Detroit Lakes Poetry Walk

02/04/2025

02/02/2025

Shadow or no shadow? It doesn't really matter up here in Detroit Lakes. If we only had six more weeks of winter, we'd be thrilled! Good thing, we have Detroit Lakes Polar Fest to make February fun - including our Polartry Poetry Walk - which is open NOW, even though Polar Fest officially starts on Feb. 7th!

02/01/2025

❄There's some snow in the forecast. Fingers crossed that we get a nice painting of fresh white in the park to complement our poetry — and all the other fun frozen festivities that are coming up for Detroit Lakes Polar Fest: https://www.polarfestdl.com/ ☃

01/31/2025

January 31st is officially 'Inspire Your Heart with Art Day.' Since we got our Polartry Poetry Walk up early (YAY!) you can go to the City Park and check it out! AND, you can check out more local art at the Holmes Art Cellar or Bluebird Books or Detroit Lakes Public Library. Go out and get your heart some inspiration! ❤

01/30/2025

SURPRISE! 🤩🥳 Trophy House crushed our printing deadline and got the poems to us early, so we took full advantage of the sunny 40 degree weather and put the poems up in the City Park this afternoon! Just got home and wanted to post this in case anyone wanted first dibs on poetry viewing this evening under the beautiful lights!

01/29/2025

We all know some of the best poets are songwriters, and on Sat. Feb. 1, you can listen to some of the best songwriters tell stories and sing songs, while also enjoying a Bourbon & Chocolate Party and silent auction to help Project 412 do MORE cool stuff! (Not many tickets left - so don't procrastinate!)

We’re ONE WEEK AWAY from our Way North of Nashville 4.0 event which will be held on Saturday, February 1 at the Historic Holmes Theatre.

Join Nashville singer/songwriters Patrick Murphy, Ben Williams, Matt Alderman, and Marc Beeson with a special guest appearance by Brett Tyler as they tell stories and sing their hits made famous by Morgan Wallen, Tim McGraw, Megan Moroney, Dustin Lynch, Jake Owen, Dylan Scott, and many more!

•Your ticket includes access to the Bourbon & Chocolate Party in the Ballroom, reserved seats for the Listening Room Experience in the Theatre, and access to our Silent Auction.
•Proceeds from the Silent Auction will allow us to DO (even more) COOL STUFF!

Only 350 tickets will be sold for this event so get yours now at https://bit.ly/4178go3.

Can’t wait for the event? Check out our Way North of Nashville playlist on the Spotify app here: https://bit.ly/4j2H8NC

01/29/2025

Since there are a lot of folks who love to write and love West Central Minnesota*, we thought we'd share this fun opportunity from West Central Initiative! (Expressing your love in the form of poetry is optional.😍)
*See their post for details, requirements, and eligible locations.

01/27/2025

If you like demographics, this post is for you. 🌎 We LOVE that some of our poets come from far (and VERY far) away, that so many are from Minnesota, and that poetry is THRIVING in our very own community! Bottom line: the 2025 Polartry Poetry Walk will offer an incredible taste of poetry from around the country—and world—sprinkled with our own local spice! 👩‍🍳 Opening in the DL City Park on Friday, February 7th! ❄

01/25/2025

{Imagine piano 'thank you note music' in the background.}
💙𝕋𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕜 𝕪𝕠𝕦, Poets—ALL of you—for submitting your poetry. Creativity takes courage, but SHARING it is downright brave. Even though we can't display them all, we LOVED reading every word. It fills our cup to see how much meaning, feeling, and imagery you can put into 18 lines of 40 characters or less! ✒️
💙𝕋𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕜 𝕪𝕠𝕦, Project 412, for being our benevolent benefactor! Your support, promotion, pocketbook 😉, and twinkling lights in the City Park make this project a great gift to the community! ✨
💙𝕋𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕜 𝕪𝕠𝕦, Trophy House, for printing our poetry and working with our dumb questions and deadlines. 😂
💙𝕋𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕜 𝕪𝕠𝕦, Detroit Lakes Polar Fest, for putting together a great celebration of winter that gives us the perfect excuse to throw a poetry party in the park in February! ❄

01/24/2025

📣Ta-DA! It's officially time to recognize our 2025 Polartry Poets! 🤩 We congratulate these 34 poets and thank them for trusting us to share their words with our community during this year's Detroit Lakes Polar Fest — our celebration of all things winter — coming soon February 7 - 23rd! ☃❄️🥰

