Click here to subscribe today or Login.
First Posted: 6/28/2007
By Sheena Delazio [email protected] Writer
KINGSTON – What started as Poems on the Underground in London in the 1980s has found its way to Luzerne County.
The Poetry in Transit program, organized by Wilkes University, Lamar Advertising and the Luzerne County Transportation Authority, began Wednesday with the installation of 12 placards with poems and original artwork on the 38 buses in the LCTA fleet.
Mischelle Anthony, coordinator of the program, and an assistant professor at Wilkes, rides the bus for 15 minutes each day to work.
She began to notice other riders talking about advertisements for restaurants and stores that are inside the bus, and thought: Wouldn’t it be nice if people were talking about poetry and literature?
Anthony, who has been a professor for four years, decided to put her idea into motion, and called Stan Strelish, executive director of the LCTA.
“I thought it was a great idea for our system,” Strelish said. “I hope the poems make the bus ride more pleasurable and enjoyable for riders.”
Anthony was grateful the LCTA and Lamar Advertising embraced her idea, and Lamar has provided, for free, one year of advertising space on the buses.
“I hope when everyone sees the poems, they are speechless,” Anthony said. “I hope it gives people a chance to slow down and change their perspective.”
The 12 poems used for the program are by well-known authors such as Emily Dickinson, William Blake and Robert Frost. For this year, they will use the popular poems that bus riders may recognize from reading in fifth or sixth grade, she said.
Every 30 days, the placards will be switched from bus to bus, and next year 12 new placards will be made.
In the future, Anthony said, she might consider using local original work, and for next year a contract will be drawn up for funding for the program, either through Lamar Advertising or another company.
“I don’t see an end to it,” Anthony said of the program. “It’s a way we can reach people, especially with Wilkes-Barre being revitalized. I think this adds to it.”
The placards were made by Mark Golaszewski of Wilkes University, graphic design manager and Poetry in Transit artist.
Golaszewski said he spent a lot of time reading each poem, such as “Salutation,” by Ezra Pound, published in 1926; and “The Chamber Music,” by James Joyce in 1907.
“From there, I would set out to find what I thought the poem was trying to say, and express it in a photo or artwork,” Golaszewski said. “And they all turned out the way I had planned.”
From the bright yellow sunflowers with a blue sky background for the poem, “Ah! Sun-flowers” by William Blake, to the water droplets he used for the poem “A drop of rain” by Issa, published in the 11th century.
“I want people to get a message from both the poem and the artwork,” Golaszewski said. “I want people to look twice at them.”
Sheena Delazio, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7235.