saint paul sidewalk poetry.

In this occasional series, I’ll show you around where I live, work, play and swimbikerun – Minneapolis / Saint Paul, Minnesota. I promise it’s not winter all year!

In undergrad, I took a women’s lit course thinking it would focus on classic novels written by strong women. Instead, we only read poetry – and, because poetry’s not really my jam… well, it was a painful 15 weeks spent dissecting Emily Dickinson line-by-line. 

Fast forward to now… while I still find most poetry a bit meh, my 30-something self has gained a bit more appreciation for it – especially after literally running over a poem stamped on one of Saint Paul’s sidewalks (my English degree, on the other hand… #whatwasithinking?). 

The sidewalk poetry is part of Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk, a collaboration between Public Art Saint Paul and the city of Saint Paul to include sidewalk poetry in the city’s annual sidewalk maintenance program. Poems are written by Saint Paul residents and are selected via an annual poetry contest. More than 700 poems currently dot sidewalks across the city. 

Here are a few gems I’ve found while running Saint Paul sidewalks, with the first on balance my favorite ♥