Thursday, August 19, 2010

Small Business Profile: Personalized Poem Service in Downtown Portland

Nearly two years ago, P&PC remembered the entrepreneurial efforts of minister and poet Carl Wilson—a.k.a. Tramp Star and Curly Shingles—who advertised "Poetry for Sale" on a sign outside his Indiana home in the first half of the twentieth century.

Who would've thought that Wilson's spirit is still alive? And not in southern Indiana, where some folks still like to spell potato with an "e," but at the Saturday Market in Portland, Oregon, where the potatoes are organic and the more "e's" you can fit in the locals' favorite color "greeeen" the better?

It's not just the potatoes—or berries, or fruit, or salmon—that are locally sourced in Stumptown, however. As the fetching, retro-style "Personalized Poems" outfit pictured to the left suggests, even the poems are made locally. Complete with a menu ranging from a $1.00 haiku to a $5.00 slam poem and performance, this mobile, briefcase- sized start-up may not be making any IPO's soon, but it's got our vote for best new business in town.