordinary” become extraordinary. It doesn’t take much of yourself to make something far more lovable than any off-the-shelf gift you could buy.

So go ahead, use a rock (or a shell, or a chunk of wood). It’s all about the story.

For the last release, we rewrote the examples section in the tour. As I explored the site looking at the various themes, I was amazed at the variety of different kinds of Handmeons folks had created in such a short time. Themes included thanks, reconnections with friends, frivolous journeys, and a whole lot more. Most surprising was that there was no conscious effort on anyone’s part to push the edges of Handmeon. It just turns out that people see different uses.

Given that we’re so early in the game, it makes me wonder what other uses we’ll see.

AJ made a great video (43 seconds) for her first sojourn post. Jeff launched Sainte Barbe about 18 days ago, and I can already tell this object has real potential.