Wanted for St. Louis Park: A poet who knows it

Residents of St. Louis Park, it's time to wax rhapsodic.

Do you love your city as much as poet Carl Sandburg did Chicago, which in 1916 he called "Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat ... Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders"?

Do you mull over a dawning day as Mary Robinson did in the 1700s when she wrote, "Who has not waked to list the busy sounds/Of summer's morning, in the sultry smoke/Of noisy London?"

Are you as inspired as Valzhyna Mort when she wrote, "new york, madame/is a monument to a city/it is/TA-DA/a gigantic pike/whose scales/bristled up stunned/and what used to be just smoke/found a fire that gave it birth"?

St. Louis Park is searching for a "community poet" who will help the city through a year-long arts program emphasizing verse.

The first step in the 2010 program is to select the bard of St. Louis Park.

That person must be a published poet who lives in the city, one who will represent the city at poetry events, read and share verse, and help select 12 people and their favorite poems to appear in a city publication.

"It's an idea that was kicking around in my head for a while," he said. "You hear a lot about poet laureates. I thought, why can't a city have one? So I just wrote that it would be a good idea to promote community pride and some of the ups and downs of the community."

Ramsey's favorite poet is Robert Frost ("Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --/ I took the road less traveled by,/And that has made all the difference.)

"I think everybody has a kind of hidden love of poetry," he said. "When times are dark, or emotions are low, lots of people turn to poetry. ... There's a kind of magic in poetry, whether it's rhyming or not rhyming. It speaks from the heart."

The Friends of the Arts are confident they can find a qualified person who lives in the city, said Tammy Hauser Sarto, the group's communications coordinator.

City has high-quality poets

The definition of "published" means that the poet's work has appeared in print somewhere, including on the web, Sarto said.

"We're looking for a more seasoned person ... someone who has been serious about their work and comfortable in sharing it," she said. "They have a big role to take on, have to be knowledgeable about different poetry styles, and be passionate about it."

Whoever is chosen will receive a $500 stipend for work that will be concentrated mostly between January and June of next year. Duties will include supervising the favorite-poem project, where residents will be asked to submit their favorite poems with descriptions of why they like them.

In celebration of National Poetry Month, an open mic poetry jam will be held in April at the Harvest Moon Coffee Shop just east of Hwy. 100 on Minnetonka Boulevard.

Seven poetry workshops will be held in places like schools, libraries and nursing homes. At those sessions, people will learn about poetry and be asked to come up with a line that describes their feelings about living in St. Louis Park. The individual lines will become part of the city's renga, or community poem.

Two years ago, the Friends group ran a community photo project that ended in an exhibition that is still circulating in the city. The group has received $20,000 from the city to rent office space and help run the organization, but the $15,000 poetry project will be paid for with grant funding the group is seeking, Sarto said.

Applications from would-be community poets are due by Dec. 15. They can be submitted by e-mail to info@slp friendsofthearts.org or by mailing a nomination packet to 6715 Minnetonka Blvd., No. 103, St. Louis Park, MN 55426.

Applications must include a name, address, three published poems, a letter describing why you are applying and a letter of support from someone who is familiar with your poetry. The winner will be announced in January.