Get Your Fix

It’s 3 a.m. and you’re starting to feel the jones. Your personal stash of Longfellow is long gone, your tomes of Emerson worked over ragged. Heck, you’ve even thumbed through your girlfriend’s Dickinson, surfed the Internet for cheap haiku, but you’ve still got an empty, hungry pit in your stomach. You need it, you need it now: poetry.

Fortunately, you live in Wallingford, which is home to no fewer than three, count them three, separate places where you can enjoy poetry on the street at any hour. We just discovered the third, so we thought we’d offer up our review of various spots. If we’ve missed one, I’m sure our readers will help.

Location: 4059 Latona Ave NE
Ambience: We love the rustic, medieval minstrel feel to the display. You feel like you’re about to find some long lost treasure, or perhaps some jester will emerge to mystify you with riddles before revealing your fate in cryptic verse.
Poetry: In our experience, it tends toward simple, nature-themed pieces. We enjoyed #13 for its emotional evocativeness (despite our belief that it was merely an interesting sentence masquerading as poetry), but felt the latest piece, Wayne Jarus’s Sweet Summer was a bit treacly for our taste. Admittedly, though, poetry is a matter of taste, and we respect quality.

Location: Eastern Ave NE, just above 40th
Ambience: The unique quality of this poetry stop is the bench. Such a kindness, it’s exactly what we need when we’re on our weary way: a simple spot to rest and enjoy a few stanzas of Robert Burns. The landscaping is still relatively new and has a corresponding clean-cut feel that is somewhat at odds with street-side poetry, but as the plants grow in, as the bench starts to weather, this spot will come into its own.
Poetry: You can’t go wrong with old Robert Burns’ Red Red Rose: “O MY Luve ‘s like a red, red rose / That ‘s newly sprung in June: / O my Luve ‘s like the melodie / That’s sweetly play’d in tune!” If it’s good enough for Bartleby, it’s good enough for us. And, if for some reason 17th century love poems don’t suit your fancy, the poem bench promises “they’re be another one Monday”. As a bonus, the poem bench doubles as a quote bench.

Location: Open Books, (2414 N. 45th St.)
Ambience: In a class of its own because it is, after all, a poetry book store, not a rogue streetside poetry stall. Still, they do the neighborhood right with their regular presentation of a single poem, rolled out of an older Underwood as if freshly composed. We also find endearing their humble, earnest claim: “Trying to meet your poetry needs since 1995.”
Poetry: The pieces they choose always have us coming back for a second read. At present, you’ll find The Lilac by Humbert Wolfe (“Who thought of the lilac? / ‘I,’ dew said. / ‘I made up the lilac, / out of my head.’ …), and you can peruse the Wallyhood archives for poetry past.