An image featuring a mural created by Eugene’s OSLP Arts and Culture program was selected as the winner for the 2018 Days of Culture campaign. The prize? An original poem by Oregon Poet Laureate Kim Stafford — inspired by the image. OSLP Arts and Culture was created to ensure access to the arts for people with disabilities. We think you’ll agree the poem could serve as their new anthem. Enjoy!

Days of Culture, Train of Thought

by Kim Stafford

Here’s how art works: someone

sitting in a chair, or standing on the ground,

or perching on a ladder marks a vision

to sustain someone passing by in haste—

a train of thought, a dream in paint, a façade

that once was brick but now is dressed

to brighten the maker and the witness

equally, art-supported living vibrant at engine

and caboose, youth and age, beginner

and old master. For some see wall and think

wall. Some see a person struggling for ordinary

rights and only see the struggle. But some see

a wall as space for color, and a person struggling

as art maker, pleasure maker, hands for brightening

any corner, any wall, any space in the humdrum

that could be vibrant and alive. The train is a wall

is art is the work of noble hands.

All aboard!