Vendors
Page 6
The Sower’s decree
by A ve ndor
We all grow here...
Some are stunted, deformed, maligned
While others fly like spurious heat-seeking
missiles
For the time being...
While yet some
Move like world class ballet artists.
Yet won’t all
Wiggle like worms
To a final compassionate embrace
In a prismatic morphing spectacle
Stirring and settling, raging and peaceful
Like the one beautiful blue ocean
Common to us all
Fierce,
Yet eloquent
Like a yellowfish
Darting amidst the coral reefs.
Please report any errors to our managing
editor, Joanne Zuhl, at 503-228-5657, or write
to joanne@streetroots.org
Answers to puzzles on page 15
Street Roots • January 30-February 5, 2015
and genial man with a low-key selling style.
He gives passersby a warm smile and a
simple greeting. He does well at the U.S.
Bancorp Tower, especially when people are
getting off work, as opposed to the morning
when they tend to ride a wave of caffeine
past all distractions.
He sets his own schedule, selling for a
SAM BOUMAN
STAFF WRITER
block of time in the morning and evening
with a lunch break in between.
ichard Rowe moved to the Portland
Often for lunch he
area just over a year ago from Texas,
volunteers at Sisters of the
where he did maintenance on oil rigs.
Road on Northwest Sixth
It was a dangerous job. Not as dangerous as
drilling, he says, but well-paid and suited to
his skills. He lost his job when oil
prices fell and he
became homeless for a
spell.
He moved up to
Vancouver, Wash., to
be with a girlfriend,
a situation that
went south
quickly and
landed him on
the streets again.
"It’s not an easy
city to be
homeless in,” he
says of Vancouver.
At one point he
was given a ticket
for sleeping on the
sidewalk. He
crossed the
Columbia River to
Portland three months
ago and began selling
Street Roots almost immediately.
Richard sells at the U.S. Bancorp
Tower and the nearby food carts on
Southwest Fifth Avenue. He is a soft-spoken
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Richard Rowe
R
Avenue and Davis Street in exchange for a
meal. Personal drive and Hard work are
important to him, giving him the knowledge
that he’s making his life better.
He starts selling each day with small
goals - get lunch at the food carts, and stay
positive each day - while working on the
larger goals of getting off the streets and
reconnecting with his family.
“I know I’m not gonna be selling enough
to get a room for the night,” he says. “Down
payment on a car? That ain’t happening.
So, little goals. And once I meet them,
you know it doesn’t matter, because I
know I’ve got papers for tomorrow.
The Lord provides, you know. What
little I want, He’s given to me.”
A writers reflection
BY JULIE McCURDY
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
It’s hard to wrap words around how I
feel about Street Roots. How do you, after
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all, thank an organization that has been
your birthing ground as a writer, while
simultaneously witnessing and applauding
your voice’s brand new strength? They
mean it when they say giving the voiceless
a voice. Honestly, it feels like we’ve grown
up together.
Let me explain. I had been unhoused
for approximately two months when I first
heard of Street Roots. I was encouraged
through a mutual friend to approach the
paper with an article about my experience
as a woman outside. That article led to
other articles and a ton of poetry
submitted. These things gave me back the
voice I thought I had lost when I became
unhoused in the First place. I feel like,
together, Street Roots and I weathered all
sorts of things: right decisions, wrong
decisions; good poetry, bad poetry; rain,
coffee, protests, challenges and triumphs.
Over the years, 1 have stumbled in and
out of housing and back into housing
again; into active addiction and
relationships rife with domestic violence,
and then into recovery from both
experiences.
Today, I am inside and in recovery. I
hesitate to even think about where I might
be now if it weren’t for those relationships
formed with the staff and volunteers at
Street Roots. At once empowering and
supportive, I feel like I would have been
lost without them. I feel like my whole
history as an unhoused person has been
chronicled with and through Street Roots,
The experience has led to what has quite
possibly become the healthiest, most
longstanding relationship of my life.
Honestly, how do you thank a group of
folks for literally helping you help yourself
back into life and the land of the living?
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Street Roots is a proud member ol the International Network of Street Papers,
celebrating International Vendor Week, Feb. 2-8.