Join Lawrence Transit along with poet and professor Megan Kaminski in our kickoff for the fourth annual Poet Laureate program, a Summer Ride and Write workshop. Registration is limited to 20 attendees. Register here.

• Monday, June 29 • 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
• Meet in the Central Station lobby at 5:00 p.m. We will ride Route 4 to Lawrence Beer Co. West at 5:14 p.m.

We will write together and have opportunities to share our words. Participants will leave with a poem and prompts to inspire ongoing writing, as well as an invitation to submit poems for the Lawrence Transit Poet Laureate program.

This summer, as Lawrence welcomes the world of soccer fans to our region, we celebrate the joy and connection that come from play, competition, and shared celebration. “The beautiful game” of soccer offers us a lens to explore how games and the spirit of play bring communities together across language, culture, and difference.

We invite poets to explore the playful, the competitive, the communal: a pick-up game in the park, a neighborhood gathering to watch a match, children inventing new rules on the playground, the exhilaration of bodies in motion. What does it mean to play together? How do games create belonging? Where do we find joy in movement, in cheering for our teams, in the spontaneous celebrations that erupt in our streets and gathering places?

This theme reaches beyond soccer to embrace all forms of play and community spirit: the festivals that fill our parks, the impromptu dance parties, the shared meals, the moments when strangers become teammates, spectators become chorus. As we travel our city’s routes, we move through spaces of play and possibility, where the everyday transforms into something electric and alive.

Call for Poems

We invite submissions that explore:

• International visitors to our community
• Soccer, sports, and games of all kinds
• The spirit of play: childhood games, backyard competitions, spontaneous fun
• Gathering to watch, cheer, and celebrate together
• Movement, athleticism, and bodies in joy
• Community festivals, parades, and public celebrations
• How public spaces and transit routes connect us to places of play and gathering
• Moments when competition becomes connection
• The languages of sport and celebration that cross all borders

We especially welcome poems in multiple languages, reflecting the global spirit of the international soccer fandom and Lawrence’s diverse community. Poems may be submitted in any language with English translation.

“Whether we’re chasing a ball across a field or riding together toward celebration, play reminds us that joy is a practice, community is a verb, and the beautiful game is simply this: showing up, together, ready to move,” said Megan Kaminski, Poet and Environmental Studies Professor, University of Kansas.

Submit your poems here.

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