“I still look for your footprints,” writes St. Paul writer and youth worker Ellen Fee. “I tell everybody this is where you’re from.”

Nine poets will soon see their poems etched into St. Paul sidewalks — a permanent reminder that poetry is everywhere, even beneath our feet.

The nine winning entries and two honorable mentions were selected by a team of professional writers out of 633 submissions coordinated through Public Art St. Paul.

The city is already home to 1,100 sidewalk panels decorated with 54 short poems, and St. Paul Public Works will begin adding the nine winning entries to panels across the city this summer. The annual contest, which first rolled out in 2008, went on hiatus after 2015.

New this year, the contest allowed submissions in Dakota, Hmong, Somali and Spanish. The winning poems include one in Spanish, another in Hmong, and one that incorporates a Dakota word. Related Articles Sept. 30 is last day for public comment on Pigs Eye Lake makeover

Staffers at MPR’s music stations The Current and Classical MPR vote to unionize

St. Paul woman sentenced for manslaughter in man’s death; murder charge dismissed

Ford Foundation grants $2.5 million to St. Paul’s Penumbra Theatre, a record for the Black arts organization

With new shops and street improvements, Saturday’s ‘Rice and LarpenTOUR’ showcases three cities

The winning poets are David Bard, Lauren Dwyer, Ellen Fee, Claudia Kane Munson, May Lee-Yang, Roberto Sande Carmona, Daniel Schauer, Amanda Tran and Zachary Owen Wilson. Honorable mentions were awarded to Jaden Burns and Juliana Martinez-Farjado.

The 2019 winning poems can be found on Public Art St. Paul’s website at publicartstpaul.org.

In addition to having their work featured on sidewalk panels, winning poets receive a $100 honorarium and will have their poems included in this year’s St. Paul Almanac book publication.