Bryan Pushkar of St. Louis’ Dogtown neighborbood reads poems Saturday that are hanging from trees in Forest Park. The poems are part of Poetree, a project organized by Henry Goldkamp and Mallory Nezam, which leaves the poems for anyone to pluck and mail to others. A phone book was on hand, along with a short list of people who would like to receive a poem from a stranger. Goldkamp (project manager of What the Hell Is St. Louis Thinking?) and Nezam (director of STL Improv Anywhere) set the harvest from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday in a grove of trees southeast of the St. Louis Art Museum, near the Zoo.
SATURDAY, DEC. 14, 2013 - Poet Alex Nezam of St. Louis, a volunteer with the Poetree Project, hangs poems Saturday from trees in Forest Park, leaving the handwritten work for anyone to pluck and mail to others. Poetree organizers Henry Goldkamp and Mallory Nezam are calling it a "winter harvest." Goldkamp (project manager of What the Hell Is St. Louis Thinking?) and Nezam (director of STL Improv Anywhere) set the harvest from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday in a grove of trees southeast of the St. Louis Art Museum, near the Zoo. �Photo by Jerry Naunheim Jr.
SATURDAY, DEC. 14, 2013 - Larry Kotner of St. Louis reads poems Saturday that are hanging from trees in Forest Park. The poems are part of Poetree, a project organized by Henry Goldkamp and Mallory Nezam, which leaves the poems for anyone to pluck and mail to others. A phone book was on hand, along with a short list of people who would like a receive a poem from a stranger. Goldkamp (project manager of What the Hell Is St. Louis Thinking?) and Nezam (director of STL Improv Anywhere) set the harvest from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday in a grove of trees southeast of the St. Louis Art Museum, near the Zoo. �Photo by Jerry Naunheim Jr.
Snow didn't stop almost 300 people from plucking poems from trees Saturday in Forest Park, organizers of the St. Louis Poetree Project say.
"We have had 'pluckers' address poems to Barack Obama, Mayor Slay, parents, places they used to live, strangers, secret lovers," the project's organizers, Mallory Nezam and Henry Goldkamp said in an emailed news release.
"The event was breathtaking. The snow created sights, sounds, and poetry in the most beautiful way we could have imagined. We installed 1,000 poems in total and nearly 300 visitors plucked and packaged 300 poems."
The project now hopes to gather stories from some of those who receive the verses. Any comment, Mayor Slay?
Jane Henderson
Jane Henderson is the book editor for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
