Recently on my journey on the underground, I have noticed poems crop up on the advertising boards on the train. These poems give me a source of entertainment on my dull ride home.
Although I have noticed them only lately, this project has been going on since 1986. The aim of the poems on the underground is to bring poetry to a wider audience. It seems that they have reached their goal as on instagram their hashtag has over 1,318 posts made by people of different ages and backgrounds.
These poems by contemporary and classical poets are put on display 3 times a year; the poems can be found on the TFL poetry archive or in the book originally published in 1991.
Here is one of the poems by Mona Arshi for the Indian Poems on the Underground to end on:
This morning
There a beginning
of a thread
Like the saffron strands
on my mother’s
Hands on six yards
of white cotton
I'm in the garden, almost
forgotten beside
the impossible flowers
Tsion Tafari