Vernon Mooers writes

Chapbooks were originally small, inexpensive booklets and were the main reading material for leisure time for the adult poor, and children of all classes in the eighteenth century. They were sold by travelling hawkers (like me) or "chapmen", were usually less than 24 pages and often included printed woodcuts. They were important and largely responsible for keeping alive traditional fairy tales, folklore and nursery rhymes and were recreational - a welcomed alternative to the moralistic and didactic pamphlets of the time. and also signalled the beginnings of children's literature that accomodated a child's size and interests. The small pages matched tiny hands and
budgets, and the illustrations appealed to a youthful imagination.

So, today, this author chapman hawks little Dozenpoem chapbooks at readings and places, just as he did selling encyclopedias from door to door years ago.  Well,  art and poetry and knowledge aren't snake oil, but sometimes you still get run out of town…