Sidewalk Poetry, part of the Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk project, Saint Paul, Minnesota, October 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
A tourist
in the cathedral
of your silence
I am reverent
for all the wrong
reasons
The untitled poem in the photograph Sidewalk Poetry was written by Esmé Evans. It was taken during a celebration of Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk. The project is a unique collaboration between Saint Paul Public Works and Public Art Saint Paul, and is the brainchild of Marcus Young, Artist In Residence of the City of Saint Paul, Minnesota.
We attended the opening in Frogtown on a beautiful Fall day last October. The project is the first of its kind in this country and is largely due to Minnesota citizens who, in spite of the economic downturn, continue to support and fund the Arts.
We purchased the hand-bound book created and designed by Aki Shibata and Marcus Young, and had many of the poets sign their poems. It’s important to note that the judging was anonymous — poems were chosen on their own merit, without knowing the poet’s age, experience, or background. The poets in the book come from all walks of life, and include children and teens whose poetry is now letterpressed into Saint Paul’s city sidewalks.
I hope to do a future piece with more photographs from the opening. Until then, I’ll continue to post snippets from the Sidewalk Poetry series.
Esmé Evans works for the State of Minnesota. She is married and has two sons. She and her family have lived in Saint Paul since 1984, and can’t imagine living anywhere else.
— bio from the book Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk
-posted on red Ravine, Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
-related to posts: Got Poetry? (National Poem In Your Pocket Day), Celebrate Poetry (Let Me Count The Ways)
What a great idea, QM, imprinting the poetry into the sidewalks. Reminds me of how you and your fellow writers on the retreat wrote a mantra in the sand. Less permanent, of course, although I guess one could argue that the sidewalk poems will, too, eventually fade away.
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The sidewalk poem featured here reminds me of this short poem by Adam Zagajewski:
AUTO MIRROR
In the rear-view mirror suddenly
I saw the bulk of the Beauvais Cathedral;
great things dwell in small ones
for a moment.
Kind of like your post, QM. Thank you.
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a great idea.thanks.
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What a brilliant legacy for a city. Imagine walking along, intent on the next destination, only to be halted by a communication from someone else and be impelled to think and consider something other than a humdrum daily chore. Thanks for this, QM. G
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Such a great idea. Now Madison could easily do something like this. Is the book available, QM? I did a quick Amazon search, but no book there.
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Bo, Madison seems like a city that actually would do something like this. It’s progressive in a community-oriented way.
The book is a small, thin letterpress book of the poetry laid out the way the poets wrote it. It also has short bios of the poets. I did notice that the layout was changed slightly on some of the poems when they pressed them into the cement. They had the pressing plates at the opening and they were really cool. Pretty huge.
Here’s where you can order the book:
Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk – Book (LINK)
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Flannista, that’s a wonderful poem. Thank you for leaving it here. It does remind me of the poem in this post, the cathedral in the rear view mirror. Good poets make writing poetry seem effortless. But so much work goes into distilling something down to a few lines.
G., I had the same thought. We took a tour of some of the sidewalks where the poetry was pressed and it felt exactly like that — you stumble on a poem, words imprinted into cement, and you just have to stop and read it. Then you walk on, pondering the meaning. It’s quite lovely.
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I absolutely love this! My own hometown (Milwaukee) has made huge strides in terms of art during the last two decades. We have great theater, dance, music. Our art museum is internationally famous. But we aren’t so great with poetry.
What a delight it would be to go for a walk along our beautiful lakefront and bring one poem home each day until you had the whole collection. No need to buy a book.
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Rick, thanks for stopping by. Another amazing thing about this project is the way Saint Paul Public Works got on board with the artist in residence and the concept, a true community collaboration. You just wouldn’t see that everyday. During the opening, it seemed like it wasn’t a very hard sell either, that the city was totally behind the project.
ybonesy, so glad you arrived in Vietnam safely! It does remind me of the sandwriting near Lake Michigan. In fact, that’s one aspect I was thinking about. I was wondering how long a slab of cement would last. And thinking that, eventually, it will crumble and be replaced. But it’s going to be a long, long time before that happens.
