refrigerator muse

Matt Heistand Arizona Daily Wildcat

"How we love coffee / this favorite brew of ours / I talk of it / I want it all the time."

"Gobble delicious drool for lunch / chew fresh raw meat and drink thick cheese / belch sweet breath from the belly / and give thanks for the wonderful spread."

"We will lick milk out of your organic pickle."

Welcome to my refrigerator and a mere sampling of the verse and words of wisdom thereupon. Well, sure, it's not exactly Wordsworth, but what do you expect? It's magnetic poetry. And just the food version at that. What, you think you can do better? You challenging me? That's it. Meet me at the "Big Fridge" downtown next Saturday Night. We'll settle who's the best magnetic poet.

And thus through the months of March and April the raging question of who is Tucson's finest appliance bard can finally be put to rest. Coinciding with the Tucson Poetry Crawl March 20, and with Poetry Month in April, UA student and Wildcat comic artist Greg Loumeau, through an Artist in Residence Grant, is bringing to us the first-ever Tucson Arts District Magnetic Poetry Contest.

Many gather around the "big fridge" to try their hands at magnetic poetry Saturday night at the Rondstat Sun Tran Station downtown. The fridge will be downtown every Saturday night for the next three weeks.

And what a contest it shall be. The fridge in question is a mammoth 8-foot-8 1950s style round-top objet d'art in its own right. About 500 large-scale magnets including words in both Spanish and English and universally familiar illustrations are the tools of creation. Prizes will go out to the best in both language, so anyone can of any age can find their inspiration here. The children's category was canceled because "we just couln't tell difference between the children's and the adult's poems."

"I was at my mom's house during Christmas," Loumeau told me, explaining the inception of this project.

"She received a Magnetic Poetry set as a gift and I was amazed at how good some of the poems would turn out. I thought how great it would be to put this on a grand scale where the public can be involved."

Participants will be doing what many of them already do in the privacy of their own kitchens, although on a larger scale. After shuffling and connecting various words and symbols, inventing new metaphors poignant in their obscurity and sense, revealing innermost fears and passions with a predetermined vocabulary, their final masterpieces will be written down to be judged.

Judging the entries will be the members of Tucson Poet . Local poet Jessica Jaramillo will take care of the Spanish entries. Prizes of (what else) Magnetic Poetry sets will be awarded bi-weekly after each event and the grand prize winner will be announced at Bookman's in May.

Still feeling a little intimidated about opening yourself up in the middle of downtown on a busy Saturday night? Can you see those new shiny words wed and scattered about your icebox, but can't bring yourself to write that winning poem?

It didn't stop over 60 potential poets from working there magic last Saturday night. Although a winner has yet to be judged, these are but a sampling of the talent: "She was from a hot green spring / fasting and pretending to / love music with only musical bears / in her heart."

"Friends were never happy / but me, I saw wonder / in hate, in darkness."

"Summer screams as a / Raw cow darkly wonders why." "Para los mundos buenos / Amorosos encenderan / dentro yo mismo."

The Tucson Arts District Magnetic Poetry Contest will be located in the south bay of the Ronstadt Transit Center (6th and Congress) March 20, in Arizona Alley next to the ex-Cafe Magritte (south of Congress St. between 5th and 6th) April 3, and April 17, it will be back at the Ronstadt Center. Find your muse, and perhaps even you could walk away with the coveted title of Magnetic Poet Laureate.