Poetry in Transit is celebrating its 28th year by bringing poetry to commuters. This initiative aims to make travel more enjoyable during bus delays and SkyTrain disruptions. After a launch event at the Word Vancouver Festival on September 28, poems by ten different poets from across British Columbia are now featured on TransLink and BC Transit vehicles.
This year’s featured poets include Michelle Brown, Dina Del Bucchia, Justene Dion-Glowa, Svetlana Ischenko, Donna Kane, Christopher Levenson, Bradley Peters, Michelle Poirier Brown, Andrea Scott, and Tiffany Stone.
Michelle Brown, from the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territories in Vancouver, has been published in magazines such as The Walrus, Prism, and Malahat Review. She has received multiple award nominations, including for the Malahat’s Open Season award and CBC’s Poetry Prize. Her poem “Swan Song” may be seen during commutes.
An excerpt from “Swan Song” reads:
“All we can do is throw what’s yet to be done / the stolen kiss, the parachute, the unborn / into the bag of holding with our spoils, / our spouses, the soy wax dried to the bath mat, / and hope to forget which was which.”
Andrea Scott, from the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Victoria) area, has been published in The Dalhousie Review and Arc Poetry. In 2023, she was longlisted for the Room Poetry Contest and the CBC Poetry Prize. Her winning poem from the Geist Erasure Poetry Contest in 2022, “In the Warm Shallows of What Remains,” will also be featured.
An excerpt from “Return to the Lake of Shining Waters” states:
“Do you remember a special / green life? Webbed. No troubles. Are you sorry / to have lived as a human? Sunrise will be wasted / on whispered confessions, on romantic bunglings.”
Justene Dion-Glowa, who is of Anishinaabe (Ojibwe), Ininew (Cree), and Dakota descent, will showcase poetry from their book, Trailer Park Shakes. Dion-Glowa is a queer, Métis poet and an alum of the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
An excerpt from “n8v aunties” includes:
“everything smells of sage at your native auntie’s place / cat circles at your feet while she tells you stories of Sundance / makes a feast of KD and tomato soup so you get those veggies in / shows you how to tie tobacco / says you gotta buy it now tho we all do, but get it in a pouch.”
Bradley Peters has numerous publications in literary magazines and has been nominated for The Fiddlehead’s Ralph Gustafson Award. He won first place in Grain Magazine’s Short Grain contest. His debut poetry book is Sonnets from a Cell, and his poem “Scaring Myself” will also appear in this year’s Poetry in Transit.
An excerpt from “Scaring Myself” reads:
“In the courtroom, I am sentenced to lose / Twelve months, less a day, of my precious life, / Which I don’t realize at that moment / Is precious—a reflection I look through / In a greyhound window, one year later.”
In addition to enjoying poetry, commuters can enter the #PoetryInTransit Contest. To participate, they simply take a photo of any Poetry in Transit card, share it on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or X, tag readlocalbc with #PoetryInTransit, and tag a friend for a chance to win a poetry book from one of the featured poets.
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