Kornel
Kossuth
The Poetry Busker
About Me
Books have always been special to me, so it was not long before I felt the urge to write. I stumbled across poetry more by accident, but fell in love immediately.
Typewriter poetry or poetry busking is something I have been doing since 2014, starting out on the Southbank in London. Since then I have written commissions for birthdays and similar, assisted at handfastings with my poetry and appeared at a number of literary festivals as well as craft fairs and special events.
The busked poems are all written on the spot based on topics or information I am given. It usually takes about 5 minutes to type a poem like this (it can't be much longer when you have a queue!).
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My typewriter is a Remington Portable born on October 23rd, 1935.
What I Do
The heart of poetry busking is being out and about someplace with my typewriter on my lap waiting for passers-by to stop and ask me for a poem. Traditionally I have done this on London's Southbank somewhere between the London Eye and the Globe. Covid put a stop to that for a while, but things are picking up again. Keep walking along the Southbank and watch out for me (or some of my colleagues, who also work there).
When I busk at festivals or for companies at special events, I do more or less the same thing, but as part of the event.
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Commissions come in different shapes and sizes:
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Most frequently these are very much like busked poems, written on the spur of the moment (but in my shed rather than on the street), based on information you have given me.
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For more special occasions I am often asked to spend longer on crafting the poem and to make it longer as well as a more thoughtful and content-rich. I usually type this poem up as well.
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Beyond that, I can also produce a more artistic or decorative rendition of the poem, depending very much on what you would like. In the past, this has involved me for example, writing the poem out and illustrating it on a map of London.
Examples of my work can be found in the 'Sample Work' section.
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Beyond poetry busking my (published) literary pursuits revolve around more lengthily crafted poetry and academic writing.
Beyond Busking
Poetry busking is not my main job. Most of the year I am an English teacher.
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A number of my academic articles on various aspects of law as well as music (mainly Sibelius) have been published in special interest journals and magazines. My academic publications include a number of English resources for Common Entrance English and GCSE English literature I either authored or edited.
A number of my 'serious' poems have been published over the years in various poetry magazines.