"Everywhere I go I find that a poet has been there before me."

Residents and visitors to Lancaster may soon share that sense of wonder, owing to Poetry Paths, a public art initiative taking shape in this new year.

Poems will be mounted in permanent art installations throughout the city to create "a living song within, about, and for the city of Lancaster" designed to "surprise, inspire, move, and intrigue," as the poetrypaths.org Web site promises.

Monday, Harrisburg landscape architect Tashya Leaman Dalen begins work as full-time Poetry Paths program coordinator. She joins city schoolchildren and Lancaster County Poet Laureate Barbara Strasko, already at work on the project.

The public, in particular poets and artists, will be invited to submit ideas to an advisory committee now forming.

"We're not trying to put poetry in the water," Dr. Kerry Sherin Wright said with a laugh. But "this takes poetry off the pages and makes it more fun."

Wright, executive director of Franklin & Marshall College's Philadelphia Alumni Writers House, came up with the idea for Poetry Paths.

She is overseeing the project, which won a $250,000 grant from the Lancaster County Community Foundation and is supported by the college, the city's Public Works Department, Office of the Mayor and Public Arts Manager Leslie Fordham, whose position was funded by another LCCF grant.

Poetry Paths is part of a bigger "Building Community Through the Arts" initiative to which the Lancaster County Community Foundation has committed itself, said Melody Keim, LCCF spokeswoman.

The initiative recognized that the arts here were at a tipping point at which strategic investment could turn them into a "community tool," Keim said, enhancing the way Lancaster is viewed by both outsiders and residents and stimulating economic activity.

City Public Works Department Director Charlotte Katzenmoyer agrees: "Studies show that making the built environment exciting for residents, business owners and visitors enhances economic vitality by encouraging investment ... improvements ... pride in the city."

Wright expects Poetry Paths to be of "financial benefit to the city, the way other arts projects and Gallery Row have been," she said. It could become an attraction in itself, drawing a new category of visitors to the city.

Poetry Paths seems to have found plenty of enthusiastic supporters in the community.

G. Matthew Brown, president and CEO of Arro Engineering and a member of the Lancaster County Transportation Authority board, sees it as a "gateway to people visiting Lancaster, reflecting some of the culture." Fellow LCTA board members John Ahlfeld and Bill Ebel, though they couldn't be reached for comment, are on board as well, according to Wright.

"This project will bring another layer of the arts here — literally out on the street," said Mary Colleen Heil, president of the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design.

Art walk
F&M's Writers House, which for the past six years has been sharing its visiting writers and student interns with the public, particularly the public schools, "was ready to do something having an impact on the larger community," Wright explained. F&M President John Fry encouraged her to apply for the LCCF grant.

Poetry Paths was an idea she's cherished for 10 years, inspired by similar public art gracing the Robert Frost Interpretive Trail in Middlebury, Vt.; the Iowa Avenue Literary Walk in Iowa City, Iowa; and the New York City Library Walk on 41st Street.

She envisioned a continuous series of 3-D pieces of art, such as pavement inserts, incorporating text and winding through the city. "We are eager to hear from nonprofits, business owners and ... homeowners who would like their site to be included," she said, mentioning the Stevens-Smith historic homes, Clipper Magazine Stadium and Pennsylvania College of Art & Design as possible sites.

"A poem might add something, speak to us about what is there, or remind us [of what was there]," she said.

"The reason I like the concept of poetry paths is that it is a different media for public art — not just another sculpture, for example," Katzenmoyer said. "It has an educational component to it, hopefully encouraging the artist to reference local history or cultural characteristics of our city."

Many poets' work can be used, but one artistic designer will be chosen through a competitive process, she said.

More artists can be involved in another aspect of the project that may feature murals and stand-alone pieces, perhaps sculptures, incorporating poetry in up to a half-dozen city locations, possibly the F&M campus, the redesigned Penn Square and the Amtrak station and points in the South and Southeast. That phase of the project will require additional funds, yet to be raised, she noted.

Lisa Riggs, president of the James Street Improvement District, said, "What really struck me ... was the ability of the project to connect so many important parts of our community" — people and places.

Project is on track
Poetry Paths has been conducting poetry-writing workshops at Ross, Fulton and Buchanan elementary schools.

Ross Principal Camille Hopkins said her fourth- and fifth-graders are thrilled at the possibility of having their work displayed publicly and permanently. She hopes it will be a lasting lesson that they have much of value to contribute to their community.

With the Amtrak station as a possible site for an installation, Poetry Paths is sending the children on a train ride to Philadelphia Jan. 12 to find inspiration. Hopkins is sure it will yield results: "Children just have a unique way of expressing themselves and absorbing experiences," she said.

Poetry Paths plans to host public events featuring nationally recognized writers in the hope of inspiring submissions from homegrown poets of all ages and ethnicities, including poetry-writing workshops for adults at community centers.

Eventually, an interactive Web site will include recordings of poets reading their poems and a downloadable map showing the Poetry Paths.

The Poetry Paths advisory committee, which will oversee finding sites for the installations, garnering community input and feedback about themes and designs, and selecting poems, so far has recruited McCaskey High School's Fran Rodriguez, Hopkins, Heil, Fordham and Riggs as members.

Brown is planning a spring fundraiser to engage private-sector sponsors in contributing to the related free-standing installations.

Wright said a formal Poetry Paths kickoff is planned for May, and some pieces should be in place by the time of the Fall Art Walk. The path is to be complete at the end of 2011, with the free-standing installations finished by the end of 2012.