Poetry of Place

Mikaela says:
Marjorie has these "leftist" refrigerator magnets -- an update on the idea of refrigerator poetry, but she's dismayed that they're all negative -- name-calling and so on, which goes to show what "leftists" have been reduced to. As our fellow blog-friend Erik Loomis and others have pointed out, we're good critiquers but haven't always done a good job keeping our building tools to make something better.

Where to look for solutions? I think m-pyre looks to community for answers, and one place where community building has been really successful is through poetry programs, like Seattle's Poetry on the Buses. Check out the link: http://transit.metrokc.gov/prog/poetry/poetry.html

Their program dates back to 1997. Each year has a theme, and local poets submit poems, a few are selected, graphics are added, and each one goes up on the bus routes, a few per month. Think about this: it's promoting local involvement, thinking about place, enriching transit experiences, literacy, community... Talk about a positive force!

Don't take my word for it. Here's an excerpt from a 2001 poem called "Bedding Planes, Zion Canyon" by Sharon Carter:

“In the struggle to retain
separate lives, our boundaries are much the same –
in truth we seldom stand alone.
We’ve learned to lean a little for support –
the faults and folds of ingrained habits mean
our edges sometimes aren’t a perfect fit.
Though years of wind and rain distort
the matrix of our lives, the mortar in between
the cracks is where our strength exists."

I think a similar program should be started here in ABQ, especially with the recent interest in RapidRide commuter buses and the upcoming commuter rail stations from Belen to Bernalillo. Albuquerque will be hosting this year's National Poetry Slam competition in August. What better reason to enrich our lives through words?

Because words are never just words -- unless they're coming from a politician...