Poetry Friday--Oh, to Live in Saint Paul

I love living in New Hampshire! I've been here since 1976 and I'm planning to stay here until I go to that big anthology in the sky. But, just for today I'd like to be from Saint Paul, MN. Why? Because Saint Paul is city that appreciates poetry. And, it allows its sidewalks to be adorned with poems. Isn't that great?

The 4th Annual Saint Paul Sidewalk Poetry Contest began on Tuesday and will run through April 17. Winners will have their poems cast in concrete, and, they win a cash prize. Wow! What a thrill that must be! It's almost enough to make me want to move there!

In the past three years, "31 poems have been impressed into 268 sidewalk sites citywide." I especially like this quote from the man who created the program, Marcus Young,

We think nowhere else in the world can the residents of a city publish their poems in a book the size of St. Paul. I encourage all St. Paulites to submit short poems and contribute compelling and beautiful thoughts to the everyday experience of walking our sidewalks.

Good luck to all you St. Paulite poets!

Here's a video that was produced for last year's contest:



So, if you lived in Saint Paul, which of your poems would you submit?

Here's a tanka that might work:

cat's body alert
to the sounds through
the open window
...after the rain
breathing it all in

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved

Head over to A Wrung Sponge for the Poetry Friday Round-Up. Andi has some nice haiku on there that would look very nice on a sidewalk!