NEW YORK—Subway riders will be treated to poems around the subway system with the return of Poetry in Motion, announced the MTA and the Poetry Society of America on Tuesday.
“Our customers tell us again and again that even a small investment in art and music underground makes a huge difference to them,” said MTA Chairman Joseph J. Lhota in a statement. “It can really improve the entire experience of riding the subway. And the beauty of this program—and of poetry and art in general—is that it can really transport you.”
Poems will appear in subway cars in the square poster wells at eye level of seated passengers, at subway stations paired with other art, and on the back of 12 million Metrocards a year.
The first poem of the program is “Graduation” by Dorothea Tanning, a New York City resident who passed away in January at the age of 101. Her poem is below. The next one will be released in April.
“He told us, with the years, you will come
to love the world.
And we sat there with our souls in our laps,
and comforted them.”
