Boston's Secret Sidewalk Poetry Only Appears After It Rains

Boston can be a dreary place when it rains, but pedestrians can now enjoy bits of literature under their rain boots. The city and non-profit organization Mass Poetry teamed up to fill the sidewalks with hidden poems. The lines are painted with a special waterproof paint that only appears when wet (don't worry: it's biodegradable and comes off after a few months). The collaboration is called “Raining Poetry” and began in April for National Poetry Month. 

The poems are from various sources that all have ties to Boston. The current selection of poems come from Langston Hughes, Gary Duehr, Barbara Helfgott Hyett, and Elizabeth McKim. They were selected by Danielle Legros Georges, Boston's Poet Laureate.

“I thought it was important to have the first poems for this project be somehow connected to Boston—so I chose poems from writers with Boston ties," Georges said in an interview on the Mass Poetry website. "I wanted to draw work from poets influential in the Boston-area literary, educational, or cultural realms.”

This is not the first time artists have utilized waterproof paint. Seattle recently snuck in a selection of secret art pieces that also only emerged in the rain. 

[h/t Konbini]