There is still time to donate to Push Ups for Poetry, Poet and Black Ocean Editor Janaka Stucky’s fundraiser for Poets House. Stucky’s unorthodox blend of the physical and the metaphysical is similar to a Walk-a-Thon; sponsors are to pledge a dollar (or cent) amount per push-up. He will perform his task tomorrow, Saturday Sept 26. 

Stucky has been training for more than a month, and says he has already managed to do 175 push-ups in a single workout.

In a recent post at the Pushups for Poetry blog, Stucky says that he has raised $1,600 so far. Most of this support has come from “people who don’t actively publish poetry.” 

When a poet’s book comes out, he notes, very often “only a few hundred people read it and then it gets lost in the avalanche of other books that year.” He continues, “who cares enough to archive it for future generations? Poets House.”

Poets House, located in Manhattan, archives thousands of new poetry titles every year and comprises the single most thorough collection of poetry in the country. Stucky says he decided to raise money for Poets House because it is “a well-run foundation, with an exceptional amount of integrity.”

Poets House recently moved further downtown to Battery Park City, where it will enjoy at least 60 years of rent-free archiving and event-holding.

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