Swimming in an Ocean Of Words: Printed Page to Performer's Stage

Where books become performances-and audiences become part of the story.

Swimming in an Ocean of Words is both a new entertainment and a writer’s guide. In the old times of Blind Homer and The Iliad and The Odyssey – before writing – verse-poetry was a performance art. Overtime it migrated to primarily the printed page. I want to retrace that path and move in new ways from the printed page back to the performer’s stage, and to add to performance by creating more audience participation. Blind Homer was not shy and would have welcomed his audience into his poems.
Robert J. Weber received a doctorate in psychology from Princeton University. He has professed in New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Massachusetts, and New Mexico. His last gig was as a Visiting Research Professor of Law at the University of New Mexico. His hobbies and evocations include photo editing to remove the stress fractures of reality—and writing to explore imagination’s reach. His Previous Books: Forks, Photographs, and Hot Air Balloons: A Field Guide to Inventive Thinking. Oxford University Press. Ideas underlying invention as object and pro- cess.   Inventive Minds: Creativity in Technology. (Edited with D. N. Perkins). Oxford University Press. Ideas and history underlying invention.   The Created Self: Reinventing Body, Persona, and Spirit. W. W. Norton. Using the ideas from physical invention and by analogy translating them to personal invention and creation of the self.   Poems from the Rainbow’s Bow, Mercury Heartlink. 2023. Selected as the Po- etry Book of the Year by the Cambridge, Massachusetts Book Club. A poetry of deep ideas and history. He has presented workshops on Translating Film Techniques into Poetry. And advocated for writing and verse as performance art. These works and activities formed the basis for his seminars on invention and creativity. He uses many of those ideas for the present book. Contact: robertJweber063@gmail.com

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From the Book


Testimonials

John Roche
Author of Tubbable: Poems of John Roche, Emeritus Associate Professor of English Rochester Institute of Technology

Here is an intrepid voyage through the “ocean of language,” penned by a noted authority on the psychology of creativity. As he says, Imagination creates recipes from “word-fish” found in the ocean waters of memory and experience and language. You will find many surprises and discoveries along this journey.

Jo M. Solet,
Harvard Medical School, Division of Sleep Medicine Cambridge Health Alliance

Through his latest book, Swimming in an Ocean of Words, author Robert J. Weber serves as guide on our joint voyage, crossing boundaries of sensation. imagination, invention and translation to embody the creative process. He is our captain and shipmate as we welcome his challenge to translate what we sense, witness and wish for into words. This book is the most recent of his gifts of inspiration to his readers.

Barbara P. Blumenfeld, Professor Emerita, Legal Writing,
University of New Mexico School of Law

Robert Weber’s mind knows how to get outside the box and see life and all it contains in new and creative ways. This book is his gift of sharing some of his insights with other creative writers. The author begins with an innovative approach to creative writing and thinking, then shares his own inventive work as demonstrations of how one can use the tools he discusses in their own inspired endeavors. He includes specific and very thoughtful prompts, and yet, beyond that, the book in its entirety is a prompt that will take creative writers in new and imaginative directions. A wonderful starting point for a creative writing course or workshop.

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Speaking Engagements

Robert Weber performing his poetry at Chatter Sunday, music and poetry venue. Contact for speaking engagements at: robertjweber063@gmail.com

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