When you're out and about around Greater Sudbury, be sure to check out for the poetry that's just gone up in the windows of local businesses and other public gathering places.
The Sudbury Street Poetry Project is an initiative by Greater Sudbury poet laureate Kim Fahner that seeks to bring poetry to places you wouldn't normally expect to see it.
Fahner said she was inspired by a street poetry project she'd encountered while visiting England last summer.
“People who don't normally read poetry will see a stanza or a poem, and just stop and read and think 'I'm having a really not great day, and this will make me think of something different,'” she said.
Fahner put a call out for submissions by local poets, and received more than 70 entries. Twenty-five poems ended up being used for the project, including two she wrote herself.
“It was hard to make a decision, which means there's some good quality work out there,” Fahner said. “I'm really pleased people wanted to take part.”
She said she tried to match up the poems' subject matter with where they were placed. For example, Fahner put up a Haiku about parsley at Smith's Markets — obviously appropriate at the gourmet grocery store.
The Sudbury Street Poetry Project follows on a project by the city's previous poet laureate, Tom Leduc, where local poets' work was displayed inside Greater Sudbury transit buses.
Here's a full listing of the poems:
- Still by Mike Timchuk – Appearances Hair Salon
- He Will Give It To Me by Kim Fahner – Art Gallery of Sudbury
- Flock by Kim Fahner – Greater Sudbury Public Library Main Branch and Bella Flora
- Moon Haiku by Vera Constantineau – Copy Copy Printing
- A Song for the Past by Violet Lanthier – Eat Local Sudbury
- Tree by Roger Nash – Fionn MacCool's (Regent Street)
- Carved by Morgan Ballantyne – Hair Designs by Sheryl
- Winter Solstice/Summer Solstic by Chris Nash – Myoga (South End)
- Untitled by Willa Paterson – Myoga (Cedar Street)
- Romancing a Picture of by Ruva Gwekwerere – Never Say Never Aveda Beauty Parlour
- The Winter Sky by Melanie Marttila – Northern Initiative for Social Action
- Beachhead by Louise Visneskie – Old Rock
- Loss by Delanie Pearson – Regency Bakery and Deli
- Brace by Cristina Masotti – Respect is Burning Kitchen and Bar
- Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Daniel Aubin – Ripe Restaurant
- Mine Gusto by Shannon Duguay – Ristorante Verdicchio
- Gigi by Jessica Robinson – R Little Secret Fashions
- Dans la nuit de Sudbury by Michel Dallaire – Salute Coffee Company (South End)
- Parsley Haiku by Irene Golas – Smith's Markets
- Slag Flower by Tom Leduc – Sudbury Paint and Custom Framing
- Artist by Sarah Gartshore – Sudbury Theatre Centre
- Silenced by Brittany Thornton – The Apollo Restaurant
- Everything I Needed to Tell You by Lauren Knox – The Ultimate You Esthetic and Day Spa
- Sunrise in Treehouse by Nancy Daoust – Tree of Life North Complementary Healing Centre
