Poetry Post, A random act of poetry

Poetry Post, NW Yamhill, McMinnville, Oregon

Walking four or five mile each day around McMinnville allows you to learn the little idiosyncrasies of each neighborhood, each street and sometimes individual yards.  A couple of days ago toward the end of our walk  we found ourselves walking down NW Yamhill. There was a Poetry Post.   Two or three years ago I had read about Poetry Posts in Portland neighborhoods in the The Oregonian.  Ever since I thought it would be great to put one up in our McMinnville yard, when we finally move in. We stopped to read the poem.

Portland, being Portland, the Poetry Post idea has expanded across neighborhoods.  Laura Foster in her blog  Portland Walks and Urban Hikes talks about touring the many Poetry Posts around Portland.  Yes there is an 'App' and map for finding Posts in Portland.

The poem was by Emma Wheeler Wilcox.  The poem was her most famous  'Solitude' .  As we stood there the poem seemed to lift us from ourselves. The first four lines,
 "Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone; 
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own."  stopped us.

We stood on the sidewalk and read the entire poem aloud alternating every four lines.

We walked away from reading feeling we had been given a gift, a gift of kindness, a gift of unexpected poetry.  Our world and McMinnville was a better place.