Contribute to the World's Biggest Poem

Added: (Mon Feb 06 2006)

Pressbox (Press Release) - Press Release

With the American Super Bowl now over and the Winter Olympics soon upon us, you’re almost certainly asking yourself the same questions we are: just what is that stain on the rug? and, just as importantly, what about poetry?

We ask ourselves those questions too. We claim the stain is M&M’s ground into the floor (at least, that’s what we tell our housemates), but the poetry question has us bugged.

After too many sleepless nights we decided to answer the poetry question with “Choka On It(tm),” the world’s longest poem. And you, yes you dear reader, can (and should) contribute to it.

If you hadn’t fallen asleep in poetry class you would have learned that choka are a form of Japanese poetry, pre-dating haiku, and using a 5-7-5-7-5-7-5...7-7 syllabic structure (onji). In order to create the world’s longest poem (and no, we don’t know what the current record is – we’ll just beat whatever it is anyway), we’re borrowing an idea from another Japanese poetry style (renga) and are allowing any author to contribute to the poem.

Choka On It begins with the soon-to-be-infamous three lines:

Oh great Internet
Home to world's information
I have learned so much

Anyone in the world can go to the poem’s home (bigpoem.blogspot.com) and tag on a non-rhyming English couplet of seven and five syllables. Superlative additions to the poem will be granted a spot on the Choka Wall of Fame. Couplets exuding lameness will find an unworthy place on the Wall of Shame. All people are encouraged to use our "I Choka'd" badge.

The near-geniuses behind the poem are two shadowy figures: b1-66er, the current English Haiku Slugfest Champion of the World; and birdhead, an Internet bit hacker of great renown. As you would expect from people doing self-aggrandizing self promotion, we’re expecting greatness.

Choka On It rides atop Google’s supreme Blogger offering and derives its revenue stream entirely from viewers supporting the site’s AdSense ads. When pressed for revenue predictions, b1-66er and birdhead will tell you they expect income at a level to afford a Beau Jo’s pizza (possibly with everything on it) before the end of 2006.


About Choka On It
Choka On It resides at bigpoem.blogspot.com and is the creation of b1-66er and birdhead; through the help of mere English speaking mortals, it is intended and designed to become the world’s biggest poem.

Safe Harbor Statements under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release contains certain forward-looking statements of Choka On It. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual circumstances, events or results may differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to differences include, but are not limited to: whether or not those are really M&M stains on the carpet, people’s willingness to add to the choka, whether Beau Jo’s jacks up the prices on their pizza, and the birth of birdhead’s first child.

B1-66er and birdhead caution readers not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Seriously. It’s very possible they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. Sometimes they just say stuff to see how it sounds. B1-66er and birdhead do not undertake, and specifically disclaim any obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new circumstances or anticipated or unanticipated events or circumstances as they occur. Especially if this whole choka thing is a flop.