Poems and quotes spring up out of nowhere along a fence in Spenard

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Clothespins hold up pages of poetry in front of a home in the Spenard neighborhood of Anchorage on Friday, July 7, 2017. (Bob Hallinen / Alaska Dispatch News)

Along a house fence on a quiet Spenard street, quotes, poems and other writings hang from wooden clothespins on wires strung between wooden posts.

There are musings from naturalist John Muir. Someone hand-wrote the Everett Ruess poem "Wilderness Song" on two pieces of floral notepaper.

It looks like a public art exhibit. But it wasn't planned, said the homeowner, standing Friday in his yard near the intersection of 32nd Avenue and Iowa Street.

About a month ago, without any prompting, people started hanging notes on the clothespins. On Friday, the literary mix included poems, quotes and, to the bemusement of the homeowners, an instruction manual for a homemade camera.

[Video: Street art in Spenard]

Some of the writings are garden-themed, perhaps a nod to the flowers and plants growing in the yard nearby. The most notes appear between a pair of wooden posts situated by rose shrubs.

One example: A four-line poem from Rumi about walking in a garden: "You have my face here, but you look at flowers!"

And this quote from Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth," typed out on wind-worn paper:

"We have forgotten what rocks, plants, and animals still know. We have forgotten how to be — to be still, to be ourselves, to be where life is, here and now."