Street corner poetry
It’s like the street corner version of Medium, a public place for anyone and everyone to share their words.
Good, bad—you decide. It’s all just…there. In all-caps type on paper plastered against a circular pole on this busy corner of Ouellette Ave. and Wyandotte St. in downtown Windsor.
The poetry — the name Annhme Brenda Mae Hopkins appears at the bottom — may be the work of an amateur or a genius. Again, you decide.
There is also artwork on the pole, unsigned.
Did the poet mean “staring” instead of “starring”?
Is “evil epidamy” a new, clever phrase or just another typographical error? Ditto “engulphed” and “sloww.”
Some of the poetry is in verse, others blank and free verse. I’m especially fond of the one that opens, “What you are is what you see.”
Parts of the sheets are curled and ripped but the writing is still intact, a survivor of cruel winds and even crueler vandals. Seems there’s still respect for the written word and the creative impulse.
The work overpowers some of the advertisements beneath them.
The words of Annhme Brenda Mae Hopkins, whoever you are, live on — at least for today.
Part of “Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs” series. Click here to see more.
Claudio D’Andrea has been writing and editing for newspapers, magazine and online publications for 30 years. You can read his stuff on LinkedInandMedium.com and follow him on Twitter.
