Graffiti Poems

Have you ever written a graffiti poem?  If not, have you seen graffiti somewhere?  

I have seen graffiti many places but generally not in the area where I live.  The town is small and there are simply not too many places for it.  

Yesterday, I saw lots of it in underground street tunnels.  These tunnels run underneath a busy road at a big university and they’re used to keep people from crossing the street in all the traffic.  There’s another tunnel decorated in graffiti near the university - this one runs under the highway and is part of the local Greenway aka walking paths.  

It’s interesting to see what people decide to paint or spray paint.  Words, drawings, some things quite unmentionable, quotes, movie lines, etc.  

I find graffiti interesting.  No, I don’t agree with defacing public property but it is what it is.  

I have written poems about graffiti I’ve seen - I wrote a couple about the walkway to the Morris Island Lighthouse off of Folly Beach (in Charleston SC) in my book “Chucktown” with poems all about that particular area.  You can’t access the lighthouse except by water, but there is a road that leads to the beach across from it.  The entire thing is covered in graffiti.  

If you’re a writer mostly likely you like to read and you have a love of words like me.  There are some interesting “words” used in graffiti.  You can easily write a poem from something you see or even write a found poem from it.  

Writing is simply what you make it.  Writing a poem can take you to all kinds of different places.  How will you write a poem today?

This is some of the graffiti in one of the pedestrian tunnels.