Metro poetry
Since some people spend more time on transit than with their loved ones, it stands to reason that at least some poetry should be dedicated to transportation infrastructure rather than love, beauty and all that other nonsense. The Washington Post has a sample:
It's the craziest thing I've ever seen:
If I wait for a Yellow, it's bound to be Green.
If I'm looking for Orange and I know that it's due,
The next train arriving is bound to be Blue.
Marion Reh Gurfein, Arlington
For you out of towners, Marion is speaking of the Washington Metrorail lines that share track in the central business (government) district.
But this isn't unique to D.C. - there's Ezra Pound's "In a Station of the Metro" two-liner, which I remember from a presentation I did in high school on subway-related poems.
"The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Yes, as a 16-year-old, I did a presentation on subway-related poetry for an English class.
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rj3 | 9:21 AM |
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I love that you did a presentation on subay-related poetry at 16. Unfortunately my English degree is failing me in trying to come up with possible candidates (other than Pound, of course).
In San Francisco we have a Muni rail stop with poetry set into bronze plaques on the platform. Unfortunately I can't remember any of the verse at the moment, but I'll snap photos if you're interested.
kent
Even the Devil Rides
With a friend of mine, we thought we had invented the concept of metro-poetry but, as I see, we did not. Actually "metro" for us stood for all means of transportation, according to our rules, and included feet as well. So, everytime we felt inspired, and we were "on the way" we used to create a poem and then send it via sms to the other one. Some results have been surprisingly good. All in all "metro" stood for enstrangement, a new way to look into the eyes of "reality".
