On the corner of Windsor and Dewitt in Del Ray, there is a long gray fence. For several years now, it has been a home to poetry. Poetry lovers have hung their favorite poems there and the fence's owner keeps a dazzling array of poems on display both for adults (with appropriate content warnings) and for youth. It has become a quiet presence in the neighborhood.
I always stop to read what is there and have wanted to thank the fence's owner for sharing the fence and the poetry. Here is my homage to the poetry fence:
The Poetry Fence
The poetry fence has arms.
It reaches out and grabs you by the shoulders
and turns you so you are square to the words
hung there,
This week, ‘corsets’ and ‘breasts’ for those over eighteen,
and the Land of Counterpane for the younger set.
The fence is faithful, like a mail carrier,
steadfast in all weather:
“Western wind, when will thou blow,
The small rain down can rain?”
The small poets patter by with boots and umbrellas
in the shapes of frogs and ladybugs.
And the poetry fence calls out:
“Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home!”
The poetry fence is lonely though.
It invites you to linger just a moment longer.
“Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky…”
Just you and whoever is with you and the fence in its grey suit
with its heart of poems.
- Amy Young
