Poetry stations

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Apparently there is a new trend in town: the poetry station.

I learned about the poetry station from my neighbors "D" and "B". I noticed a post in their yard with a clear box on it, like the one's realtors put for sales signs on and home info in. I asked D and B if they were selling their house and they told me that they'd installed a poetry station.

Poetry stations are just gaining in popularity in areas with heavy pedestrian traffic.

D and B challenged me to add a poem to the station. They can be original poetry or just a poem that you like. I was cautioned that they should be short, fairly easy to understand, and fairly universal in their message. Something neither terribly well known nor something completely esoteric is best.

Do you know a good poem for me to include?

If it's one you've written and you would like attribution you can PM me your real name and I will be sure to include it.

Does your city have poetry stations?

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Type: Question • Score: 7 • Views: 2,987 • Replies: 19

@boomerang,

here's one of my favourite poems

Not Waving But Drowning
Stevie Smith

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

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@boomerang,

roses r red
violets are blue
watch where you walk
lest you step in some poo

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Ode to a Baby
by Ogden Nash

A bit of talcum
Is always walcum.

1 Reply

@edgarblythe,

John Lennon

"I know two things about the horse'
but one of them is rather coarse."

1 Reply

@farmerman,

LANGSTON HUGHES

Ive known rivers:
Ive known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and Ive seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

Ive known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

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Here's mine, but I call it "Ode to Oliver"

A Hopi Prayer by Mary E. Frye (slightly changed)  

Do not stand at my grave and weep 
I am not there. I do not sleep. 
I am a thousand winds that blow. 
I am the diamond glints on snow. 
I am the sunlight on ripened grain. 
I am the gentle autumn rain. 
When you awaken in the morning's hush 
I am the swift uplifting rush 
Of quiet white doves in circled flight. 
I am the soft stars that shine at night. 
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
 I am not there, I did not die.

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@boomerang,

I must admit, boomer, that this is the first time I've ever heard of "poetry stations." Interesting idea.

1 Reply

@boomerang,

I think this is made up - I did a search for poetry stations and didn't get anything beyond stuff for schools.

I think your town is whacked.

1 Reply

@Linkat,

I know it sounds a little too "Portlandia" to be true but I swear it's true. There are two poetry stations in my neighborhood and rumor has it that one neighborhood has quite a lot of them already. It's the new new thing.

Maybe I'll try to get a photo of D and B's station. We're getting ready to leave town and things are nutty so it might be after I get back.....

1 Reply

@Lustig Andrei,

I think it's an interesting idea too, even though poetry isn't really my "thing".

I'm still not clear on the rules -- if you're supposed to leave an poem and take a poem or just stand there and read the poems or what.

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@boomerang,

Well I'd leave too -with crazy stuff like poetry stations littering the neighborhood.

Live some where nice like I do where you have crazy neighbors that bring you to court because their dog is terrified...

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@boomerang,

this all sounds very socialist.

are you certain it's legal?

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@boomerang,

here's a poem about a station
In a Station of the Metro
Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd ;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

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@boomerang,

http://media.oregonlive.com/portland_impact/photo/9774700-large.jpg

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/07/poetry_posts_of_northeast_port_1.html

http://www.oregonlive.com/living/index.ssf/2010/04/posts_give_homeowners_opportun.html

Portland. It's a crazy kinda place Cool

2 Replies

@ehBeth,

Thanks you for proving to Linkat that I'm not making things up!

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

OH, my $100 - $200 to have this post installed.

Yeah - they are bit odd....

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@boomerang,

Its up there with bonsai kittens....only more expensive.

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Lives of great men all remind us
We may make our lives sublime
And departing leave behind us
Footprints in the sands of time.

Longfellow. Although when I first heard it, it was part of Hawkwind's Assault and Battery.

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Queenie was a blonde whose age stood still
And she danced twice a night at the vaudeville.
is the beginning of a brilliant poem.

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Poetry stations

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