01/18/2025

The submissions file for the 2025 Polartry Poetry Walk has been sent off to our review panel, and it is safe to say their weekend just got booked! Perfect timing since the winds are whipping and temps are tumbling tonight. We're in for a hibernation holiday weekend with wind chills forecast to be in the -50 range here in Detroit Lakes. A BIG thank you to all the poets who submitted works. Your way with words warms us. ♨️🥰
Stay cozy, friends!
✒️

01/15/2025

The time for thinking is done. The time for doing is now. So get out of your way and hit "SEND" already! 📩 It will feel so good to share your poems. (っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ Next-Level-Good ♥.
We promise to take good care of them. 🥰
Deadline is midnight tonight: 𝕎𝕖𝕕*𝕁𝕒𝕟*𝟙𝟝*𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟝!
✨One last reminder of our guidelines:✨
• Email up to 3 original (no AI, please) poems to [email protected]
• NOTE: 18 lines of verse max (not counting title or line breaks) & 40 characters per line max (counting spaces & punctuation!)
• Any form or topic (but selected poems will be displayed in a family-friendly winter park setting in northern MN in February...just sayin')
• Poets of all ages and locations, published or unpublished works are welcome
• Our panel will anonymously review and select 32 poems for display (sorry, no scoring details will be given out, but if you're not selected - don't be discouraged! Just keep writing!)😊
✒️

01/15/2025

Tonight was an inspiring webinar with a plethora of poet laureates from ND, MN and WI! 🤩❤️ Thank you to Humanities North Dakota for putting together "A Conversation About Poetry and Place with Premiere Native American Poet Laureates." It was lovely. Thank you, Heid E. Erdrich, Denise Lajimodiere, Gwen Westerman, and Kimberly Blaeser for your work as ambassadors of poetry. 😍 (Perfect inspiration to get ready for compiling poetry submissions after tomorrow night's deadline for our 2025 Polartry Poetry Walk in Detroit Lakes!)

01/14/2025

❷ DAYS LEFT (aka today and tomorrow!) to email us your poems for a chance to be selected for our 2025 Polartry Poetry Walk. Don't snooze through it and lose out on this fun celebration of poetry.
Here are the ✨IMPORTANT✨details and guidelines for our poetry submissions:
𝕊𝕌𝔹𝕄𝕀𝕊𝕊𝕀𝕆ℕ𝕊 𝔻𝔼𝔸𝔻𝕃𝕀ℕ𝔼 - JANUARY 15 -
• Email up to 3 original (no AI, please) poems to [email protected]
• NOTE: 18 lines of verse max (not counting title or line breaks) & 40 characters per line max (counting spaces & punctuation!)
• Any form or topic (but selected poems will be displayed in a family-friendly winter park setting in northern MN in February...just sayin')
• Poets of all ages and locations, published or unpublished works are welcome
• Our panel will anonymously review and select 32 poems for display (sorry, no scoring details will be given out, but if you're not selected - don't be discouraged! Just keep writing!)😊
✒️

01/13/2025

Do you realize how sad it will be if we never get to read your poetry? Your words should have the chance to see the light of day and be shared with the world! Do it for the greater good and the chance to connect with your fellow human beings.
[We've tried everything to encourage you to submit your poems, but thought we'd give this a try for those who are motivated by guilt.] 😇😄🥰
We really do want to read your poetry, so please email up to three poems (double-check our guidelines below!) to us at [email protected] by the end of the night (midnight) on Wednesday, January 15th!
Here are the ✨IMPORTANT✨details and guidelines for our poetry submissions:
𝕊𝕌𝔹𝕄𝕀𝕊𝕊𝕀𝕆ℕ𝕊 𝔻𝔼𝔸𝔻𝕃𝕀ℕ𝔼 - JANUARY 15 -
• Email up to 3 original (no AI, please) poems to [email protected]
• NOTE: 18 lines of verse max (not counting title or line breaks) & 40 characters per line max (counting spaces & punctuation!)
• Any form or topic (but selected poems will be displayed in a family-friendly winter park setting in northern MN in February...just sayin')
• Poets of all ages and locations, published or unpublished works are welcome
• Our panel will anonymously review and select 32 poems for display (sorry, no scoring details will be given out, but if you're not selected - don't be discouraged! Just keep writing!)😊
✒️