Downtown businesses are finding poems on their windows and doors. Written and delivered anonymously, the personalized tributes are signed “The Sonnet-Bomber.” Since August, more than sixty restaurants, retailers, nonprofits, and other businesses have been “bombed,” and there’s no end in sight for the “Ann Arbor Sonnet Cycle.”
The Bomber agreed to an interview as long as the Observer didn’t reveal her real name. Many poets have written sonnet cycles, and she got the idea for a local version after talking to a friend whose business was struggling. Feeling “really kind of heartbroken about how much effort is put into these really wonderful places … and how little we think about what they’re going through,” she began writing poetic tributes to her favorite businesses. She gets up at dawn so they won’t see her deliver them.
Why the alias? “I just wanted a way to reach out and say thank you without it being … just me. I wanted a bigger voice,” she says, stopping to point out her thirty-first sonnet on the door of Collected Works near Kerrytown (“Collected Works can set your style apart, / As you are your own masterwork of art.”).
Some businesses have taken the sonnets down, but many display them proudly, often giving a shout-out to the bomber on social media. The bomber recently expanded beyond the downtown area and welcomes input and conversation on her project. She’s on Facebook and Twitter as @sonnetbomber and Instagram as @a2sonnetbomber.