When I lived in my old apartment, there were these huge elm trees out front and the root systems had started to buckle the sidewalks. But they had been there probably since the 40’s. Sadly, we lost the elms to Dutch Elm disease and the sidewalks outlasted the trees.
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p.s. I want to add an image next to my comments, as some others have. How do I do that?
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Jude, I can totally see this happening along the lakefront in Milwaukee. It was so beautiful there when you drove us around that day earlier this year. I’ll never forget the art museum either. A real treat!
About adding an avatar image, I think I wrote out the instructions in a comment to someone else that asked earlier in the year. Let me see if I can find that comment. I’ll come back and add the links for you later.
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QM, I was wondering…are the poets names’ also inscribed in the sidewalk. I only saw the poems in the photos I looked at on the link.
Is Marcus Young still the artist-in-residence? Do you have contact info on him?
Sorry, for all the questions. Madison has an arts’ grant program for the city, and I’m feeling bit inspired. Looks like a lot of work, but such a cool project. And I’m thinking it wouldn’t cost a huge amount of money. Have to always think of that, especially now. But it’s such a broad reaching project, and with poetry which doesn’t get much of the limelight. It sounds really worthwhile.
I’d love to find out the details of the cost and such. If the sidewalks are due to be replaced anyway, and if it was done on a small scale, this project really could be doable in all kinds of places – small and large.
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Bo, I think they decided not to add the poets’ names to the sidewalks in keeping with the everyday feel of the project and in hopes of inspiring others to write poetry, no matter who they are. The poets are all listed in the book though, next to their poems. The Bios are at the back of the book.
It looks like the City of St. Paul’s Public Artist Residency was launched in 2005 and each artist is given a living stipend along with a $50,000 grant toward a cityscape project. Sounds like a poet in residence, doesn’t it.
Here’s a link describing the program:
City of St. Paul’s Public Artist Residency (LINK)
I think Marcus Young is still the Artist In Residence. I found a contact page on Public Art Saint Paul and his email address is listed under:
Marcus Young, Artist in Residence:
Marcus.Young@ci.stpaul.mn.us.
Here’s the link to the Public Art Saint Paul contact page with lots of other contact people listed and also a short bio of Young and some of the projects he’s done:
Public Art Saint Paul Contact Page (LINK)
Bio of Marcus Young (LINK)
Sounds like you are off and running for Madison, Bo. Good luck with all this and so glad you were inspired.
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I love this idea, what a breath of fresh air. Glad I stopped by. The poem is beautiful.
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Thanks for stopping by J. Much appreciated!
Jude, I remembered today when I saw R3’s avatar that you’d asked about adding yours. Here are a couple of links to comments I made on two different posts about how you can add own avatar for commenting on WordPress. I had to dig a bit but finally found them. Hope they are helpful.
I want to mention that WordPress is doing a big update, a new 2.7 release tomorrow, so it’s been a little slow this week. And, as you’ll read in the two links, it also takes a little while after you upload an image for it to show up. And with the new release, some things may have changed a bit since I wrote these. But, in general, it should steer you in the right direction! If all else fails, head to the WordPress FAQ’s page.
Nuts & Bolts of Adding Your Own WordPress Avatar (LINK) – in comment thread on The Legacy Of Subway Worker Marvin Franklin
A Few More Tips On Avatars (LINK) – in comment on Midtown Haiku
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[…] of the City of Saint Paul, Minnesota. I did a first piece about the project earlier this week (Sidewalk Poetry — Public Art At Its Best) and thought I would post another poem while it’s fresh in my […]
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I’m really glad you’re publishing snippets, the poetry walk is such a neat idea.
And the words of this little poem struck a chord in me.
