Top left: The 2016 version of The Amazing Push Poem Machine, repainted by and backboard designed by Dave Wakely.
Above: The game being played at the Black-E, 2022.
Bottom left: The original 1976 Amazing Push Poem Machine.
Top left: The Amazing Push Poem Machine in action at FACT, Liverpool.
Top right: Staff at National Poetry Library with their own version of The Amazing Push Poem Machine, 2022
Bottom left: A word being added to the continuous poem at HAF Networking Day, the Black-E, 2023.
Above left: Displaying poems at Field Lane, Kirkby, 1978.
Above right and bottom right: Edible poems with Dave Calder, Dave Ward and Jan Connell, Rice Lane Centre Play Scheme, 1976.
Top right: The Amazing Push Poem at National Poetry Library, London, 2022.
Bottom row: The poem created at the end of an MPAC Play Day, Garston Park, Summer 2022.
Above: Displaying poems from the Amazing Push Poem Machine at Field Lane, Kirkby, 1978.
Left: With young poets at Field Lane, Kirkby, 1978.
History
We had the game – Carol Ann Duffy gave us the name. In the long hot summer of 1976,a rack of lettered crates and a brightly painted board that took up half the room became… The Amazing Push Poem Machine!
The game first came to life in Liverpool at the first community arts centre in the country, The Great Georges Project (known locall yas The Blackie – now The BlackE,) when Dave Ward made a prototype for use in their playschemes around 1972.
The idea is very simple – to play you throw a ball to get a letter (from all the alphabet except X and Z), then add a word beginning with that letter to the ongoing poem. The deal is, it has to make some sort of sense – even if it’s surreal, strange, zen, or just plain zany. Sometimes, though, it can get serious and tap into the prevailing mood of the day, whether at a carnival or a conference.
The prototype had further outings at The Old Swan Festival (on the pavement in front of a wall outside the local bank), at a playscheme in Speke and with passersby in Williamson Square in Liverpool city centre - with the results read out that night at a poetry event in the Why Not? pub. But it was at The Bronte Centre a community centre built next to one of Liverpool's
original tenement blocks off London Road – when in 1976, The Amazing Push Poem Machine finally came into its own.
Dave Rickus at Merseyside Play Action Council had invited poets Dave Calder, Carol Ann Duffy, Libby Houston and Dave Ward to run poetry workshops on the playschemes. But how to do it? We all agreed you couldn’t just walk into a noisy room full of children running around playing football and table tennis – and ask them to sit down and write a poem.
So we decided to offer them another game – the one with the brightly coloured ramp and the lettered boxes and the ball. It worked! They joined in and created wondrous poems, including FRANK IS DRUNK AND YET LOST – which were stencilled onto big posters and projected onto the walls at the end of week disco.
We’ve gone on to devise many more games, including Amazing Animals, Birds, Elementary Poetry, The Phantastic Phonetic Phactory, Dr. Squint’s Colour Coordinator and Pete’s Powerful Poetry Pipes (a remake of The Amazing Push Poem Machine made especially for the visit of poet Pete Morgan and played outdoors at Field Lane, Kirkby). The games were mainly constructed from scrap timber in MPAC’s original warehouse on New Bird Street, then tested and hand painted before being taken out. We knew that it was important to build them robustly, so that they would withstand the inevitable scraping and bumping, poking and prodding that they'd receive on
the playschemes. Also to paint them brightly in the style of fairground sideshows so that they would encourage children to engage. They’ve stood the test of time. A number of them are still in service today!
Dave Calder and Dave Ward set up The Windows Project in order to carry on playing and we’ve continued for forty years, working with over 400,000 children and young people and taking the work into libraries, youth centres, day centres and schools.
The Amazing Push Poem Machine has remained a constant favourite. We’ve built different versions over the years, but its latest incarnation is as an easilymoveable board, newly painted with an added backboard by traditionalstyle sign writer and artist Dave Wakely. It’s been taken into widely ranging situations, including carnivals, conferences, art galleries and festivals.
The Amazing Push Poem Machine appeals to all ages and all abilities and never fails to instantly involve, challenge and inspire, allowing players to have as many turns as they like – and sometimes they need that just to get a letter!
“Friendly and engaging, The Amazing Push Poem Machine ensured that a wide range of people participated. We were really impressed, both with the finished product and the way in which participation was so skilfully encouraged.”
-SARAH BUTLER: Liverpool Mental Health Consortium
A Selection of Amazing Push Poem Machine Poetry
Hilarious old actors wear marigolds. Marvellous toddlers kiss friends quietly.
Cultural jam wishes cool events in October. London strikes the new deal collectively. Justice can begin!
Endangered swimmers wiggling dopily – yikes!
Launch the apples angrily towards rainbows that dance.
Miracles – very good for giving charities great happiness and magic opportunities. Clouds lean beautifully against rain under hope’s rays, illuminating the open blooms.
Welcome many dragons–please show consideration, gratitude and greatness.
Love everybody: in hope and despair come blushes, deeply nostalgic.
Good wellies walk, hesitantly –so yearningly restoring trust like love umbrellas.
Games played viciously, wrangled doggedly, manipulate innocence.
