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Could a few lines of poetry make commuting less awful?
In essence, this is the question Judith Chernaik asked forty years ago. American Writer Yu London Who wants to know if posting poetry in subway cars can inspire, entertain and motivate passengers.
The result is “Poetry” undergrounda project that turns 40 this year and has been replicated in cities around the world. Since 1986, millions of people London Underground Passengers will see posters with poetry in advertisements on their daily journeys.
Where are the gatherings of a dozen poets whose work appears in the project on Friday? – A metro station that celebrates this milestone and pays homage to Chernak, the man who started it all.
The native New Yorker moved to London in the 1970s and “completely fell in love with the city, including its transit system,” finding the London Underground to be superior to the one in her hometown.
“I ride the subway all the time in New York,” she said. “It’s not one of my enjoyable activities.”
Chernak is a novelist and essayist who is also fascinated by London’s rich literary culture and history.
“poetry,” she said, “is part of every Londoner’s heritage. “
Together with two poet friends, Gerald Benson and Cecily Herbert, she hatched a plan to combine literature and transportation. The metro operator gave its support and the first poems went online in January 1986.
“Somehow the idea worked, and here we are 40 years later,” said Chernak, now 91.
Poetry in the first year includes works by William Shakespeare, Robert Burns, WB Yeats, Percy Bysshe Shelley – Ozymandias, which reflects on the ephemerality of power – and William Carlos Williams’ Imagist poem ‘It’s Just to Say’, which famously begins:
“I have eaten
Plum
those in
refrigerator”.
The selection soon expanded to include poetry by Wole Soyinka, Pablo Neruda, Derek Walcott, Anna Akhmatova and others from around the world.
The anthology changes three times a year, and Chernak still participates in poetry selection panels with poets George Sirtes and Imtiaz Dak.
Ann Gavaghan, head of cultural programs at TfL, said the works blend modern poetry with centuries-old classics, from “Shakespeare and Sappho to truly contemporary poets”.
There are sonnets and haiku, love poems, tragic poems, funny poems, and poems highly relevant to commuters, such as “Overcrowding” by the Hungarian poet Katarin Slukovany.
Nick Makoha, whose poem BOM (Mumbai Airport Code) will be featured on the metro in 2020, said the show brings poetry into everyday life.
“Teaching poetry is often thought of as something that requires high intelligence, but we are human beings,” he said. “Poets are ordinary people, sometimes writing about ordinary things, sometimes about amazing things.
“Poetry belongs to community,” Makoha said. “It should be part of our daily life and Metro is part of daily life. So it not only connects us to places but also to people. You could be sitting in Turnpike Lane (Metro station) and all of a sudden I’m taking you to Mumbai.”
London’s transport network is far from perfect – commuters often complain about delays, overcrowding and dirty trains – but it has long been recognized for its artistic flair. Its maps are considered design classics, and it has employed top artists to design its posters for a century.
Underground Poetry is now a beloved fixture in the system, having published several books and inspiring similar projects in cities including New York, Dublin, Oslo and Shanghai.
Gavaghan said the key to its success is giving travelers something “to take their mind off their commute.”
“If you’ve had a hard day and you’re wrapped up in your worries and worries, it’s really nice to be able to see something on the subway that makes you think and shocks you,” she said. “It makes you laugh, it makes you think. It really makes you empathize.
“It’s really powerful. It’s important to have it, and that’s why it’s still around 40 years later.”