We got a note from Keys, who claims to have written more than 2,000 poems for passersby on the mall using a 1917 typewriter and a sign reading “Poems about anyone or anything.” His customers tell him what they want the poem to be about, and he churns out a piece in about five minutes. Then he takes a photo of the person holding the poem.
Keys tells us that he got at least one repeat customer every day this spring and summer. One woman has gotten eight poems from him, he says, and another has the last line of a poem he did for her 2-yearold daughter tattooed on her arm in his typewriter font.
And this winter, according to Keys, he’s teamed up with the Boulder Book Store to keep the poems flowing during frigid winter days — by setting up shop on the store’s second floor. He lauds Boulder Book Store owner David Bolduc and calls it “a fine collaboration of a local business and artist enriching the life of Boulder.”
Roses are red, violets are blue, Bill is keeping Boulder weird, so why don’t you?
NEEDLES TO GO Have you heard about the new concept in Boulder for keeping affordable health care on the move?
It’s called the Acupuncture Bus, and the idea is to increase access to acupuncture, a medical treatment that is often both financially and physically out of reach for many people. Boulder acupuncturist Noah Goldstein decided to begin offering his services on an affordable sliding scale and setting up shop where he is needed most.
The bus is expected to launch in February, and Goldstein has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help get the effort off the ground. He says in a press release that his hope is to someday have a fleet of buses across the country, “supporting communities in a myriad of underserved areas looking for affordable healing.”
For more information, check out www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-acupuncture-bus.
REST IN PEACE Here’s one you probably did miss, in fact. At least 15 homeless people died in Boulder in 2013.
The homeless community and its friends, advocates and service providers host a ceremony annually to commemorate the lives of those who perished while on the streets, and this year it will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 21, at the Central Park Bandshell.
You may have noticed that we have been periodically running profiles on local homeless people throughout the year in an effort to combat the stigma and stereotypes too often attached to the homeless. We’ve been telling their stories in an effort to shine light on the various paths and circumstances that can lead to a life on the street. It hasn’t been an effort to be bleeding-heart liberals, to glorify or even generate sympathy for them; many have done inexcusable things and deserve the consequences. Instead, it’s been a series aimed at exploring the often complicated factors that can contribute to the lot of those on the lowest rung of our socioeconomic ladder.
In that spirit of attaching names — and lives — to the faces, here are the members of the homeless community who will be remembered on Dec. 21: Lara Wilkerson; Joshua “Roach” Gunter Roach, 36; David Urban, 48; David Kiser, 45; Tyler “Frodo” Dory, 22; “DC,” late 40s; Terri Sternberg, 60; Michael Garriss, early 30s; Troy Peterson, 46; Thomas Carbone; Gary Purcell; Richard Bard; Hugh Gouthrou; David Dunn; Terry Allen Cooper.
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