Poetry post offers passers-by a chance to stop and reflect
You’ve done the little free libraries. Now allow me to present the poetry post.
It’s simple. You stop at the post and read a poem. Inspired, you walk on. “It’s like my hobby now,” said Harvey “Buzz” Wickman Jr., who installed the post in his front yard where he displays a new poem every few days.
Buzz, who lives on Murray Avenue in Shorewood, two blocks south of E. Capitol Drive, is not aware of any other residential poetry posts around Milwaukee. He’s on the leading edge of a new wave. Well, maybe.
I’ll tell you which city beat us to the poetry punch. It’s Portland, Ore., where two of Buzz and Ellie Wickman’s grown kids live. While walking the dog on a visit last fall, Buzz noticed that quite a few people put up these little kiosks to build a sense of community.
He contacted a guy out there who makes the cedar boxes where the poems are displayed behind a sliding plastic pane. He purchased one for about $70, flew it home in his suitcase and bought an 8-foot post to mount it. Buzz carved the word POETRY into the post, so there’s no doubt what he’s offering.
You may be wondering if Buzz, 77, is a poet or at the very least a retired English teacher. Actually, he was a stockbroker for 38 years at Robert W. Baird & Co. He went from crunching numbers on the 29th floor of the U.S. Bank building to spreading sunshine with the melodious words of Dickinson, Frost, Whitman, Longfellow, Mary Oliver, even Dr. Seuss.
“I’m not really very sophisticated. I don’t write poetry, and I’m no expert on poetry. I just thought it would be a nice idea to do that,” he said.
Ellie said her husband hasn’t read much poetry over his lifetime, but now he surfs websites online and picks verses to print out and post in front of the bungalow where they’ve lived for 44 years.
“At first, I wasn’t sure whether it was going to draw people or whether it would work. But it’s been really interesting. We sit in the living room and watch TV so we can often see somebody stopping at the post,” she said.
Passers-by smile and snap photos with their phones. The post is within a foot or two of the sidewalk to encourage lingering. The poem this week is called “Old Friends” by C. David Hay. Buzz found the ode to canines displayed last weekend at a dog park in Madison where his other son lives.
Sometimes Buzz displays a pithy saying or inspirational passage rather than a poem. One he saved from the Wall Street Journal years ago tells of a school dropout in an unhappy marriage and who was despised by half the country. It’s called “This Will Make You Feel Better,” and it’s about Abraham Lincoln.
In November, amid the angst of the presidential election, he put up “Desiderata” to remind us that “with all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.”
And now even a bit more beautiful for anyone passing the poetry post.
Contact Jim Stingl at (414) 224-2017 or jstingl@jrn.com. Connect with my public page at Facebook.com/Journalist.Jim.Stingl