by Carla Caruso

The city’s abundant rainfall this year has been good for one particular group: the crew behind Raining Poetry in Adelaide.

Thanks to arts funding from the City of Adelaide, a team of postgraduate students has stencilled some of your paths - temporarily - with short poems, penned by talented, local writers.

Like magic, the poetry becomes visible only when wet! (Read our interview with team member Dr Mélanie Maillot, below, to find out how it works.)

The verses were dotted throughout the city, including adjacent Hindmarsh Square / Mukata and the Festival Plaza in Tarntanya Wama (Park 26).

A few from the group are also now working on another ephemeral project for spring, dubbed Blooming Poetry. The latter’s been aided by $400 in prize money from APA’s own Unpaving Paradise re-greening competition, plus further funding from the University of Adelaide’s Ecoversity program.

For this Nature Festival project, a poem will appear from the soil in the garden bed behind the University’s Bonython Hall, within Park 12.

But back to the rain-enhanced poetry…

Hi, Mélanie. Please tell us where the idea for ‘raining poetry’ came from.

The concept of Raining Poetry originated in Boston, where the Mural Crew began tagging poems in the streets with hydrophobic paint [which repels water].

The two original Adelaide creators, Camille Roulière and Marianne Braux, implemented the project in Adelaide for the first time in 2017.

This year, which is the sixth edition of the project, the management team consisted of three people: Clare Charlesworth, Benjamin Nicholls, and myself, with the valuable help of four other volunteers. [The launch was in August.]

A satellite project was also set up for the first time this year in regional South Australia through a collaboration with Writers SA.

Please share the magic behind how the words appear on the ground when wet, and how long the effect lasts. 

After a blind selection of around 20 poems, we work with a specialist who creates the perfect stencils, using a laser-cutting machine.

Once the stencils are ready, the team roams the streets of Adelaide looking for concrete areas that are visible to passers-by.

The stencils are placed on the concrete and hydrophobic paint is applied, using a spray bottle.

After a second coat of paint and a few minutes’ drying time, the poems are ready. It must then dry completely for at least 24 hours.

[The wording] gradually disappears and becomes invisible, until the first raindrops! The poems remain visible for two to six weeks after tagging, depending on the quality of the concrete and the foot traffic.

How many poetry submissions did you get, and how did you whittle them down?

This year we had a total of 90 submissions. When the poems are received, one person is responsible for removing the names of the poets and compiling a completely anonymous document, gathering all the texts.

Afterwards, each member of the team reads all the poems, and we make a first selection of 30 poems online. Then we meet in person to discuss and debate to arrive at a final list of 20 poems.

Where can people find the poems in the city?

Benjamin has created a beautiful, interactive map that allows you to find the poems and organise a poetic route through the city centre. The map can be viewed here. [Or check out this Google Maps list.]

What sorts of themes do the poems cover? What word length do they have to be, and must they rhyme?

We don’t usually impose themes, so the poems cover a wide range of subjects. This year we had poems describing a particular relationship to the natural environment, to everyday life, but also poems on timeless subjects such as death, love, and the passage of time.

Our poets come from very different backgrounds. As a result, the poems we receive are also very diverse: some rhyme, others do not. But they all have a particular rhythm and sound.

However, we impose a length constraint: a maximum of four lines and a maximum of 45 characters per poem. The magic of the project lies in the striking expression of familiar and/or atypical realities.

What do you think artforms, like raining poetry, add to our lives?

Poetry has largely become a cultural artefact, almost like a relic that is forgotten behind the glass of a museum.

Bringing poetry back to the street and making it accessible to the general public allows us to recreate and foster a real relationship between people and art.

More pragmatically, we hope that passers-by, upon discovering the poems by surprise on their way to work or school - especially on a sad and grey day - may find consolation … a feeling of warmth, of hope, or a way to meditate on what matters in life.