How Typewriter Poetry Transforms Moments – Exclusive Interview with Pierce Logan

Pierce D. Logan, founder of QWERT Poetry, LLC, is a solopreneur who commissions personalized poems on a manual typewriter for strangers at special events and through partnerships. Strangers approach the typewriter to engage in an intimate session, during which meaning is extracted from a deep conversation with the poet. Pierce then composes the poem and, finally, the requester welcomes home a timeless keepsake. Throughout the past decade of exploring people's special moments during these poetry sessions, Pierce has learned that all humans have a distinct need to be witnessed and listened to. As a former educator of ten years, the greater purpose of QWERT has come to be to revive the necessary role of the bard in society through literacy development workshops and community engagement.

Pierce Logan, Founder

Who is Pierce Logan? Introduce yourself, your hobbies, your favorites, you at home and in business. Tell us something interesting about yourself.

Pierce is a solopreneur, writer, and runner. His story begins back when he was a misfit in school, always reading books, observing, and questioning. Skateboarding culture provided formative frameworks for understanding alternative perspectives and finding a sense of belonging on the fringes. This perspective provided fodder for creativity and gave more nuance to meaning. As a young adult, he fell in love and traveled solo to Brazil for the first time. Soon after, he became fluent in Portuguese and discovered the flow state, having studied obsessively for many hours every day. For the first time, he realized he was capable of mastering a skill, but before, he had lacked the direction and inspiration. This paved the way for developing his writing, founding QWERT Poetry, LLC, and continuing to work the writer's muscle. He eventually became a high school teacher and taught for ten years, and eventually decided traditional education would never be the place for his mind. From the fringes looking in, he learned a lot about the world, himself, and what he did and didn't want. This has informed his ethos and what drives him forward, rooting him in spirituality and self-improvement. At home, life looks like reading (the more occult the topic, the better!), learning from or being inspired by videos on YouTube, playing Xbox, meditating, cooking, studying foreign languages, or recording content for social media.

What inspired you to start QWERTPoetry, and how has your journey shaped the work you do today?

I was inspired to start QWERT Poetry from a deep desire to connect with others, though I believe this was subconscious at the time. What actually got me started was my mom and my love of poetry. I began writing poetry as a teen, inspired by descriptive, complex lyrics from the angsty music I listened to at the time. One day, my mom came home from work with a poem about me written on a typewriter and a black and white photograph of a guy sitting behind a typewriter in the NYC subway. I then decided I should get a typewriter and try the same thing. I set up in Central Park, soon got my first client, and the rest is history. I fell in love and felt like I had found something I was called to do. This was back in February of 2015. I recognize how essential these brief moments of connection are, and I need them as much as the people I write for do, so I keep going.

What makes your approach to poetry and writing unique in today's landscape?

Today the seam that binds the digital and physical world is stronger and less noticeable at the same time: We have a hard time recognizing what's been generated by a human, why we are even seeing or experiencing something, whether through our algorithm or through our emotions. The territory we are charting is new, but at the same time familiar. Being able to helm us through these seas is important to me: I feel called to represent this moment through poetry. Your feelings, your moments, your uncertainty. Since I began QWERT in 2015, I learned that I, too, feel exactly what you are feeling, I have had the same thoughts, and can recall the same hugs, scents, and regrets that the stranger before me is courageous enough to describe in full.

It's also important to note that the role of the poet is a historical and enduring one: poets used to travel from town to town in search of housing and food, sharing their whimsical words and wielding their storytelling skills in exchange. When masses of people were illiterate, those who knew how to read and write would transcribe letters of communication by hand, then later on, by typewriters. Therefore, what I do has deeper historical roots than meets the modern eye.

How do you incorporate your personal experiences into your poetry to make it resonate with your audience?

I think rather I incorporate others' personal experiences into my own – I think it's an exercise of connecting and feeling with another person, really seeing them for who they are in the moment, and meeting them there to co-produce this work. People request topics that we can all relate to – if it's about heartbreak, even a young child can understand what it feels like to feel abandoned or hurt by someone else. If it's about changes, we have all experienced change in one way or another. Being human always resonates, and these are human experiences I deal with.

Can you share a success story where your poetry made a significant impact on someone's life?

Definitely, I can share a couple. One would be when a young guy hired me to be present at his proposal at the MET in NYC. The beautiful thing was, another typewriter poet was set up there during one of their first dates, from whom they had commissioned a typewriter poem! He wanted to replicate that, so I sneakily set up in the same spot he outlined and pretended not to know the photographer whom he had also hired. I even got a couple of extra commissions while I was there, helping me stay incognito. They came to request the poem, then, the moment I was waiting for happened: he read the poem to her, which ended with a poetic proposal. He got down on one knee on the iconic steps of the MET and proposed. Poetry can really transform a moment. Another one I can recall was on the anniversary of someone's grandmother's death. This person later became a friend and a big supporter of mine. She recounted that the poem was exactly what she felt and wanted to remember her grandmother by. To capture that in words, onto the page, frame it, for her to be able to slow down and feel her grandmother's presence again, for her to take it home, there was nothing more memorable.

