I love seeing people who have a love affair with what they're doing. Amy Allin is one of those people. Her love affair? Bringing poetry to everyday people. She doesn't get paid for it, but every Sunday since last July Allin has set up her table in the park by Green Lake in Seattle and shared poetry with anyone with enough interest to stop:
Sometimes she reads poems; sometimes people read poems to her that she's selected. She prefers to select the work of other writers -- some well-known, and others less known.
Allin has a yearlong mission: to bring poetry to everyday people, whom she says the poets have forgotten.
"Poets are on an academic campus and writing for each other. I'm tired of poets who think that reading to one another is enough," she said.
So the Poetess at Green Lake spends all day each Sunday at her table across from the Shell gas station on West Green Lake Drive North. She's taking poetry literally to where the public is.
Last Sunday, amid the steady rain and cold wind, 15 of the curious stopped by her table -- couples, a family of four, individuals getting a little exercise.
That's not a large percentage of the 9,400 or so people who Seattle Parks says would visit the lake on a nice weekend day, but it's enough for Allin to feel successful.
"I talked to 15 people who otherwise would not have had poetry in their lives," she said.
Allin also blogs about her poetry sessions at The Poetess at Green Lake.
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