Secret Rain Poems

Boston in the rain (photo ganked from the internet).

So it turns out Boston has a bunch of hidden secret rain poems. Here is an article about them. There is a special kind of paint that hydrophobic - as in, it repels water. Basically, the paint is invisible most of the time. However, when the rest of the pavement around it is darkened by rain the painted spots stay dry so a picture (or in this case words) can show up.

One of the rain poems by Barbara Helfgott Hyett.

In Boston, an organization called Mass Poetry - which is also my latest charity donation - created a project in honor of National Poetry Month. That project is called "Raining Poetry" and basically they went and used hydrophobic spray paint to stencil poems all over the city sidewalks. The poems are invisible until it rains and then they show up.

Another rain poem, this one by Elizabeth McKim.

I'm super excited about finding hidden poems in the city. I'm even more excited because now I have the idea of doing this myself. I talked to Joy, who is on board with the idea. If I can get the other housemates to agree too, I'd love to do this in the driveway or the back yard. There are so many options of things I could write in hydrophobic paint! Here are some of my ideas:

* The lyrics to "Singing in the Rain."
* "I am the poem of earth, said the voice of the rain." - Walt Whitman
* "My sweetness is to wake in in the night after days of dry heat, hearing the rain." - Wendell Berry
* The lyrics to "I'm Only Happy When It Rains" by Garbage.
* "Whenever it rains you will think of her." -  Neil Gaiman
* "At night I dream that you and I are two plants
that grew together, roots entwined,
and that you know the rain and the earth like my mouth,
since we are made of earth and rain." - Pablo Neruda
* "God is a cloud from which rain fell." - Dejan Stojanovic

At any rate, I think this is an awesome plan.

Boston Common Statue.