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Brian Granger's avatar

We live a few steps from Sonnet XXX. The city is changing and may be unrecognizable now. Keep well during the move to warmer climes.

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Sarah Bringhurst Familia's avatar

How nice to live right amongst the poetry! Amsterdam has also changed a lot since I moved here nine years ago. It’s just the way of cities. They’re living things; they grow and change.

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Brian Granger's avatar

Hi Sarah,

Some responses do not arrive to my e-mail, and I just saw it now. Cities, places, people (if on a development journey) do change. 5G is now all over Leiden. If one is sensitive, one can feel the electrics running through everything. The giant 5G antennae are now on top of the Hoogvliet down the street. It causes irritability, headaches, and all kinds of physical complaints and malaise. Two neighbors, suddenly, got cancer, and one has left a grieving widow in our street.

So… we’ll see. Gardens, especially trees, do help offset some of the worst of the changes.

Your Italian adventure, with the bookshop, sounds exciting. Stay well.

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Mary Harrison's avatar

Wonderful idea to paint that quote on the beam in your bookshop! You could start the public poetry tradition in Narni, perhaps. I have admired many of the poems in Leiden, though never realized there were so many, so I've been busy "pinning" several I must go see - thanks for the link to the forlorn website that's trying so hard to keep them catalogued. I love how many of them are even translated! I didn't even know about the Muur Gedichten initiative. Maybe that's something I could eventually help with. Anyway, I do see the poems as open invitations to linger in a spot that maybe people may not do if they weren't invited... you know, you can only linger so long without starting to loiter... ;-) But with quick photos, I can go back and check things out for as long as I like. I like to take note of small bits of street art, inscriptions, and any symbols (like the crossed keys symbol for Leiden)-- any clues to who has been there before me. I love any writing or poems the best, since it offers so much more. Have you seen the "Coat" poem by William Butler Yeats? Love this one....

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Sarah Bringhurst Familia's avatar

I love the idea of street poetry as an invitation to linger. I’ve also got a collection of photos of doorknobs from Leiden—the ones in the shape of lions, etc. I haven’t seen the Yeats poem in the wild in Leiden, but it’s a wonderful poem.

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Etta Madden's avatar

Love your comments about reading AND writing. ❤️ And about going back to school. And about public poetry. It’s a thing in many cities, I believe. Keep it up!

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Barbs Honeycutt's avatar

In Melbourne we don't have wall poetry BUT there is a graffiti artist who does, basically, pop poetry. Not sure how to add photos to the comments (duh) but here's their insta: https://www.instagram.com/lushsux/

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Sarah Bringhurst Familia's avatar

Wow! Very different vibe from Leiden.

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Wine And Write About It's avatar

I’ll post the photo over on my Substack…. And I feel like I need to share more of them… your post really sparked some ideas!! Just love this! Thank you and can’t wait to see the progression of your lovely bookstore!!

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Wine And Write About It's avatar

I tried…. 😆

You’ll have to live with a copy paste of the text of the wonderful sign…

This establishment is NOT a part of TRUMPLanD: The Poet & Patriot welcomes our patrons, supports free expression, and stands with you in positive acts against racism, homophobia, misogyny, and other forms of hate and bigotry!

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Sarah Bringhurst Familia's avatar

I later discovered you can’t share photos in the app, only the desktop version. A feature to add if the gods of Substack are listening.

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Wine And Write About It's avatar

Every time I read your posts, I’m adding more places to my list of locations I absolutely MUST visit! This has to be one of my favorites so far ❤️ Having been to Shakespeare’s, I totally had forgotten all about those great writings on their walls and steps! What a great memory to come back 😊. And these poems all over your college town are such a treat!!! What a culture when this is what they do to put good stuff out into the world! Love it!!!

I’m going to try to stick a photo in here… we lived for a while in Santa Cruz, California which is a bit nuts in the high season where most of the Bay Area floods into this scruffy little coastal town and inundates it while locals suffer through. But the reason locals put up with it is because of the underlying amazing vibe in the off season. Wicked smart and deeply kind are the way I’d describe the locals we got to know as we lived there through several years of off season 😊 The place this sign comes from, a great Irish pub named Poet & Patriot, sadly closed I think even ahead of the Covid impact on many small businesses. The local public in SC truly mourns the loss of long time businesses when this used to happen. You felt it. And while I’ve got a lot of great signs and writings from SC, this one totally embodies the pub but also the town of Santa Cruz. The vibe, the way locals care so much for one another, the values important to that community. And while it’s from circa 2017 or so, I’m so glad I kept it through my photos (in one of my favorite iPhone folders “Signs of Santa Cruz” 😆) It’s ever so relevant again and ongoing. Hopefully it works in my adding it here. If not, worst build up ever!!!!

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Sarah Bringhurst Familia's avatar

One of my favourite poems in Leiden eventually got painted over too, and I was so sad. I’ve immortalised it in my novel.

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Sharon L. Boyes-Schiller's avatar

I lived in Leiden for 25 years, it is a beautiful city and you describe it wonderfully. I wish I hadn’t been working fulltime, I would have loved to have done an anthropology degree at Leiden University. I, too, consider myself a self-professed Leidenaar. I’ve moved to Zeeland but the truth is my heart is still in Leiden.

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Sarah Bringhurst Familia's avatar

I'm pretty sure there are two kinds of people: those who love Leiden, and those who have yet to discover it. I'm glad my description resonated with someone who knows!

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50 Things to do in your 50s's avatar

You are inspiring me. As part of my metamorphosis I'm feeling like I'd like to study abroad, or even teach a bit. Any tips and intel would be greatly appreciated :)

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Sarah Bringhurst Familia's avatar

Lots of English-language master’s degrees to choose from in Europe. Tuition is more expensive if you’re not an EU citizen, but usually still cheaper than at an American university. Definitely worth doing.

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Art and Other Things's avatar

Wonderful and inspiring! <3

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Sarah Bringhurst Familia's avatar

Thanks for reading. :)

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