Random Sample: A Wrap-Up of Random Acts of Poetry Day

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Random Acts of Poetry Day kids lined up at beach
We consider that part of our reason for being in the world is to help paint poetry in the public square. Whether literally or figuratively, we believe that as much as poetry is a fine intimate pursuit, it also has its place in public spaces. This aim is at the heart of three of the public days for poetry we sponsor and celebrate, but perhaps no more so than with Random Acts of Poetry Day.

Yesterday, folks around the globe recited poems in meetings and around tables and in locker rooms and dance class, chalked poetry onto the sidewalk and stuck it under windshield wipers, paired it with cupcakes and performed it before government bodies. Most of it made us smile. Some of it made us chortle (that’s sort of like chuckling, but with poetic cupcake in your mouth).

Here’s a random sample of some of the random acts of poetry we saw yesterday. (And if you missed out on the day, or just didn’t quite get enough of it, you can extend the celebration and “say it with a poem” along with our friends across the pond at Forward Arts Foundation and today’s National Poetry Day.)

The Poetic Juror

Forget the Rural Juror. One of our team got called for jury duty this week, and took Random Acts of Poetry straight into the courthouse. Tip for future jurors: cameras (and firearms, we imagine) will be confiscated, but your quiet little poets on popsicle sticks will make it through the body scanners just fine.

But poetry didn’t randomly stop at the courthouse. In Thunder Bay, folks at City Hall performed poetry before the council meeting.

Some folks wisely took poetry on their random trip to the DMV.

And St. Louis city employees were treated to award winning 7th grade poetry:

The Scholar Poet

Turns out yesterday was also World Teachers Day. Teacher Stacy Goddard challenged her students to go public with poetry and they shared their activities all over Twitter.

Check out Stacy’s Twitter stream for more her students’ activities. We saw all kinds of other random school poetry:

#raopoetryday #wmsone

A photo posted by Emily Finley (@ekfinwms) on

Cupcake Poetry

Like we always say (actually, we’ve never said this, but we should start saying it immediately), nothing paints poetry in the public square like cupcakes. Really. How could we have missed this before?

Random Random

And here are all those other poetic utterances that don’t fit into any of my neat category but made a splash wherever they landed.

The neighbors!

The desk!

The chipmunk!

A little lunchtime randomness for #raopoetryday. Yes, it's a poem about a chipmunk. #chipmunksmakegreatpoems

A photo posted by Charity Craig (@charitysingletoncraig) on

The wall!

Another wall! (I love this little poem placement)

You know this place. #raopoetryday #raopoetryday2016 #poetsofkuching #randomactsofpoetry

A photo posted by Georgette Tan (@georgettetan) on

A totally cool wall!

Still another totally cool wall!

The bus!

#buspoetry #raopoetryday

A photo posted by Randy Henderson (@henderson.randy) on

The book! (so meta)

A bagel! (One of my favorite poems. Okay, sorry, this one was from last year, but I missed it then, so I had to roll it back in for 2016.)

Not sure when #raopoetryday was, but I still appreciate this.

A photo posted by Wendy Sawatzky (@wendysawatzky) on

The washroom!

The grocery!

Grocery poetry #raopoetryday

A photo posted by Randy Henderson (@henderson.randy) on

A fire hydrant!

#raopoetryday

A photo posted by Randy Henderson (@henderson.randy) on

China Town!

Coffee sleeves!

It’s a Wrap

If anything says Random Acts of Poetry, this might be it right here. To drop a poem at random in a construction zone not knowing who might find it, who might need it. This is the very heart of this very special day.

Photo by Pai-Shih Lee, via Flickr. All rights reserved; used with permission.

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Will Willingham
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Will Willingham

Director of Many Things; Senior Editor, Designer and Illustrator at Tweetspeak Poetry
I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down. My first novel, Adjustments, is available now.
Will Willingham
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Comments

  1. Best one yet! Well done. So wonderful to see all the poesy on the streets.

    And I did somersaults again this morning when I saw the ‘Bagel’ poem pop up in your wrap up. I taped that poem to a pole for last year’s celebration. I’m glad someone found it.

    There’s always joy when someone finds poetry. And that’s kind of what this celebration is all about.

    Reply

  3. This was so much fun! I didn’t realize I’d missed so many until I read this… 🙂

    And this…. like chuckling, but with poetic cupcake in your mouth…. made me laugh out loud. HA!

    Reply

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