2022 Sidewalk Poetry Contest Winners Announced

The 2022 Sidewalk Poetry winners were announced during the 04/06/2022 Common Council meeting and have just been posted to the city’s Facebook page.

Director Paula Vandehey noted that this was the 9^th year of the sidewalk poetry program, and, by the end of 2022, the City of Appleton will have stamped 49 different poems in 150 locations throughout the city. Poems from past years as well as the locations where they are stamped can be viewed on the city’s website.

5 poems were selected this year. Paul Miller, an English teacher with the Appleton Area School District, was both a winner himself as well as the teacher of at least one of the students who won.

Finn Hanson, a high school student, was not in attendance, but Mr. Miller read his poem to the Council.

wake up
want
give all I got
lie down
rest well.

Finn Hanson – High School

As mentioned, Mr. Miller himself wrote a winning entry. He told the Common Council that it was a running joke that the teacher’s poem never gets selected while the students’ poems do, but it seemed that joke was over now. He wrote this poem with the thought of Appleton’s life music in mind, remarking that the city probably gets more noise complaints now and that was sort of what this poem was about.

When the music man
strikes up the band
and you don’t know what to do
just clap along Appleton
this song is for you

Move to the beat
tap the rhythm with your feet
and join in the chorus
as you dance along the street.

Paul Miller

Dyamond Lee an AASD high school student was in attendance and read her poem.

As I stare up into the sky
I see your smile on the stars
As the wind goes by
I hear your laugh from afar
For you are always with me
Even when we’re apart.

Dyamond Lee – High School

Emily Zeimet a 4^th grader was in attendance and read her poem.

The little tree little tree,
but the little me little me
sitting ‘round the little tree
much I see oh much I see
that this little tree
is as beautiful as me!

Emily Zeimet – 4th grade

Julie Wohlt wrote the final winning entry. She was not in attendance, so Mayor Woodford read her poem.

set free
winged words awaiting release
fossilized, frozen
ashen, cement-sealed
simply step across and
like Houdini escaping impossibility
whispering up from silent gray
words flutter freely, So Big alive
bejeweled, jade and chalcedony
into an indigo sky

Julie Wohlt