Pavement poems in Waupaca given more pop
By James Card
“Normally I would be pouring concrete but I volunteered to do this today. I thought it would be fun,” said Elijah Record, a journeyman concrete worker from Winona, Minnesota.
Record is employed by Chippewa Concrete based out of Chippewa Falls. They were the primary contractors for doing the concrete work on the Main Street makeover project.
They returned to Waupaca to tie up some loose ends.
Although the grand reopening of Main Street was during last year’s Halloween block party, there was still some small unfinished business left to attend to, mostly some landscaping and electrical work. Getting the etched poems on the sidewalk stained was one of them but that had to wait until warmer weather.
Sitting cross-legged on the corner of Main Badger streets, Record dipped a fine-tipped paintbrush into a cup of dark stain and gently colored in the grooved lettering in the pavement.
“After I’m done we’ll put a gloss coating on it to really make it pop,” said Record.
16 poems on Main Street
Record had a long day ahead of him and there was a chance of rain. He had to work fast but with precision. Without the dark stain, the poems are barely noticeable.
The Waupaca Sidewalk Poetry Project was organized and supported by the city, the Waupaca Arts Board and the Waupaca Community Foundation. Funding was through private donations.
The idea for it started in 2019 during a summer poetry reading. COVID-19 came along and that was put on hold. The idea came back to life when the sidewalks on Main Street would be rebuilt during the street construction.
In August 2020, Anita Olson formed a committee and assembled a proposal to get the project underway.
In January 2021, there was a call for poetry submissions with 10 lines or less, no more than 35 characters per line and no more than 300 characters total.
The submissions were winnowed down to 16 finalists and by April 2021 cement stamps were ordered for imprinting in June.
The poems range up and down Main Street, from Badger down to Granite Street. There is a cluster on the east of Main Street across from Session Street and that is nicknamed Poetry Plaza.
The poets represented on Main are Jenna Rindo, Phyllis Shidell, Natalie Pelky, Michelle Sharp, Patrick Phair, Cathryn Cofell-Mutschler, Barbara Fay Wiese, Jan Chronister, Emily Bowles, Anita Olson, Laura Scott, Patricia Williams, Sandra Lindow and Richard Simmons.
Poem Number 7 by Barbara Fay Wiese near Union and Main is the shortest poem and it is one that all Wisconsinites can relate to:
“the fresh cheese curds squeak
like a mouthful
of mice”