Mesa Arts & Culture Week: Poetry & Pastries

Elysian Fields joins Visit Mesa in celebrating Mesa Arts & Culture Week with five poet spotlight feature days, each pairing themed confections with a corresponding poetry contest prompt.

Guests can participate in a weeklong poetry contest in-bakery or online, with new prompts unveiled alongside each featured poet.

Poetry Contest Details
One continuous contest throughout the event
Submit in-bakery or via social media
Grand Prize: Curated “Poet’s Box” of treats + featured spotlight
Prompt Winners: BOGO offer (one per poet prompt)


Edgar Allan Poe-
Wednesday–Thursday | March 4–5

Begin the week with shadows, suspense, and indulgence. Dark, dramatic, and deliciously unsettling, our Edgar Allan Poe feature invites guests to linger in the shadows where beauty and unease quietly coexist.

Featured Confections: The Tell‑Tale Heart Chocolate Tortes and The Fall of the House of Ganache

Poetry Contest Prompt: Write 4-8 lines in which a beautiful object (a room, a song, a keepsake) becomes unsettling. Use one repeated phrase to mimic a heartbeat or echo.

Homer-
Friday–Saturday | March 6–7

Epic journeys need not span seas to be worthy of song. Our Homer feature celebrates the poetry of adventures both bold and dainty. Those small triumphs and trials that feel heroic in the moment and are best rewarded with a sweet treat.

Featured Confections: Odyssey of the Fig and Odysseus’ Bow Crescents

Poetry Contest Prompt: Write 6–10 lines in an epic‑leaning voice about a small, everyday quest - finding a lost item, making it home, finishing a task, or bravely making the bed while dodging the cat. Use at least two vivid similes (“like…” or “as…”).

Maya Angelou-
Sunday & Tuesday | March 8 & 10

A celebration of resilience, joy, and unapologetic radiance, and inspired by Maya Angelou’s luminous voice, these confections and words invite guests to reflect, rise, and savor sweetness in all its forms, both on the page and on the plate.

Featured Confections: Still I Rise Sunrise Honey Cakes and Phenomenal Woman Berry Tarts

Poetry Contest Prompt: Write 4-8 lines of resilience and radiance. Begin with a hardship, end with a declaration. Include at least one image of sunrise, sweetness, or song.

H.P. Lovecraft-
Wednesday–Thursday | March 11–12

This feature lingers at the edge of the known world. Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft’s talent for suggestion and unease, these confections and words invite guests to consider what lies just beyond the light…familiar at first glance, and stranger the longer one looks.

Featured Confections: The Call of Cthulhu Black Magic and Shadow Over Innsmouth Berries

Poetry Contest Prompt: Write 6-10 lines that hints at something vast and unknowable just out of sight. Avoid naming the “thing” directly - let atmosphere, sensory detail, and implication do the work.

J.R.R. Tolkien-
Friday–Saturday | March 13–14

We close the week with warmth, wonder, and the quiet joy of a journey well taken. Inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien’s love of roads, hearths, and simple pleasures, this feature invites guests to linger, imagine, and enjoy a well-earned treat at the end of the path.

Featured Confections: Lembas Bread Shortbread and Farmer Maggot’s Crops Carrot Cake

Poetry Contest Prompt: Write 6–10 lines that read like a travel‑song from an imagined journey. Include two place‑names you invent, one humble meal, and a moment of wonder.