Poetry Box Instructions
by Tricia Marcella Cimera
Like the lamppost in Narnia,
the Poetry Box mysteriously
appears before you.
Who put this here, you wonder
but you don’t need to know that,
just walk up to it on this
quiet leafy side street. Stop.
Look, a poem is in the box.
Read that poem. Read it again.
A light turns on in your mind.
Who is Mary Oliver, you wonder.
What do I plan to do with my
“one wild and precious life”,
you wonder too, gazing
at the Poetry Box that holds
Mary’s poem “The Summer Day,”
and Mary’s question,
just for you, all for you,
because —
you stopped.
Appeared on the Highland Park Poetry website.
PHOTO: The Fox Poetry Box, St. Charles, Illinois, which features poetry from authors around the world. In this photo, the box features two poems by Tricia Marcella Cimera that originally appeared in Anti-Heroin Chic (November 2016). Photo by the author.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This poem was written for and about my poetry box, The Fox Poetry Box in St. Charles, Illinois (established in 2016 beside the public sidewalk), as an introduction to what a Poetry Box is and how to approach it. My poetry box was created by and purchased from poetryboxes.com out of Oregon. It is made of cedar and magic. Please visit TFPB’s Facebook page!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tricia Marcella Cimera is a Midwestern poet with a worldview. Published works have appeared in places ranging from the Buddhist Poetry Review to The Ekphrastic Review. Her micro-chapbook called GO SLOW, LEONARD COHEN was released through the Origami Poems Project. One of her plum poems was pleased to receive a recent Pushcart Prize and another plum was happy to be awarded a Best of the Net nomination. Tricia lives with her husband and family of animals in Illinois, in a town called St. Charles, by a river named Fox, with a Poetry Box (also named Fox) in her front yard.
Silver Birch Press 