The idea for commissioning a poem came quickly, after I discovered that Todd lived in my town. I drilled down his website and found this charming offer: “I’ll write a poem for you”. After a brief and painless exchange of emails, we were begun.

I met Todd in person, presented the first payment, and I began to download the linear history of my relationship with my wife (“the victim” of the poem). Three hours later, we were both exhausted and Todd had eight pages of notes.

Our second session came two months later and was more contextual and a little metaphoric as I tried to explain a relationship I had already described. The questions were easy — then hard: there were a few silences as I tried to be as honest with myself as I wanted to be with Todd.

The first draft came after that. Todd asked for time, but it only took a couple of weeks for the basic idea to emerge. I asked some questions about intent and sound, got another couple of drafts in response — then it was done.

I had built serious anticipation in my wife: she imagined variously a large piece of furniture, a painting, a new couch… She was astounded by the poem when I read it to her at a restaurant.

I shared the poem with her friends, with my family and friends, with everyone I knew. She pinned it to the wall in the break room at her work and all her friends knew it to be a dozen roses that would never lose their bloom.

We LOVED having you at the Forest Lodge Library!!! I know that everyone that attended the event was very glad that they roused themselves out of their easy chairs to come to the library. I was already a big fan of MOTIONPOEMS and am even more enthusiastic about them after viewing more of them and getting an opportunity to hear you talk about the work and share some stories. We would happily recommend a MOTIONPOEMS event to any school or library…and if they can get you to come and talk about them, more the better! You were articulate and amusing and so willing to answer everyone’s questions. It was an outstanding event!