by Alex Cortez | Staff Writer | [email protected]

A portion of a poem by City College English Professor and former Sacramento Poet Laureate Jeff Knorr has been set into a new Poetry Walk in West Sacramento and unveiled at a March 19 riverside ceremony.

Knorr’s poem, “The River,” is embedded into the sidewalk between 5th and E streets near Tower Bridge and is a homage to the Sacramento River, which connects West Sacramento and Sacramento.

Knorr’s poem is a part of a $18 million renovation project in the Washington District, West Sacramento’s oldest district, originally built in 1864. According to West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon, the project has improved the century-old infrastructure, roadways, sewage system, sidewalks and bike lanes.

The ribbon cutting began on West Capitol Avenue at the corners of 7th Street and Tower Gateway where about 60 people gathered to hear speak Cabaldon in the newly built parking lot.

“What’s really amazing is that now this is the community’s poem,” Knorr said during the ceremony, “and I hope that the neighbors on the street here enjoy it. I hope that even if they just read four lines of it that it becomes a piece of their lives.”

Knorr said he wrote the poem when he served as poet laureate and that it was originally a longer poem called “The Sacramento” that had to be shortened because of the Washington District Infrastructure Project guidelines.

“Poetry as public art is difficult. I think it takes a creative design mind to figure out how to do it, and often the literary arts as public art is overlooked,” Knorr said.

Although he had visited the site two weeks before the ribbon cutting, before he read the poem to the audience, Knorr said he was still shocked to actually see it engraved in the sidewalk.
Not adhering to prescribed advice may lead viagra online australia you into some unwanted side effects. The drug can be availed in various majors to solve this issue in men. sildenafil india no prescription In a study, it was observed that the person consuming this medicine enjoy a better erection for a long period of time. slovak-republic.org cialis pills for sale We take Kamagra as an example of acid purchase levitra no prescription reflux or heart burn.
“I keep looking at and going, ‘Wow it’s in the ground,’” said Knorr. “I think part of what made me feel this way is one of my sons said recently, ‘Wow, that’s really cool. I can take my kid there and tell them your grandpa wrote this,’” said Knorr.

Before the ribbon cutting, Cabaldon said that the Washington Infrastructure Project began in 2015 after West Sacramento received funding from California’s Cap-and-Trade program (”a regulation designed to reduce greenhouse gases,” according to the program’s website). The city also was given a $4.1 million grant from the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Community Program.

According to Paul Holsey, communications and media officer for West Sacramento, the project had many facets.

“A part of the goal for this Washington District Infrastructure Project was to upgrade a lot of the roadways, sewer system, water gutters, and some public artwork installments was one of the things that fit in nicely,” said Holsey.

Holsey said that the cities of West Sacramento and Sacramento partnered with the Crocker Art Museum, which put out the submission call for a public art piece. Knorr’s poem was one of nearly 200 submitted poems.

Holsey said the poems were judged by four panelists from the West Sacramento Arts, Culture and Historic Preservation Commission.

“We had all types of people submit, from kids in kindergarten, housewives, fishermen that had been on the Sacramento River and knew what it was like,” said Holsey.

Knorr and Cabaldon, along with other city council members, cut the ceremonial ribbon, which took several tries.

Following the cutting, Holsey and Cabaldon encouraged attendees to reconvene at 5th and E streets to hear Knorr read the poem. Some people walked and others drove, but many decided to experience the new roads and bike lanes by riding on JUMP bikes and scooters, which are available in the area.