Positive News · 10 hours ago

'Having Poetry in a Public Space Transports us, Even If We don’t Understand It'

For forty years, poems nestled beside advertisements on London Underground trains have offered millions of commuters something no one is trying to sell them -- a moment of quiet reflection in the rush. Founded by American writer Judith Chernaik in 1986, the project displays six carefully chosen poems three times a year, mixing Shakespeare with contemporary voices, never selected to be "relentlessly upbeat" because "life is very complicated, and grief and struggle and despair are part of it." A man describes how the poetry "transports us, even if we don't understand it," while a young woman recalls looking up from a poem about motherhood to see a stranger across the carriage, both of them in tears. In a world of screens and consumer demands, these few lines ask nothing and give freely -- a shaft of light that reminds riders the imagination still exists.