Even a Hurricane Can't Stop the Poetry

Even a Hurricane Can't Stop the Poetry

Hurricane Helene’s pounding rain and high winds wreaked havoc on the lives of all in her path. Over 250 dead and missing and more than 80 billion dollars in damage in the United States. Hardest hit was North Carolina where Wendy Gillis had just installed one of the Neruda Poetry Boxes. The poem she chose to share while she sheltered was the same poem RTÉ News ended its evening broadcast with back in March of 2020 at the beginning of the Covid 19 Pandemic; the poem Everything Is Going to Be All Right by Derek Mahon. Derek died in October later that year. Four years later his poem offered hope and consolation to Wendy’s neighbors from within one of the beautiful all Ipé Neruda Poetry Boxes. A box designed to protect both your poetry and hope amidst all the storms, be they pandemic or hurricane. https://ourblueboat.org/2024/10/18/the-poetry-box/

Butterfly Overshadows New Poetry Box

Even flying down a five and a half foot 4 by 4 post and a Stafford Poetry Box couldn’t outshine the emergence of a Monarch Butterfly in Jody’s front yard. Beautifully crafted of Western Red Cedar the Poetry Box stood neglected as neighbor after neighbor stepped past the Kangaroo Paw and Gazania to see the veined bronze wings. Wings still awaiting their first unfolding. Motionless under the queue of eyes with one foot still in her chrysalis. Long after she has flown to Canada while her great granddaughters winter in the Oyamel trees of Michoacán the Poetry Box will stand in its over 100 pounds of concrete attempting to illicit the same sense of awe and wonder butterflies create without even flapping their wings.

Much thanks to proud curators Jody and Phil, their cat Harriett (who oversaw the installation), my brother Steven for the use of his shovel and pickaxe, my parents Tom and Margaret for tools, accomodations and wonderful meals, Economy Lumber (aka Piedmont Lumber) for the concrete, Mario the gardener, the mail carrier, and the neighbors galore who took time to experience wonder at nature and then for a moment to admire the craftsmanship I flew down to place in the neighborhood of my childhood, the Rockridge neighborhood in Oakland, California.

Poetry Boxes English Style

Last year Paul Stephens-Wood sent me a FaceBook message turning me onto his Poetry Box in England. He was so inspired by the Poetry Boxes he saw on his visit to Portland that he built one himself. Not only that its actually curated and supported by the local community library and has a website. To see which poems they’ve posted and to submit your own poems follow this link…
https://www.breamcommunitylibrary.co.uk/poetry

"love is a place" Now that an ee cummings Poetry Box on the Way

Tacoma will soon have an ee cummings Poetry Box. The ee cummings is a beautiful selection of rosewood, mahogany, walnut and salvaged red cedar. Delightfully crafted and all lowercase. Nestled inside is all the hardware needed to mount the Poetry Box securely to a post. Also inside is a selection of emergency poems and a desiccant packet to help keep poems dry along with the venting and rain slots vital to the weather resistant design. It is up to the USPS (United States Postal Santa) to safely deliver by Christmas.

Around the Corner: Another Poetry Box in Northeast Portland

Like the Poetry Box in Brooklyn, New York in the previous post this all Ipe (aka Ironwood) redesigned Neruda Poetry Box is now open for poetry. However, this one is right around the corner from my workshop in the Woodlawn/Concordia/Alberta Arts neighborhood. The first poem is by Walt Whitman.

When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer

By Walt Whitman

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,

When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,

When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,

How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,

Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

From public domain

From left to right Claire, Walt, Dolly, and Clay

Brooklyn gets a Poetry Box

Here is a picture of the latest Poetry Box in Brooklyn. Amir (on the left) bought a box and a post and I sent them to New York along with expansion bolts and a concrete drill bit so he and his neighbor Harv (on the right) could mount it in time for Amir’s wife’s birthday. I did a FaceTime call with Amir and sent him a Youtube video on how to use expansion bolts. The poem they chose is one by Dawn Thompson entitled Mother and Child. https://combustus.com/dawn-thompson/

MOTHER AND CHILD

BY DAWN THOMPSON

___________________________________________

The limbs of the tree reached to lift me

with great green palms

thinking I was its child.

It sang a lullaby to me on the strings of wind.

I sat myself inside the house of the tree’s trunked body

the sap of its knowing at my back

and I cried a pond

even though it had not asked me to.

I cried all the ways my life had not happened

and the tree never said no

but held me against its years

the wind of its song a breath in me.

Finally, under the tree’s sheltered sky

I grew limbs of no weight

bright and flowered

impossible, glorious wings.

From Cornbustus https://combustus.com/dawn- thompson/#Yd6B8Z81dmv7QBhP .99

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Poems in the Time of COVID 19 or...

What used to be National Poetry Month is being celebrated by Poetry Boxes this year by featuring online poetry. The first source we celebrate is Rattle. If you are not familiar with Timothy Green and his cadre of poetry experiences you are in for a treat. Rattle.com is the place to start. In addition to their print journal the site has a whole section devoted to ekphrastics, poems about art which are perfect for Poetry Boxes. The weekly Poets Respond® is a delightful way to keep your neighbors up to date with current event poems. There is even a live on YouTube open mic every Sunday to read your submission even if it is not chosen as the Poets Respond® poem of the week.

If that were not enough, on Tuesdays Tim interviews a poet of note. His interview style is seasoned with both laidback charm and expert insight. Then always with an eye to encourage not only reading poetry but writing he ends the interview with a prompt. You’ll spend the next week with poems rattling around in your head and if one drops out you can read it after the interview. Go to the YouTube channel and click “Subscribe.”