I’d been writing poems and song lyrics for decades, but it wasn’t until I entered the 3-D virtual world of Second Life (SL) that I started calling myself a poet. There I began calling myself a “performance poet,” reading my poems to backing tracks I created in GarageBand. (You can see some examples of this on my youtube channel, though usually performed by my alter ego, Prof. SteveO.)
In SL, I first helped create published anthologies with other avatar poets, but I eventually got the courage to release my own works. I have released several volumes of my poems, and am still doing invited readings in SL on a sporadic basis.
A few different muses have inspired the poems along the way, and other poems have been inspired by current events and chance encounters. You never know what offhand remark might become the subject of a haiku!
The Silent Oracle
What good is a silent oracle, we may ask. Then again, what good is consulting an oracle whose advice and prophecy one then ignores?
This collection includes very short works and haiku, along with longer works, some of which have appeared as youtube videos and others have been performed as part of Acropolis/Schrum’s poetry performances in the 3D online virtual world of Second Life. The poems themselves veer back and forth from serious to humorous observations of love and life.
The Future’s Passed
This collection includes very short works and haiku, along with longer works, some of which have appeared as audio pieces and others have been performed as part of Acropolis/Schrum’s poetry performances in the 3D online virtual world of Second Life. The poems themselves veer back and forth from serious to humorous observations of love and life.
Unchanging Chameleon
Come stand in the center of the spark tornado, and enjoy this collection of poems and songs by performance poet Stephen A. Schrum.
A collection of poems and songs, including some older works as well as some works so recent the ink is not yet dry on the printed version. The material ranges from classically-influenced pieces (“Ariadne” and “My Helen”), philosophical observations (“Childhood’s Paradise Lost”) and some post-apocalypic works, both tragic (“Archiving Tears”) and comic (“Ballad of the 2012 Believer”).
Audiences have said: “Splendid show!
Well done!” “That was great! I enjoyed it a lot!” “Wonderful…dramatic!” “So beautiful and sad!!!! Love it!!!!!” “LOVE IT!! Very Clever!!!!” “Wasn’t sure what to expect, but this was awesome!”
“Roses are Red; Violets are Blue; I love Phork’s insight and his humor too!” (JenRid in Second Life)
“Heal” (from The Future’s Passed)
To spend just a minute with you
And only you
To gaze into your beautiful eyes
To share your gorgeous smile
To press your soft lips with mine
For only a second
Is to heal me
And make me happy.
MUSOFYR 