Poetry in motion: Putting in a good word on the road

Missed your train, waiting in the rain

Rush hour is insane!

Pushing, shoving, about to fall

Sit down, relax and gaze upon the wall

A little Dickinson, Ovid, Plath is all you need

To sooth your mind with some art to read

In recognition of National Poetry Month, the MTA and partner Poetry in Motion are celebrating 10 years of bringing verse to commuters. New poems, in English and Spanish, by local poets such as Wanda Coleman, Amy Gerstler and Marisela Norte, as well as better known, late-lamented bards are posted on buses every month.

Verses can also be found mixed among structures at bus stops and subway entrances. Rush hour readings at Union Station and the Santa Monica Public Library are scheduled for Thursday. For more information visit metro.net/poets. Norte’s “Dance in the Shadows” provides a nice sample:

Through Tercera down Rowan down East 6th Street

Where he would roll his window down

Point at the landscape telling me,

“This belongs to you”

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Liesl Bradner