Poetry Made Public and Permanent, or Perhaps Not So Permanent

Poetry must be coming into its own as a public art these days — not as you might think, in ephemeral performances, but in more permanent form — poems are being enshrined in all kinds of public spaces. Here are a few recent examples from around the world:

from The Salem News (Massachusetts):
“Poem on the boardwalks makes a new kind of beach read,” by Steve Landwehr
“Most poetry is read top to bottom, beginning to end. Michaels and Dumont knew most beachgoers were unlikely to spend that much time before spreading their blankets, so they broke it into stanzas scattered around the beach.... The physical arrangement of the verses means readers don’t know where the poem is meant to begin or end, and you would have to climb both boardwalks and circle the snack bar to take it all in. That seems to lend more gravity to every line — each has to stand on its own.”

from Herald.ie (Ireland):
“Waiting room reading gets a dose of poetry,” by Sarah Neville
“Poetry is being distributed to waiting areas in the form of leaflets with one poem on each one.... It was inspired by pieces of public sculpture dotted across the country. The idea is to make poetry an art form that is available in ordinary everyday places.... The poem leaflets are offered free of charge and visitors are encouraged to take one, read it and then recycle it by leaving it in another waiting room.”

from The Guardian blogs (UK):
“Written on the body: literary tattoos,” by Shirley Dent
“Years back when I was giving my first graduate paper in the USA my proud mother gave me some cash to get a suit. I blew it on a tattoo taken from an illustration in William Blake's Europe.... What we seek to do when we cut literature into our flesh is to make something metaphysical physical.”

And in Las Vegas, a public poem ensconced on a bronze plaque was stolen, apparently not for the poem, but for the scrap value of the metal:
from The Las Vegas Sun:
“Poetic justice doesn’t get much more literal than this,” by Brendan Buhler
“First, the stolen item is a poem, a poem engraved on a plaque, a plaque that was ripped from its mounting on a minor civic monument downtown at Lewis Avenue and Fourth Street.... Second, the poem is entitled ‘The Long Shot’ and describes the seedy history of Las Vegas and the desperate characters who made it, ‘made their own luck, Selling it to all takers.’ This is a poem that had it coming.”

More on poetry in public places:
“Archipoetry 101,” Gary Mex Glazner explores community building & Poet’s Plaza becomes a reality
“Poets’ Way,” Boulder blazes a poetic trail, by Michael Evans Smith
“Herman Berlandt’s International Poetry Museum,” by Marj Hahne