Poetry Posts

The poetry class at SFCC is starting to maintain the poetry posts–take a look when you are on campus!


Here is some history behind them.
When my friend Ana Matilla moved to Portland, Oregon she loved the poetry posts there, and suggested I bring them to Santa Fe.

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Here is report from Portland:

On a street in Portland, a wood post stands at the edge of a yard, with a sheet of paper sharing a simple poem for each passerby to enjoy.  The Poetry Post is what the phrase suggests – a pole with a box containing a sheet of paper with a poem, prose or photograph; it might be well-known or obscure; it could be self-composed.  Whoever passes by can stop and read it.  If they like it, they can take a copy from the box. If they have a favorite poem they’d like to request, they can do so.  Next week a new poem appears. And all of this is anonymous – no names are exchanged unless neighbors choose to.  Richard Lewis, of Portland has a Poetry Post at his home in Northeast Portland “”It’s a bit like the village post,” Lewis said “It’s this place people go by on a regular basis. They stop, they read, they take away something meaningful, maybe an idea or an image, and that kind of thing should happen in our lives.”
That’s all there is to it. Simple. Easy. Self-maintaining. Community building. Hardly any cost, beyond initial post construction.  Want to try this where you live?
Innovation – the introduction of something new, or a renewal or change – is a concept celebrated by the Community Tool Box. Every community has innovative ideas, and we would like to help share them with the world by encouraging you to share your community ideas with us. We’re looking for simple ideas – small in scale, low in cost, easy to do, undemanding of time, and replicable elsewhere – ideas especially suited to this day and age.
Can you send us one of your own ideas, an idea from your community that’s captured your own imagination? We’ll aim to publish the stories of innovation and community we receive. Just write us at toolbox@ku.edu

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For more information:
http://poetrybox.info/

http://www.poetrypostspdx.com/services.html

6 thoughts on “Poetry Posts

    • And it would be wonderful to have poems that were inspired by the smells, seasons and scenery found at each of those mile posts along the river.

  1. I like the idea of seeing poetry posts in parks, in neighborhood yards, shopping malls – places where we seem to always be hurrying on to the next thing on our to-do list. Pausing long enough to read a few lines and gain a different perspective right in that moment. Along the Santa Fe River is a great idea.

  2. I’vve wanted this for Santa fe for a while now. how can I help make it happen. Could people donate or adopt a post? Barbara

  3. Oh my! I love this. I mean the first time trains here in Manila, Philippines started having poems posted in their coaches, I was so excited. There is something really quaint about it, but it’s necessarily beautiful and inevitable.

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