https://www.positive.news/lifestyle/arts/rhymes-on-the-rails/
"On a Tuesday morning in January, packed into a Victoria Line train between
Oxford Circus and Green Park, most commuters keep their eyes firmly on their
phones or gaze dreamily into the middle distance. Then something appears in
their sightline: a poem, tucked alongside the usual ads for apps and health
supplements, grabs their attention. A few heads lift. A few eyes linger. A
moment later, the doors open and they are whisked back into the bustle of
London’s streets.
This is Poems on the Underground in action. It’s been like this for 40 years,
and the scheme marks its anniversary this year by reminding the 3 million
people that make journeys on the Tube everyday that public transport need not
be only about deadlines and screens.
Founded in 1986 by the American writer Judith Chernaik, the project now
displays six poems, refreshed three times a year across London Underground
trains, deliberately mixing classic and contemporary voices so riders encounter
a range of styles and subjects during their commute. Over the decades, hundreds
of poems by hundreds of poets have appeared in carriages and stations– from
Shakespeare and Sappho to Wole Soyinka and Blake Morrison – collected now in a
40th-anniversary anthology of
100 Poems on the Underground."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
