Knowing There is No Box in Poetry

Cubs the Poet is a one-of-kind poetry visionary. In this interview, Cubs tells Christoph about a billboard he’s painting in between putting his children to bed and discussing poetry on this episode. The challenges of balancing his parental responsibilities and his art don’t stop him from pursuing it because for him, poetry isn’t just a poem, it’s a process. Thinking about poetry in terms of how it can add value to others and earn him money keeps him focused on the journey. 

And of course, like every poet, he attempted to pay the bills with other things first. He tried rapping because there was money in it, but it didn’t feel right. Since then, he’s learned to earn money in innovative ways that felt more genuine. For months, he sat with a typewriter in the French Quarter of New Orleans taking donations for poems. Then, he wrote poems at weddings, capturing the day in a handbound book that he offered like a gift to the bride and groom. He’s now writing room service poems at local hotels to help change the mood and experience of hotel customers. He’s essentially a customer service representative. 

 It’s easy to say Cubs the Poet blends the poetry community and the poetry industry. He says, “It’s all about mindset, small town versus big city,” but he somehow embodies both in a non-suburban way. His poetry journey is full of tangible energy. He explains that “the biggest problem with poetry taught in schools is that we never meet these poets.” For him, poetry is a continuous lived experience, not merely a one-note poem. It’s a unifying, community-building act that breathes and grows with the poet. The poet is part of the experience.

When asked why poets are hesitant to ask for money when other artists are easily compensated, he explains “the mysticism of poetry” resists monetizing in some ways. The process feels to non-poets like a magic that defies the normal procedures of quantifying value. There’s not a set time it takes to achieve a poem, or a set length, or a depth.  

He believes some poets stay poor or work a 9-5 because it helps them relate to others. He mentions that rich people can be disconnected from the general experience and he was as nervous about success as he was about failure. He wanted to make sure he was writing the same poem for 50 cents as he was for $100,000 which is why he started asking for only donations.

But when “the what-ifs” started piling up, he asked for what he wanted. He tells us that imagination is what limits us. A lot of people don’t have a vision and without a vision, can’t move forward fully. He embodies the value he sees in poetry presidentially, leading us to a new poetic constitution where community and industry can sit happily at the same table, enjoying their wine together.

To hear more of his story in his own words, check out the podcast from your favorite app.

Cubs the Poet is a modern day wordsmith and community builder. He began his career as a poet on a street corner in Frederick, Maryland asking passersby the simple question, “do you like poetry?” In the years since, he has traveled across the country and around the world writing poetry and showing that his own answer to this question is very much, yes.

In 2019, Cubs was named Poet Laureate of his hometown Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has hosted a TedTalk and taught several seminars on the importance of spontaneity in poetry, expression and communication. Cubs has worked on brand strategy for companies such as Aveda, Southern Comfort and GoDaddy. By far, his greatest passion is creating custom poetry for people. He believes that everyone is a poem and seeks to commemorate that for as many people as possible. His work is spontaneous; he asks you to provide a theme and a few relative terms and will then craft a poem based on your conversation, using a typewriter. What results is often revealing, sometimes surprising and always unpredictable; the poetic version of jazz improv.

Currently based in New Orleans, Cubs started off the new year with a residency at The Columns Hotel. Which involves creating custom books of poetry, developing his recent portrait painting endeavor and riding scooters with his daughter Soule Monroe Davenport.