​It Takes All Our Voices

A Collaborative Piece
by
Dennis Hinrichsen, Greater Lansing Poet Laureate
 
Out of nothing a color
                                                            out of idea a word
Out of word a song
 
It takes a street and a vision
It takes a voice
                                             [your voice]
                                                                           my voice
Echo of that voice
 
It takes incubation                                                                       acceleration
 
Collaboration                                   a resource
 
A dream or design tested
 
In this place--
                                             where we live--
                                                                                          our place
 
It takes all these places
 
                              urban gardens                                  runways
 
all the voices
 
               co-worker                          scientist                              entrepreneur
 
*
 
Innovation possible on every corner
Spring rain sudden across the pavement
Capitol in full bloom
 
                                                            so many pieces
 
It takes imagination     endeavor                            and risk
 
A child’s face beaming
                                                         free and beautiful as a rare isotope
 
It takes clay and a wheel and a soft hand
 
It takes iron and brass
                                                                        the forge
 
Artisans of food and drink
 
It takes an assembly line of steel
                                                                                       and teamwork
                                                                                       and pride in the labor
 
*
 
Or deep water and deep-channeled currents
The feel of the river like the feel of a street
 
serene and solo we drive
 
Or in tandem in conversation across the landscape
 
It takes this
                          a corridor                           and an overpass
                          communities bridged
 
*
 
It takes openness and curiosity and a human touch
 
Maker and listener
                                                            a human yes
 
The one who paints or sculpts or builds
                                                                           and the one who benefits
 
It takes a mosaic
 
Creativity                            an equation
 
                                             expression
 
A realization in that space between us
                                                            the space that births us
                                                                                                                        is birthed by us
 
You can’t be what you can’t see
 
*
 
Wind walks the ledges near a river of dreams
 
That is one way of speaking
 
Or this
 
I have made this thing out of idea and effort and soul
 
Out of tolerance and humility
 
Does it please?
                                             Does it connect?
                                                                                                         Does it move?
 
*
 
There is art here and richness
                                                                                          a jazz richness
 
                                                                                          blues richness
 
                                                                                          mint richness
 
Our thinking
Sharing
Embracing
Living
               Culture

                                             Capitol City crowning the center of it all