Poetry in Motion: Metro gets line breaks
April is the cruelest month -- and perhaps relatedly, also National Poetry Month. While few people pick up a volume of poetry for pleasure reading these days, public transit riders will find their morning commute take a poetic turn, thanks to Poetry in Motion. This program, put together by the Poetry Society of America and various transit agencies across the U.S., puts poem-placards in the ad spaces in trains and buses.
If you'd rather be read to than read yourself, come down to Union Station in downtown L.A. on April 10. Beginning at 4 pm, L.A. poets Elena Karina Byrne, Suzanne Lummis and Marisela Norte will read their poetry to the rush-hour crowd.
According to Metro, "The alternative space in the context of a transit system has become a welcome platform for the spoken and written word, delivered to delighted audiences by published poets in great performances." Listeners will receive commemorative Metro bookmarks inscribed with poetry by Emily Dickinson and Octavio Paz.
Live on the westside and don't want to be seen east of the 405? Then attend the live poetry reading with poets Molly Bendall, Eloise Klein Healy, and -- my own dissertation adviser -- David St. John in Santa Monica. The event will begin at 7 pm in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Auditorium of the Santa Monica Library, Main Branch, 601 Santa Monica Blvd.
Both events are free and open to the public. Take Metro or the Big Blue Bus there, and get in the poetic mood by reading the poem-placards pre-event.
