Comments on: End of the Line

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 01:47:56 +0000

This is sad, perhaps inevitable. Years ago riding the E in midtown I came across James Merrill’s poem, “Autumn.” It so inspired me that the moment I got home I went online and bought his Collected Poems, the book cited in the Poetry in Motion “ad”. Merrill had other equally beautiful poems in his collection. I still have his book, still read Autumn maybe once or twice a year, and have shared his poem and others with my kids.
There were other poems, other poets, equally moving to me. In a world saturated with commercialism, it always was and is welcome to encounter the human voice doing nothing nothing more than describing the human condition.

By: ashley

ashley — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 01:58:24 +0000

Thanks for posting about this. It made me very sad to read that this program was ending, as sad as I was happy to learn of its existence a little over a year ago, during my first trip to NYC, when I was riding on the subway and reading all the ads posted above the windows, and suddenly I encountered, also for the first time, that small, miraculous poem by Lorine Niedecker called Wilderness, which begins:
You are the man
You are my other country
And I find it hard going
She was a poet I had only really skimmed before. That changed very soon after. Something about the matter-of-factness of tone with which she delivered that third line really broke me. And then the end (so I’ve only omitted one line here)–to read this poem at all was an astonishing experience. To encounter it on public transportation, in the middle of rush hour, was a gift I’ll never forget.
You are the sudden violent storm
the torrent to raise the river
to float the wounded doe.

By: Sina Queyras

Sina Queyras — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:18:52 +0000

It’s too bad this program has ended, but it had long ago lost its lustre I think. At least in my years of riding the subway I rarely found anything thought provoking. As far as I know the program is still underway in other cities–Toronto for example where there is often something worth reading.
More of this would be good. Much more. People read those poems. People who might not otherwise encounter poetry.