How do you stay motivated and inspired in your writing, and how do you keep the creative process flowing?

I'm not sure that motivation or inspiration to write works the same way for everyone. In terms of what I do on my typewriter, the inspiration is really in the stories strangers tell me. It's interesting because during the moments in between, when it's silent, and I am not sure when the next person will come, I can only choose to savor the special moment I just had, because I know it's a gift that many people dream of–that paradox of intimacy and anonymity. Once I am engaged in conversation with someone, the feeling of the poem comes before the words. Once I have the details I need, which again is a feeling, a sense of readiness and preparedness to write, then I am off, and nothing can stop me. It's a divine force that carries my words outward. This is how I communicate.

What role do social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook play in your work and connecting with your audience?

These platforms are constantly evolving just as the digital landscape and human possibilities continue to advance. They have helped me connect with greater audiences–the wonderful thing is, typewriter poetry is really an experience for everyone! I mainly use Instagram as I've found it conducive for building my personal brand. I also intend to leverage TikTok more for short-form videos of me typing. I believe content like this helps explain what typewriter poetry is, and it's amazing for people to watch someone use a typewriter 'in the wild'!

How do you see the future of poetry evolving, and what role do you want to play in that evolution?

This might be my favorite question! I do think poetry still matters and that something that has been with us since the beginning of time will continue to evolve with us. I see more and more people leaning on poetry as a means of expressing the experience and feeling of life. Prose is a format of writing that provides context, develops the setting, etc., but poetry cuts right to the quick–it gets to the heart of the matter. Even folks who won't find themselves sitting down to read poetry are indeed in touch with and affected by it. This is evidenced by the influence of musical lyrics. Lyrics are poetry dancing with rhythm. I personally prefer page poetry because I find it more suitable for how I communicate. But poetry can be the intro to a movie that creates the mood or concisely establishes a mystery. There's a reason we are drawn to rhyme or to embellished wording–we are trying to get the emotion, the true essence of the thing we wish to communicate. This is poetry's role. And if it weren't still relevant, why does it still exist?

The quality or approach to poetry might not be what evolves, but perhaps how we interact with it and savor it in meaningful ways will evolve.

What challenges did you face when building your brand, and how did you overcome them?

In the world of typewriter poetry, there is no road map. As someone who has always liked to chart my own path, that is exciting to me. While we have a typewriter poet group chat where we can bounce ideas off one another and share resources, it is a lone-wolf sport, in my opinion. The challenge I currently face, ironically, is developing the language to communicate what my service really is and to infuse the value of poets of old, along with meeting the needs of modern times, to find the right prospects. Too often, people think I can just work on Valentine's Day and maybe Christmas and be good! Poetry is not just something to gift for Valentine's Day, or even just for a corporate event; it is best suited as an ongoing activation that excites guests, brings them to tears on any Tuesday afternoon, and invites them back because your hotel has something so touching and timeless to offer.

How can clients benefit from your poetry workshops or services, and what can they expect to gain from working with you?

Typewriter poetry is unlike any other experience. 99.9% of the time, people I have written for have given raving reviews, not only because of how novel what I do is, but because I am among the best at it. I don't say that lightly–I have been doing this for over a decade now. I've made mistakes–forgotten names, lost track of someone's details, and forgotten to write their poems at an event. But I've learned from these mistakes, and as a result, I understand how to engage people, not only to produce a truly personal keepsake, but an unforgettable experience. I regularly hear from past clients years later, and they've not let go of their poems. The pieces we crafted together have changed the trajectory of their lives–from encouraging them to go after their dreams to memorializing their late loved ones. Just like any field of work, one must constantly gather and sharpen relevant skills. It has been my life's work to become an excellent listener, a friend, a medium. But also to gain the courage to quantify and qualify the value of my poetry whilst learning how I can best serve others through our sessions. This was once an experiment, a project, but now it is my calling.

The typewriter has a way of drawing people in, and together, with my undivided attention, clients will find a way of expressing something that has been lodged in their throat, waiting to jump out onto the page. I would much rather spend an extra minute or two with a client than rush the poem. I have learned that I cannot write until I've uncovered the heart of the matter with you. It is my duty to help you find that and write it beautifully, sometimes painfully, onto paper.

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info!

Read more from Pierce Logan