Poetry on the Pavement and Sidewalk
Recently I saw that Singapore’s Sing Lit Station was doing some poetry on the sidewalk (footpath, here in the land of Australia). This had previously come from Boston’s Mass Poetry. I found myself really warming to the concept. But then, I also discovered that pavement poetry exists on a number of levels. Firstly, there is actual poems, stencilled on the pavement. Then there are the people we see and events that happen, literally poetry in motion, and in still, waiting to be written.
Poetry on the Pavement and Sidewalk
Poetry on the pavement,
Stanzas scribed in stencil,
On the sidewalk.
It will make people
look
and stop,
And talk.
Rain has long
been
a bringer of life,
And now,
it brings
life to lines,
of words
between
lines of
limestone and concrete
and asphalt.
Graffiti on the ground,
Verses that are found,
To be
words for our walk.
Then,
As we look around,
More poems can be found,
In sight and in sound.
The lady walking by,
Shoulders sagging
under an unseen burden,
And face
quivering
with sobs and tears.
What are her fears?
A mother passing by,
Pushing her reclining infant,
Her face in a fixed, blank gaze,
As if in a daze.
What can bring meaning
to her days?
Sign in café window
“Closed today.”
Cancer treatment is added
to their fray.
Poems on the pavement
to us do greet,
And are in more places
than what passes
under feet.
Simon C.J. Falk 19 February 2017
Simon's still stanza 