Poetry in Motion: Remembering Summer (W.S.Merwin)

Over the years, I have posted quite a few "Poetry in Motion" posters from the NYC subways (and beyond).

I was delighted last year when I noticed that bigger and larger Poetry in Motion posters went up on some newly-renovated subway stations in Brooklyn.

I have a few to share, starting with this one, which I first spotted in September 2017 at the 53rd Street Station on the R line:

Remembering Summer                  W.S. Merwin

Being too warm the old lady said to me
is better than being too cold I think now
in between is the best because you never
give it a thought but it goes by too fast
I remember the winter how cold it got
I could never get warm wherever I was
but I don't remember the summer heat like that
only the long days the breathing of the trees
the evenings with the hens still talking in the lane
and the light getting longer in the valley
the sound of a ball from down there somewhere
I can sit here now still listening to it.

~ ~ ~

Initially, I thought there were multiple poems at the station, but they were repeated multiple times with different colors, as seen below.

Visit the MTA Poetry in Motion page here.

You can also click on the Poetry in Motion tag at the bottom of the post to see prior BillyBlog posts about the series.

Poetry in Motion: Subway by Billy Collins

This Poetry in Motion poster on the subways is still hanging around, as it went up in 2016:

Subway                  Billy Collins, b. 1941

As you fly swiftly underground
with a song in your ears
or lost in the maze of a book,

remember the ones who descended here
into the mire of bedrock
to bore a hole through this granite,

to clear a passage for you
where there was only darkness and stone.
Remember as you come up into the light.

~ ~ ~

Visit the MTA Poetry in Motion page here.

Bios of the poet and the artist whose work in the subway that serves as the backdrop for the poem above, which was one of three released in 2016, appears on the site here. You can also click on the Poetry in Motion tag at the bottom of the post to see prior BillyBlog posts about the series.

Poetry in Motion: Lady Liberty by Nathalie Handal

There are still a few of these posters around, although I snapped a photo of this one on November 16, 2015:

Lady Liberty by Nathalie Handal

              All stars lead to this city,

she's an angel unfolding midnight

         a river of invisible trumpets

              and sidewalks of moons,

                              she's the blues

                        drunk on the light

                  commuting with love

                                on a sailboat
   
                                  that's found

                         the perfect island.

~ ~ ~

Visit the MTA Poetry in Motion page here.

Bios of the poet and the artist whose work in the subway that serves as the backdrop for the poem above, which was one of only two released in 2015, appears on the site here. You can also click on the Poetry in Motion tag at the bottom of the post to see prior BillyBlog posts about the series.

Poetry in Motion: from "Love in the Ruins" by Jim Moore

I snapped this photo three years ago today, on March 6, 2014:

from Love in the Ruins by Jim Moore

         I remember my mother toward the end,

folding the tablecloth after dinner
         so carefully,
as if it were the flag
         of a country that no longer existed,
but once had ruled the world.

~ ~ ~

Here's a clearer version of the poem:

Visit the MTA Poetry in Motion page here.

Bios of the poet and the artist whose work in the subway that serves as the backdrop for the poem above, which was one of four released in 2014, appears on the site here. You can also click on the Poetry in Motion tag at the bottom of the post to see prior BillyBlog posts about the series.

Poetry in Motion: A Strange Beautiful Woman, by Marilyn Nelson

This is more recent, from just last year, and since the 2017 posters haven't been unveiled, you can likely spot these on the subways currently:

A Strange Beautiful Woman by Marilyn Nelson

A strange beautiful woman
met me in the mirror
the other night.
Hey,
I said,
What you doing here?
She asked me
the same thing.

~ ~ ~

Visit the MTA Poetry in Motion page here.

Bios of the poet and the artist whose work in the subway that serves as the backdrop for the poem above, which was one of four released in 2013, appears on the site here. You can also click on the Poetry in Motion tag at the bottom of the post to see prior BillyBlog posts about the series.

Found on the C Train

I found this last night on the C train, leaving 72nd Street:

Poetry in Motion: Scaffolding by Seamus Heaney

In BillyBlog's early days, I featured a lot of the old Poetry in Motion posters from public transportation. Over the last few years, I had taken photos, but never gotten around to posting them. 2017 has been a time of playing catch up. 

Here's one I spotted on March 5, 2014:

Scaffolding     Seamus Heaney, 1939-2013

Masons, when they start upon  a building,
Are careful to test out the scaffolding;

Make sure that planks won't slip at busy points,
Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints.

And yet all this comes down when the job's done
Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.

So if, my dear, there sometimes seems to be
Old bridges breaking between you and me

Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall
Confident that we have built our wall.

~ ~ ~

Visit the MTA Poetry in Motion page here.

Bios of the poet and the artist whose work in the subway that serves as the backdrop for the poem above, which was one of four released in 2014, appears on the site here.  You can also click on the Poetry in Motion tag at the bottom of the post to see prior BillyBlog posts about the series.

Poetry in Motion: Voyager by Mary Ruefle

According to my records, a took this photo four years ago today, on January 25, 2013, so it only makes sense to finally post it on the anniversary right?

