European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 30, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Judith Chernaik stands in the subway station at be size Park As passengers Board one of the trains that carry her poetry posters. By londoners get poetry on the Tubby Steven Prokesch the new York times ii subway systems Art the measure i Ondon is undeniably a my h More Livili de t Ity than new York. It is not just the Imu h lower Rauol violent crime on the underground or tube As the City s subway is known or the color coded map that is easy to read and a Delight to visiting Amer ii ans and other Lou lists. I i dim her is the poems. Sand ii lied Between posters warning riders to be Alert Lor Irish Republic an army bombs and advertisements Tor whisky supermarkets and Palt aged holidays Are verses whose Only purpose is to melt tin every dryness encasing and numbing the Urban soul. I Here Are poems by bards of old like Cham or Shakespeare and Keats by modern greats like Yeats Auden William Carlos Williams and Seamus i Leaney and by those struggling to make then names known. In he of year old in poems on the underground program May seem i quintessentially English but its roots Are in new York City that is when Ludith Chernaik was born and reared. She is a novelist who Lias lived in i Ondon Sim e i l 7j and who 011 Asio Nally has visions that i All her to Ai Tion. In the mid-1 l h a she said i began to Sec poems on the  it was the heyday of i hah he ism when the Mullish government was dismantling Soi Palisin and ainu my that people had to tend Lor themselves. Quot i Here w As a Shilt irom Public to i in ate in language and actuality Chernaik said. Quot there was a feeling something terrible was happening to culture to Public  two British friends who Are writers Gerard Benson and Cicely Herbert were taken with her idea for poems on the tube. They Are members of the Barrow poets a group of poets and musicians dedicated to popularizing poetry. Group members have performed in Britain and North America. Quot poetry has been hijacked by professors and locked up by libraries a Benson lamented. With help from Britain s government supported arts Council and Book publishers and some free spaces donated by the underground tin three to Intel Cher Nuiko a vision into reality. Riders responded so enthusiastically that the underground decided three years ago to toot most of the Hill. It costs about $ i a 7r> a year to print and design the posters. Riders regularly steal posters to Chernaik s Delight. Quot 1 hey really have to love the poem Quot she said. Quot it does t matter since extras Are  Hose who want to read the poetry at Home. Without pinching the posters a can also do so. More than 2 1,000 copies of 100 poems of i the i Linle ground a collection of the works published in late september have been sold. Lvery four months Herbert Benson and Chernaik i Hoose five poems or excerpts have them printed and then posted in 4,000 spaces on trains. I hey try to Selea t a wide Range from a variety of periods and countries although the poster s size roughly 24 in lies by i 1 in lies and the i 1-minute duration of an average subway trip impose limits. It Only published poems Are eligible. Riders can now pass the Lime Between St it it is by memorizing sonnets sharing Samuel Taylor Coleridge s Solitude in Frost at Midnight or taking heart from sometimes a work about How sometimes things do go right that was written by Sheelagh Pugh a relatively unknown British poet in her Early 40s. For commuters seeking a Scapegoat for their tedious lot lines from the expulsion from Eden in Milton s Paradise lost have reminded them of the original culprits. For escapist there is almost always something Light like Edward Lear s there was an lid Man with a heard who said Quot it is just As i loan a two owls and a Hen four l arks and a Wren Fla a All built their nests in my heard some Amer ii an poems such As a sonnet about bygone loves by Edna St. Vincent Millay have been Well received. But Walt Whitman Quot did t seem to speak to people Here Quot Chernaik said. Quot i Don t know  other transit systems including ones in Dublin Ireland and Stuttgart Germany have followed London s poetry programs. Chernaik has discussed the idea with Gannett transit which Sells advertising for new York s subway system and bus shelters. Quot we want to do it Quot Joan Davidson vice president of Public affairs at Gannett. Quot we just have to Ligure out who s going to pay Lor it. A big part of what we re try ing to do is to change the negative pen Eption people have of  will americans ire receptive a Chernaik worries that Loo Many consider poetry to be elitist or it ibis ure. Quot you Don t get that in England Quot she said Quot there s a great Deal of Pride in the language and the Ronli Nuila i>1 the language  i poetry has been a i i hijacked by professors j j and locked up in j i libraries j j a British writer j i Gerard Benson \ 24 stripes Magazine january to iwo a