Travel writing: Poems on the bus for us

books-buslines-aFor most poets, success means getting your poem published in a small literary journal, mostly read by other poets. However, for 36 local poets selected for the Charlottesville Transit Service’s Bus Lines poetry project, publishing means getting posters-sized displays of your work on one of 24 city buses, mostly read by the traveling public. Forty poems by 36 authors were selected from 119 entries, which focused on transportation themes, and 25 of the winning poems were by area students. Subject matter deals with traveling by bus, train, bike, explores traffic issues, and equates such trips with our journey through life. In April, the program will be looking for poems from area residents with a “green” theme.


Now, all we have to do is pay these poets and start our own version of the depression era WPA --I'm all for it; put America back to work. In the depression, artists created some wonderful and lasting contributions to public buildings, all over America --so how about it, not just poems, but paintings as well.

"From my cold dead hands
pry my metal d**k
anonymously bashing everyone
who dares to call me h**k"

Here's a poem:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
This program's brain damaged
The councilors too

If they can trick you into thinking you're saving the earth, they can get you to go along with the destruction of every right you ever thought you had! Yaaay!