The article “Poetry in Transit Offers a Mental Oasis” by John Mendoza first appeared in the April 2020 issue of the Renfrew-Collingwood Community News and been reproduced here with permission.
Another day, another lively commute. It’s mid-afternoon, and I am travelling eastbound on the 99 Express bus to Broadway/Commercial Drive Station. The bus is full of weary commuters of all ages and backgrounds attentive to their smartphones. Crowded conditions where the commuter expectation is standing room only, and if you are lucky, a seat.
As someone who doesn’t use my smartphone much, I often look around my immediate surroundings for diversion.
A casual glance up yields some promise. Amid the commercial propaganda is a mental oasis: it is a Poetry in Transit advertisement featuring the creative writing of a British Columbia poet.
The Poetry in Transit project is one that may be familiar to commuters who live in the transit- rich neighbourhood of Renfrew-Collingwood . . . the program was started in 1996 and features “the work of BC-authored and Canadian-published poets” on plasticized car cards usually on display inside buses and Skytrain cars.
“. . . the routine of the everyday can be interrupted with the creative musings of a poet, ranging from entertainment to deep thoughts.”
Usually, the poetry is mixed in with the usual advertisements on buses, and the effect of seeing one occasionally offers an unexpected escape from the everyday.
The experience of discovering a Poetry in Transit card offers a meaningful opportunity for the average transit commuter. It’s a diversion for both the transit user and the transit company.
For the transit user, the routine of the everyday can be interrupted with the creative musings of a poet, ranging from entertainment to deep thoughts.
For the transit company, it’s a way of activating a commercial space or even a blank space where a writer can cultivate and build a new audience.
Sure, there’s the potential that the transit system is helping to build a local literary culture for writers. Engaged transit users may go so far as to seek out the written work of these featured authors from their local libraries or bookstores.
However, for the average commuter in the moment, there’s the opportunity to move from routine to disruption, and in that moment, to learn about life from another person’s perspective. If travel is supposed to broaden the mind, certainly TransLink and Poetry in Transit work in tandem to achieve that goal.
John Mendoza is a long-time contributor to the Renfrew-Collingwood Community News.
Read more 2020 National Poetry Month features here.
Learn More About Poetry in Transit here.