The poem is "Voyager" by Mary Ruefle:

Voyager

I have become an orchid
washed in on the salt white beach.
Memory,
what can I make of it now
that might please you ---
this life, already wasted
and still strewn with
miracles?

~~~

Visit the MTA Poetry in Motion page here.

Bios of the poet and the artist whose work in the subway that serves as the backdrop for the poem above, which was one of four released in 2013, appears on the site here.  You can also click on the Poetry in Motion tag at the bottom of the post to see prior BillyBlog posts about the series.

Poetry in Motion: Here by Gary Snyder

I've recently posted some older Poetry in Motion posters from my archives, but there are new ones floating about, as well.

Here's one currently underground, this one spotted on the R train:

The poem is Here by Gary Snyder:

In the dark
(The new moon long set)

A soft grumble in the breeze
Is the sound of a jet so high
It's already long gone by

Some planet
Rising from the east        shines
Through the trees

It's been years since I thought,

Why are we here?

~

Visit the MTA Poetry in Motion page here.

Bios of the poet and the artist whose work in the subway that serves as the backdrop for the poem above, which was one of three released in 2016, appears on the site here.  You can also click on the Poetry in Motion tag at the bottom of the post to see prior BillyBlog posts about the series.

Poetry in Motion: Ragtime by Kevin Young

Here's another Poetry in Motion poster from my archives:

Here's one I caught on 2012, most likely on the R train:

The poem is Ragtime by Kevin Young:

Like hot food
I love you

like warm
bread & cold

cuts, butter
sammiches

or, days later, after
Thanksgiving

when I want
whatever's left.

~

Visit the MTA Poetry in Motion page here.

You can actually see the posters in all their glory, like the one above, which first appeared on the subways in 2012.

Bios of the poet and the artist whose work in the subway that serves as the backdrop for the poem above appears on the site here.  You can also click on the Poetry in Motion tag at the bottom of the post to see prior BillyBlog posts about the series.

Poetry in Motion, Untitled by Jeffrey Yang

Here's another Poetry in Motion poster from my archives:

Here's one I caught on 2012, most likely on the R train:

The poem is Untitled by Jeffrey Yang:

west of rest is sleep
east, dream
where waters meet
north, emptiness,
south, wakefulness,
and out, rising up
to the stars, peace

~

Visit the MTA Poetry in Motion page here.

You can actually see the posters in all their glory, like the one above, which first appeared on the subways in 2012.

Bios of the poet and the artist whose work in the subway that serves as the backdrop for the poem above appears on the site here.  You can also click on the Poetry in Motion tag at the bottom of the post to see prior BillyBlog posts about the series.

Poetry in Motion: Heaven by Patrick Phillips

Many years ago, I used to post subway posters from a series called "Poetry in Motion."

Then the series was discontinued, and BillyBlog became a barely occasional outlet for me.

However, the series was resurrected in the last few years and I have, on occasion, managed to snap a few photos of the posters.

Here's one I caught on December 1, 2015, most likely on the R train:

The poem is "Heaven" by Patrick Phillips:

It will be the past
and we'll live there together.

Not as it was to live
but as it is remembered.

It will be the past.
We'll all go back together.

Everyone we ever loved,
and lost, and must remember.

It will be the past,
And it will last forever.

~

Visit the MTA Poetry in Motion page here.

You can actually see the posters in all their glory, like the one above, which first appeared on the subways in 2014.

Bios of the poet and the artist whose work in the subway that serves as the backdrop for the poem above appears on the site here.  You can also click on the Poetry in Motion tag at the bottom of the post to see prior BillyBlog posts about the series.

Train of Thought: Ralph Waldo Emerson

First spotted on the R train, November 2010:

"Life is a train of moods like a string of beads;
and as we pass through them they prove to be
many-colored lenses which paint the world their own
hue, and each shows only what lies in its own focus."

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1892), "Experience"

Train of Thought: Nicholas Black Elk

"Now that I can see it all as from a lonely hilltop, I know it was the story of a mighty vision given to a man too weak to use it; of a holy tree that should have flourished in a people's heart with flowers and singing birds, and now is withered; and of a people's dream that died in bloody snow."

--Nicholas Black Elk (1863-1950) on the Battle at Wounded Knee

Not Poetry in Motion, but a new Train of Thought

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

--Robert Frost (1874-1963), "Dust of Snow"

First spotted on the D Train, January 7, 2010

Kant on the Subway (The Latest Train of Thought)

"Out of the crooked timber of humanity, nothing entirely straight can be built."

--Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Akademische Ausgabe

That Must Have Been a Memorable Staff Retreat

Just another random mental image from the subway...

Coming home on the subway, I was sitting across from a guy who could have passed for Paul McCartney. Seriously. The only thing that made me realize that it wasn't the ex-Beatle, was that I was on the subway, and he was headed to Bay Ridge.

He was reading Carl Hiassen's Nature Girl.

But what struck me most was his tote bag, issued by the Office of English Language Learners, which bore the inscription:

"There is no I in Team"
OELL Staff Retreat
September 10-11, 2001

That just struck me as a heck of a memento from what must have been a very memorable retreat.

And Another Train of Thought: Samuel Eliot Morison

First spotted on the Q train (November 7, 2008):

"America was discovered accidentally by a great seaman who was looking for something else; when discovered it was not wanted; and most of the exploration for the next fifty years was done in the hope of getting through or around it. America was named after a man who discovered no part of the New World. History is like that, very chancy."

Samuel Eliot Morrison (1887-1976) The Oxford History of the American People (1965), Ch. 2 "The European Discovery of America."

New Train of Thought: Isaac Newton

First spotted on the R train....

"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

--Isaac Newton (1642-1727), Memories of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (1855), ed. David Brewer

Train of Thought - John Stuart Mill

"The only freedom deserving the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by sufering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest."

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), On Liberty

The above is one of the new additions to the MTA's "Train of Thought" series. I recently confirmed that the MTA scrapped its 15-year old Poetry in Motion series. My heart aches. More on that later....