5 Places for Augmented Reality Poetry [US Edition]

Yesterday on Read Write Web, Marshall Kirkpatrick wrote a great article on the limitations of and obstacles to the emerging technology known as Augmented Reality. He explains it much better than I do, but in a nutshell Augmented Reality consists of lifting up your smart phone when you're in a particular place to see information from the internet imposed over the image of the place where you're standing.

Despite the barriers Kirkpatrick outlines, some Augmented Reality technologies already exist, most notably the much-heralded iPhone app Layar. With this in mind, I was thinking about the best places for an Augmented Reality poem to appear. Wouldn't it be great to lift up your phone and be able to read, or hear recited, a poem that was written about that spot? For today and tomorrow, I've compiled a list of the ten places that would do well to include an Augmented Reality poem or two: five in the US and five in Europe. Here are the five American locations:

1. The Place: The Lincoln Memorial
The Poem: Walt Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!"

Every time I go the Lincoln Memorial, I make it a point to read both the Gettyburg Address and Lincoln's Second Inaugural, which are engraved on the memorial's walls. Wouldn't it be nice to have this poem, which captures the sense of loss due to Lincoln's assassination, as well?

"O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won..."

2. The Place: The Grand Canyon
The Poem: Maya Angelou's "On the Pulse of Morning"

Though this poem wasn't written for the Grand Canyon specifically [it was originally composed for Clinton's first inauguration], its exhortation of "the rock, the river, the tree" makes it the perfect companion to one of our country's most stunning natural landmarks.

"But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,
Come, you may stand upon my
Back and face your distant destiny,
But seek no haven in my shadow."

3. The Place: Salem, Massachusetts
The Poem: Anne Bradstreet's "Verses Upon the Burning of Our House"

From one of the earliest American poets, Anne Bradstreet's touching account of the destruction of her family's home perfectly encapsulates the best of the Puritan sensibility. Anne Bradstreet was the wife of a Massachusetts Bay Colony governor, so Salem is the place where the house most likely stood and provides a simulation of the kind of sites Bradstreet would have seen daily.

"And, when I could no longer look,
I blest his Name that gave and took,
That layd my goods now in the dust:
Yea so it was, and so 'twas just."

4. The Place: Every supermarket in the state of California
The Poem: Allen Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California"

"Howl" gets most of the attention, but this excellent poem by one of the great Beats was published at the same time. Ginsberg imagines himself following Walt Whitman around a grocery store, and it would be a great experience for poetry fans to walk along the aisles with the two of them.

"We strode down the open corridors together in our
solitary fancy tasting artichokes, possessing every frozen
delicacy, and never passing the cashier."

5. The Place: Walden Pond
The Poem: Henry David Thoreau's Walden

Yes, Walden is not technically a poem in the traditional sense, but this Augmented Reality experience would be too good not to include on this list. Imagine walking around Thoreau's cabin on Walden Pond while calling up the author's exhaustive notes and meditations on the surroundings. Perhaps Thoreau himself would be displeased by the interference of technology at his sanctuary, but for Thoreau's readers and fans the addition would be a delight.

"The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star."

There are hundreds more places in America for Augmented Reality poems like this. What do you think would be some good ones? Respond in the comments or send your suggestions to Twitter. And be sure to check back tomorrow for five more locations across Europe and their accompanying poems.