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Ninjas now the best hope for New York's subway literature

Originally Published: January 27, 2011

In the midst of all the various debates on how to reach the public with poetry, the sticker graffiti community has been unusually quiet, preferring to leave forays into literature to the academics. Until now.

The bloggers at The Kensington Prospect have uncovered the work of what they've termed, somewhat incorrectly, "the ninja poet." This ninja isn't actually posting her own poetry so it's unknown whether she is a poet herself or just your run of the mill literature-appreciating ninja. Following an excerpt from Muriel Rukeyser's "Letter to the Front," the sticker posted on the F train asks, How did this poem reach you? Commuters are invited to respond either through email or on Twitter, making the project seem like less the work of a ninja poet than that of a ninja book club leader.

Now that New York's subways have done away with poetry, we, for one, welcome our new ninja overlords.