“If this is not love, I don’t know what is.”

Some sort of ancient musical instrument

“POEMS: your topic, your price, about anything, donation.”

Name your subject.  Then, a poem emerges from “the crisp click-clacking of Zach Houston‘s lima-bean green, Swiss-made, Hermes Rocket portable typewriter … amid the bustle on the sidewalk.” The 28-year-old Houston sits on a folding chair he has set up, usually outside the Ferry Building in Oakland, but often elsewhere in the Bay Area.

He calls his project “poemstore.”

He’s written poems for Gavin Newsom, Joe Montana, Steve Martin and even the staff of Oscar de la Renta. He’s been featured on the CBS Evening News and Charles Osgood.

“Hey, want a poem?” Houston offered passers-by last weekend on an unusually warm San Francisco winter day. “Hi there, how ’bout a poem? You look like you need a poem!” Some stopped. Some didn’t. Nearly everyone smiled at the scruffy-faced guy in a black baseball cap with an infinity symbol on the front. Others approached just to view the anachronistic device on his lap, thinking it to be some sort of ancient musical instrument.

“It’s my job,” he says.  It’s been his only job since 2007.  “If this is not love, I don’t know what is,” he says.

You can read about him in the Oakland Tribune‘s Valentine’s Day article here.  Or catch up with him on his own minimalist website here.  Or write him at poems@zachhouston.com

(Hat tip, David Sanders.)

Tags: Charles Osgood, David Sanders, Gavin Newsom, Joe Montana, Oscar de la Renta, Steve Martin, Zach Houston

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 20th, 2011 at 11:03 am by Cynthia Haven and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.