Poetry Rock enlightens Palm Springs neighborhood with daily inspirational runes
The next time you're walking down East San Lucas Road in Palm Springs, take a stop in front of No. 1074 and enjoy a poem.
Since October 2015, Gary Hunter has posted an original poem daily on the "Poetry Rock" in front of his home as a way to inspire and uplift passersby.
A retired bookkeeper, Hunter is a member of the Wordkeepers, a 25-year-old local poetry workshop led by poet laureate Dorothy Bisbas of Rancho Mirage. "A lot of us have been with her for six, seven, eight, 10 years," Hunter says. "We're very close, and we just hammer away at writing and critiquing each other. It's been a great journey. My poetry's evolved."
The idea of becoming a poet came to Hunter later in life. "I was at a spiritual retreat and somebody read this love poem, and it just blew me away," he says. "I had never heard the words and that combination before. I studied poetry in high school and college, and it was all so dry and unmeaningful to me. But this moved me, and I thought, 'I can do that.'"
That was 2000. Fifteen years later, he started sharing his work. He and his husband, Joe McCormack, own a house in Tahquitz River Estates that once belonged to actress Natalie Wood's mother. One day, the pair removed their mailbox, which was near the curb in front of their home, and put a large rock in its place. Hunter noticed the rock was the spitting image of the famous Swiss mountain the Matterhorn, and an idea was born.
"I thought, 'That would be a good place to put a real estate flyer box and a good place to put poems.' That's how it started."
Each night, Hunter, who says his early influences were Persian spiritual poets like Rumi and Hafez, posts a poem for the next day. When he's out of town, his house sitter continues the practice. He also puts a few extra copies in the box in case people want to take one, though he says nowadays most people just snap a photo.
He estimates that his poems are viewed by 15 to 20 people per day during season and maybe 12 to 15 per day during the summer. "I hope it offers a few moments of inspiration or entertainment to dog walkers, joggers and other passersby," he says. There's even a teenage girl who comes by every day on her bicycle to read Hunter's words.
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Occasionally, he receives feedback. "Once in a while, somebody will scratch something," he says. "'I wrote one like this' or 'I'm a poet, too' or 'I love this, it really touched me.'"
After four years of postings, Poetry Rock was officially dedicated on June 11, 2019, with friends and family.
In addition to his work on the rock, Hunter has published two books of his poems, "A Way With Words" and "Feeding the Poemless."
While some of Hunter's work is topical — a recent posting was about Ukraine — he doesn't get political. "I know there are poets that do that," he says, "but I just write about the issue as opposed to my view of the issue."
"Most of my poetry is rather positive. It's not a lot of angst. I'm not writing about the horror of the world or the ugliness of humankind. I don't do that. I try to always pull out the good and show people that it's in there, too, with all this other stuff."
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While he appreciates the fact that writing poetry keeps him engaged and creative, the primary joy for Hunter is in sharing his work with others. "It's a good way to give," he says. "I want to give people something to think about as they're walking along the street."
For more information or to read more of Hunter's poems without visiting the poetry rock, visit poetryrock.com.
As the philanthropy and special sections editor at The Desert Sun, Winston Gieseke writes about nonprofits, fundraising and locals who give back. Reach him at winston.gieseke@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Poetry Rock enlightens Palm Springs neighborhood with daily runes