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amuirin, thanks. I’ve got lots of photographs of the opening that sunny Fall day. Not sure when I’ll get to posting them so I thought I’d break it up into little chunks. So much to write, so little time. This poem struck a chord with me, too. It has a universal feel, the different ways we relate emotionally to silence. And all the different kinds of silence.
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Just found this and wanted to share it on this post, Seems like Istanbul has 18 benches designed to look like open books placed around the city. Each bench is a different book; each bench has poetry on it, too. Thought the idea was awesome. More poetry in cities. Here’s the link if you want to take a peek.
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Bo, that’s so cool about the book benches in Istanbul. I’ll read your link for sure. If you ever do get something going in Madison, Wisconsin, I’ll hope you’ll come back and share about it. I’d love to know what happens.
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[…] of Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk. I wrote the first piece about the project a few months ago (Sidewalk Poetry — Public Art At Its Best) after attending the opening in Frogtown last October. The project is a collaboration between Saint […]
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I’m so pleased that you used a photo of my poem here. Your readers may be interested to learn that the contest submissions were limited to 300 characters (including spaces).
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Esme, how wonderful that you found the photograph of your poem! I had just mentioned in the last post on Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk, “Wet Cement,” that I secretly hoped that the poets and organizers and funders would see these posts and know how much we appreciated this project. Sidewalk poetry is bringing us a lot of joy. Congratulations on having your poetry immortalized in cement!
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[…] The Lake Creature project reminds me of Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk, another public art project collaboration between Saint Paul Public Works and the City of Saint […]
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My husband and I are visiting relatives and just came back from an early morning walk which was brightened by stumbling upon the haunting poem by Esme Evans printed in the sidewalk. Thanks to the internet I was able to look up the poem and get the history. Thanks, St. Paul artists and residents, for supporting such a terrific idea and enriching us all!!
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Pam, thanks so much for leaving your comment on this post. The sidewalk poetry project is one of my faves. In fact, just last week I was driving to a vendor in St. Paul and happened to recognize a corner of the street where I remembered walking and reading poetry when I attended the opening for this Sidewak Poetry project. I looked over, and there it was — the poetry etched into the sidewalk cement. I smiled and kept driving. It was comforting to know it was there. Thanks again, St. Paul, and St. Paul poets and artists.
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[…] posts from Minnesota & New Mexico: Mysteries & Muths: In Search Of The Lake Creature, Sidewalk Poetry — Public Art At Its Best, Spirits In The Bosque – Patrick Dougherty Leaves His Mark On […]
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I came across Esme’ Evans’ poem in the sidewalk during a winter’s morning walk for a warm breakfast at a place I’d never visited before. I was instantly inspired by Ms. Evan’s poem and would love to know how I could contribute.
Writing and reading poetry and prose is something I’ve loved for many years, and cannot imagine living without it.
Please send any information that you may have regarding this project or any upcoming projects that are similar to this one. It is my dream to share my writings with others, and feel that an unexpected poem or bit of prose at someone’s feet may change their lives unexpectedly.
Many thanks,
Christina G.
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Christina, so happy that you found this post. It was fun to read it again and remember the day Liz and I went to the opening in St. Paul. You can follow the links in this piece to get more info on many aspects of Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk. I clicked on the first link and it does have a page about the contest. But it was the contest for 2010. I don’t know if they are doing it again in 2011. Here’s the link to the page: Everyday Poem for City Sidewalk (LINK) where they have contact info. Maybe you could call to see about 2011 events. I wish you well with your poetry. Maybe I’ll see one of your poems etched in the sidewalk someday.
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[…] I see poetry everywhere: imprinted on the sidewalks of St. Paul, recited in films like Invictus, and incorporated into presidential inaugurations. Poetry distills […]
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[…] Walker Art Center (open all night and featuring the Lullaby Experiment by Marcus Young, creator of Everyday Poems For City Sidewalk), and four site specific installations (see Three-Story Drawing Machine by Roman Verostko above) at […]
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