TTC Poetry On the Way

by sarah pearson

Behold an excerpt from one of my favorite blogs (written by one of my favorite persons), about the Toronto Transit poetry program.

For those unfamiliar with Poetry on the Way, it’s a cultural initiative that strives to introduce poetry to the general public by placing poems on subway cars and buses. They have similar programs in other cities, but the one in Toronto has an emphasis on Canadian poets.

…And now, it seems, the program has hit rock bottom. I was aghast (yes, aghast!) to discover this piece called, “Branch Line,” by Gary Michael Dault:

a leaf fell onto the floor
of the subway car

all the passengers
looked up at
the metal grill
the ceiling

every one of them
expecting to see the sky

The inanity of “Branch Line” speaks for itself, but I do want to point out what a grossly inappropriate poem this is to display on a subway. I personally love public transit, but do other tired, underpaid commuters reading “Branch Line” want to be reminded that they’re twenty feet below the ground? The poem equates mass transit with a moving industrial prison. It’s as if the TTC wants its customers to hate them.

You really should read the whole post. More scathing wit.

What do you think of subway art?