Sidewalk Poetry Contest Winners
Molly Akin
4/27/2016 • 7 years ago
The information on this page may be outdated as it was published 7 years ago.
SIDEWALK POETRY CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED!
The City of Cambridge is pleased to announce the winners of the second annual Sidewalk Poetry Contest, designed to select poems written by Cambridge residents for imprinting in City sidewalks in 2016. A schedule of imprints will be announced later this summer. This year’s submissions came from Cambridge citizens from ages 4 to 86 – a wonderful representation of creativity from every neighborhood. Out of 145 poems the Sidewalk Poetry Selection Committee chose five winning submissions from Susan Blanker, Kelsey Cole, Chris Thibault, Benjamin Tolkin and Molly Lynn Watt.
Susan Blanker
Today is the day
And this is the spot.
To dance a little
Or to dance a lot.
Just try it this once
And see how you feel.
If a smile breaks out
When you take this chance,
Then you’ve been touched by
The power of dance.
Kelsey Cole
Mostly I don't think about you
and mostly I don't mind.
But sometimes I do
and I start missing you
and it surprises me every time.
Chris Thibault
First Try
Give yourself a break
Don't be so hard on yourself
First tries often fail
and it's your first time living.
Benjamin Tolkin
I used to wonder why
they didn't build secret doorways
into every home.
Now I realize they do;
some of them are just harder to find.
Molly Lynn Watt
Jazz Riff
I want to write a poem
the way a jazz man
composes on his feet
sways in rhythm
taps a syncopated beat
I want to howl and growl
to a bottleneck slide
pulse with rage and heat
rap a wild wind run
blast injustice to the gutter
Poems were reviewed by Kelly Dunn, Department of Public Works; Lillian Hsu, Cambridge Arts; Jean Dany Joachim, poet and past Cambridge Poet Populist; Skye Lavin, Cambridge Public Library; Peter Payack, poet and past Cambridge Poet Populist; Andrine Pierresaint, student, Cambridge Street Upper School; and Dan Wuenschel, Cambridge poet.
Winning poets and runners-up will read selected poems at the Poetry Tent at the 37th Cambridge Arts River Festival, June 4, 2016. The Sidewalk Poetry Program is a collaborative project of the Department of Public Works, Cambridge Arts, and the Cambridge Public Library.