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Welcome to
Poems by local poets
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Welcome and thanks for stopping by Poetry Cafe. Have a free cup of coffee and pull up a chair you are now at the Poetry Coffee Cup Cafe Poems from Local Poets. Look them over and sign our guest book with your feedback on the poems you reader.
New Local Poets you can send your poem to our cafe for posting on this website. If you have an original poem you would like posted, please email it to me or send them to us at West St Paul Antique Mall and we will post them on this site. On our original poems page or poems by local poets all poems are posted. By the grade of the poem, all poems are graded by the poets of the cafe. Stop back from time to time and look for new poems from ports of the Poetry Coffee Cup Cafe. Please include your name and any information about yourself that you would like included. Have a great day and come back and see us soon. This is a new page for our site we will be working on this site over the next six months. Any suggestions for site improvement are appreciated. Thank you and have a cup of free coffee on Us the next time you stop by the Cafe or our Antique Mall. The Manager of the Poetry Coffee Cup cafe thanks you too, email us at: poetrycoffeecupcafe@weststpaulantiques.com
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Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk
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INTRODUCTION |
Sidewalks are the blank pages of our city as a book. If you look closely, however, you see traces of text, such as Knutson Construction or Standard Sidewalk, stamped discreetly into some of the panels. I wondered if we could borrow this simple stamping idea, enlarge the stamp to a prominent size, and give our poets this everyday public space for writing.
We held a poetry contest open to all residents of Saint Paul and received more than 2000 original poems. The outpouring of verse was unexpected and heartwarming. Poems about spring and winter, mothers and fathers, love, and many other things imaginable reassured us that in Saint Paul we lead poetic lives. Through an anonymous judging process, our thoughtful panel chose twenty winners and fourteen honorable mentions. We made large stamps of the winning poems and teamed up with the city’s sidewalk maintenance program with the goal of one-hundred stampings this construction season.
It is obvious that sidewalks are important to our city. We use them, repair them, and want them to be smooth. Not always obvious is how poetry is just as
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essential, if not more so. We live both in the physical world and in the world of metaphors and dreams. We should use poems more often, repair them when they are not smooth, and delight in them when they serve us well.
Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk is inspired by the universal, childish desire to draw a finger through tempting wet cement. The project also has higher-minded aspiration. Our public realm, crowded with commercial and regulatory text, could use more poetry. On our modest sidewalks, we hope to create delightful moments of open-air reading, and make public and common the beauty in our hearts as expressed by our poets. Beautiful poetry can be as present and plain as sidewalk, as grass and sky.
I am deeply grateful to Public Works and Public Art Saint Paul. I especially thank Christine, Bruce, Aki, Travis, Abe, Nic, Larry, Joanne, Carol, John, and the many friends of this idea for allowing me to write the first few pages of this very big book that is our city.
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-Marcus Young
City Artist in Residence
Saint Paul, 2008 |
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A little less war,
A little more peace,
A little less poor,
A little more eats.
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Advice for Gardeners
Accept brevity.
Celebrate decay.
Emancipate failed growth, hope
it’ll just keep living. Mulch
near odd places.Quit raking.
Sleep.
Tend unlimited variegated words.
Xerox your zucchini.
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(3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), (11), (12), (13), (14), (15), (16), (17), (18), (19), (20), (21), (22), (23), (24), (25) & (26)
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Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk is created by Saint Paul’s Public Artist in Residence, Marcus Young and friends, Saint Paul Public Works, and Public Art Saint Paul. The project works in tandem with the City’s sidewalk maintenance program and installs poetry where City sidewalks are replaced. After two years there are 260 stampings of our collection of 26 poems installed across the city. Each year we hold a citywide contest to invite new poems to our collection. To read the artist introduction to the project, click here.
The Department of Public Works consists of several divisions that are responsible for designing, building, and maintaining over $2.9 billion in assets. Public Works is a proactive and diverse community-based City Department that, through creative partnerships, effective tools and technology, provides a livable community for Saint Paul residents.
Public Art Saint Paul, a non-profit established in 1987, engages artists in shaping the form and experience of Minnesota’s capital city. Public Art Saint Paul collaborates in the planning and design of public places and structures, creates permanent and temporary works of art, cleans and restores public artworks, and engages young people in awareness and stewardship of public place and public art.
To read the guidelines for The Annual Saint Paul Sidewalk Poetry Contest, click here.
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