Animals lick grey caterpillars with leaves, eating noisily, dancing wonderfully, loving hopefully, dying peacefully.
New chickens never promise great sausages.
Love yourself riskily! Novel experiences lead to knowledge.
Dogs run through sand dunes –not sandwiches!
Pandas dance together very slowly. Elephants amazingly balance tigers and juggle antelopes.
Wandering lanes meander close and magical Irish voices offer safety.
Horses jump sideways and gallop very hard over loud UFOs like growling giants. Yellow umbrellas obviously fly kites, magically, like a lover. Imagine joy universal. Imagine happiness, yippee!
Go, happy people, vibrantly independent. Special beautiful rainbows make developments purposeful.
Cats in pockets always stink. Swans upwind glide ceaselessly, knitting cosy duvets while watching magic ventriloquists.
Greedy neighbours eat doughnuts, yelling “Calm down!”
Love everyone on Earth forever! –Because it’s excellent.
Intelligent, musical, futuristic nature opens inside us.
Horseshoes stamp beautifully creating echoes
hammering home on secret old stories as they inspire your keen learning.
Tea tastes totally perfect only on Saturdays.
Love reflects Nature. Love is special with truthful rhymes. Everlasting peace – Yes!
Stories in Liverpool written by many people. Free everything!
Keys unlock open museums silently like orange glass bananas.
My spider is beautiful, friendly, kind, dazzling –like wonderful green apples. Don’t question creativeness!
Invisible mysteries make dreams wild.
Kittens overturn lazy peacocks, kidnapping old nervous demons eating lava excitedly.
Santa Claus has many violins because they keep people laughing.
Midnight loves playful umbrellas.
Giant snowmen like orange chocolate houses for the magical garden.
Sun light moves, stopping tears, playing dominoes badly.
Oxen pull kangaroos’ houses quickly. Parrots fly beautifully past, into colourful kites.
Hopping very gently, wolves dance on old tables. Ants know vicious silences.
Heavenly orchards grow purple mango flowers.
Trees will devour octopuses quickly. Dangerous monkeys making sunny kites kick clouds.
Fish yell proudly over people’s imagination. Pies pick apples under the kind places, silently.
Brilliant pineapples eating oranges grumpily.
Shadows fly inside giant houses.
Sky is foggy, messy, faint, getting slowly hotter.
Snow kings destroy karaoke music secretly.
Lions lazily dream.
These poems are a small selection of The Amazing Push Poem Machine poetry produced from 1976 onwards. Our community workshops across Merseyside have welcomed poets of all ages to contribute.
Poets, writers and artists who have led
The Amazing Push Poems Machine include:
Aaliyah Braithwaite
Aditi Shah
Alan McDonald
Alasdair Paterson
Albert Osei-Wusu
Alison Down
Becky Vipond
Bene Sebuyange
Bethanie Culyer
Carol Ann Duffy
Curtis Watt
Dave Calder
Dave Rickus
Dave Ward
Duncan Curtis
Eleanor Rees
Freya Darbyshire
Hannah Merchant
Harry Mottram
Holly Gibbs
Jan Connell
John Hughes
Libby Houston
Love Phiri
Marion Parker
Michelle Sakim
Nana Trader
Nick Murray
Olivia Bennett
Pete Morgan
Rebecca Sharp
Sarah Kennedy
Shauna Lacy
Siobhan Twomey
Susan Phillips
Tom McLennan
Tom Vipond
Trevor Gerard
Versions of The Amazing Push Poem Machine have been played at:
The Black-E
Bluecoat: reopening event
Bold Street Festival
The Bronte Centre
Climate for Change Exhibition, FACT
Crawford Arts Centre
Field Lane Community Association
Garston Park
The Gathering, Princes Boulevard, Toxteth
Halewood Festival
Halewood Neighbourhood Centre
Halewood Leisure Centre
The Healing Space
Indigo Centre
Liverpool Biennial InterView launch, FACT
Liverpool Central Library
Liverpool Mental Health Consortium, Holiday Inn
Liverpool ONE
Living Sketchbook, Sandon Room, Bluecoat
Moss Lane Community Centre
National Poetry Library, Southbank Centre, London
New Hutte Neighbourhood Centre, Halewood
Newsham Park Festival
Old Swan Festival
Out of the Blue Festival
Poetry Bookfair, Bluecoat Chambers
Princes Park
Rice Lane City Farm
Rice Lane Playscheme
St. Bride’s Church
St. Cyril's Playscheme
St Francis of Assisi Summer Festival
St. Helens Creatives Group
UKPHA Arts in Health Conference
Wavertree Sports Centre
Williamson Square
Wirral Kids Book Festival
Amazing Push Poem Machine 2016 repaint and backboard design: Dave
Booklet design (2016): Regan Shaw
Updated reprint design (2023): Aditi Shah
Photo credits: Aditi Shah, Black-E Archive, Dave Rickus, Dave Ward, Duncan Curtis, Natalie Linh Bolderston and Playing Poetry
Wakely
The Amazing Push Poem Machine game and publication are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The Windows Project 1-27 Bridport Street, Liverpool L3 5QF www.windowsproject.co.uk
