Elise Paschen, Molly Peacock, and Neil Neches, Editors

Poetry in Motion

100 Poems from the Subways and Buses

A rich gathering emanating from the immensely popular poetry placards displayed on the subways and buses in New York City. With an introduction by Molly Peacock and a preface by Alan Kiepper, president of the New York City Transit Authority.

On the New York City buses and subways, amid the advertisements for cockroach extermination and the weary commuter faces, there is the happy glimmer of the unexpected: poems. These appear, in full or excerpted, thanks to the highly successful and popular collaboration between the Poetry Society of America and the New York City Transit Authority. Starting in October 1992, when Poetry in Motion first appeared, and continuing with selections through December 1996, this book gathers the first hundred poems of the program.

These poems are an eclectic mix, ranging from Sappho to Sylvia Plath, from W. H. Auden to the ninth-century Chinese poet Chu Chen Po. But each, in sixteen lines or less, has the power to enliven the quotidian, provide nourishment for the soul, and enchant even the youngest among us. With similar programs being generated in other U.S. cities, poetry, once marginalized, is available to a broad general audience, reaffirming its importance in our everyday lives.