Wet Cement, part of the Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk project, Saint Paul, Minnesota, October 2008, photo © 2008-2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Wet cement,
Opportunity.
It only takes a second
To change this spot
forever.
Another poem from the streets 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 Paul Public Works and Public Art Saint Paul. It was spearheaded by Marcus Young, Artist In Residence of the City of Saint Paul, Minnesota.
The untitled poem in the photograph Wet Cement was written by Zoë Jameson. I ran into Zoë and her family at the opening; they were celebrating on the sidewalk near her poem. She kneeled on the cement next to “Opportunity,” and smiled up at her mother who proudly shot photographs of her daughter, the poet.
To view Zoë’s poem in person, here’s a link to the map of the place in Saint Paul where the poem is located. I can’t think of a better way to stay warm this Winter. Or if you’re a teacher, you can print the map out for your class in preparation for a Spring field trip during National Poetry Month this April.
Oh, and one of our readers spotted a poem near the Fitzgerald Theater. She left these words about the project in a comment on red Ravine:
It was absolutely freezing when I ran two blocks from my parking spot to the Fitz; I couldn’t wait to get into the warm lobby. But I was stopped dead in my tracks when I saw one of these poems in the sidewalk. A few steps later, there was another one. When the weather is more cooperative, I’d love to spend a lazy day walking and reading.
It’s really quite lovely to have poetry in our lives this way…coming up from beneath our feet.
Poetry rising from the Earth. If you are heading into downtown St. Paul to see a show, keep your heart open, eyes to the ground, breath connected to the bottom of your feet.
Zoë Jameson has always enjoyed literature because it helps her get inside other people’s heads. When she isn’t reading, she enjoys running, traveling, playing the viola, and spending time with friends. She attends Central High School and has lived in Saint Paul with her parents and her dog, Perk, for over a decade.
— bio from the book Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk
-posted on red Ravine, Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
-related to posts: Got Poetry? (National Poem In Your Pocket Day), Celebrate Poetry (Let Me Count The Ways
What wisdom that poem holds—and such a young person who wrote it. Cool.
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Now that is pretty dang cool QM! A high school kid! What a great future she has ahead of her. Can you imagine how proud her parents are?
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I love the poem. I hope someone is encouraging that girl in her writing.
And I also love the line “poetry coming up from beneath our feet.” Isn’t that where all poetry comes from…
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heather, her parents were beaming. Really wonderful to watch.
Bo, I liked that line, too, and it drew me to add Teri’s quote to the post. I secretly hope that the organizers, project manager, typesetters, construction workers, artists, and poets see quotes like hers and get an idea of how much all of their work is appreciated by those who run into the sidewalk poetry every day when they are walking around the city. 8)
I was really impressed with the kids whose poems had been chosen to be immortalized in cement. Keeping in mind that the judging was anonymous — no one knew what ages the poets who submitted were, if they had been published before, anything about them. At least according to what I read on their site, the judging was based solely on the poetry.
I tried to make an extra effort to walk up to the kids whose poems were chosen and shake their hands, have them sign the handmade book we had bought about the event. Especially junior high and high school girls, who need that extra bit of encouragement to keep their self-esteem intact through some tough years when most are encouraging them to focus solely on their looks (yb has written about this before on red Ravine).
It made all the difference to me in high school to have supportive coaches in sports and English teachers who made a point to talk to me about my writing and about literature. I was so excited to see these children and their families there at the opening, celebrating their poetry in such a big way.
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QM, the words written by the young girl are simply wonderful!In fact, so is the entire project!
I think it’s great about the judging being anonymous. How proud she & her family must be! D
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OH, QM, I love the pure optimism of this post. It is truly a testament to your witness of the power of poetry. Thanks for that. I followed the links and found where I can order a book, too. It would be wonderful if every community could have an art/public works project like this!
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breathepeace, thanks for your generous comment. Everytime I see a community that is involved in funding something like this for the Arts, I want to run up and hug whoever approved that funding. I suppose many times it’s the people and taxpayers that vote in funding for the Arts, which is why it’s important to stay abreast of the local Arts funding scene. Isn’t it an odd combo though, art and public works? Yet at the same time, it’s absolutely perfect together. Why aren’t more communities doing something like this. I have faith it will get better. The secret is that it’s the Arts that help make sense of times like these, that help pull us through difficult things. All angles of storytelling and truthtelling; and in the form of film or movies, it can also be an escape.
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This is beautiful stuff. I usually look for graffiti on walls, but I’m going to have to mind the ground below my feet if I want to capture something like this.
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Austin Graffiti, thanks for stopping by. Yes, it would be another great point of view for your mix of photographs. Language appears everywhere: walls, streets, sidewalks, alleys, trash cans, mailboxes, water towers, and trains. Noticing it while we are going about our everyday existence, stopping for a couple of seconds to take pause…that’s one of the reasons I like photography. It makes me stop and really take notice of what’s in front of me.
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Very cool, I particularly like that none of the judges knew anything about the writers. Thanks for sharing this.
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I’ve been meaning to comment on this entry. You and yb have written such wonderful entries, and I never really got a chance to comment on them as you both know how busy I am! lol Being in school and all. 😛
Anyway, I remember your first post about Sidewalk Poetry. I would so love to see that in person!! And even better, if I could have Sidewalk Poetry here where I live! That would be awesome. I actually like this one in particular as it captures the haiku feel of something new or something that can be transformed magically.
Opportunity indeed! 🙂
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EG, thanks. I liked the part about impartial judging, too. Having little or no info on each writer seems to help ensure that the winners are chosen on the merit of their poetry alone. Kind of cool.
A~Lotus, thank you. You are so right in that many of these sidewalk poems have a haiku feel. Some of them can only publish one stanza or a few lines from a much longer poem. It’s the nature of having the little space of a slab of sidewalk to really distill things down to essentials!
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St. Paul is taking submissions for more sidewalk poetry. Deadline: March 28th. I hope someone from red Ravine is immortalized on our city streets.
http://www.stpaul.gov/poetry
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Teri, thanks for following this thread and coming back to add the link. I had not heard about the new contest for more St. Paul sidewalk poetry. I checked out the guidelines and I think you have to be a resident of St. Paul to enter. I sure hope a few red Ravine readers see your link and enters their poetry. I find it delightful every time I run into one of these poems etched into the sidewalk.
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I want to stay in touch with the installment of the new poems, and go on the walking tour when the writers are standing with their work. Didn’t you and Liz happen upon that event by accident, QM?
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Sounds fun, Teri. Liz actually saw that the opening was happening for the Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk project and we made plans to go. It was a beautiful day for it and we both took a ton of photos. Really fun to meet all the writers, too, all ages. It’s inspiring to see young kids and teens entering the contest and having their poems etched into a St. Paul sidewalk. Maybe they will have another opening after this next batch of poems is published.
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