Subway Stanzas | Poetry Posters on the Glasgow Subway

Since September 2006 (and until the end of March 2007), a new series of the Subway Stanzas poetry posters have been on display in the Glasgow Underground. This series has featured six poems by poets from countries in the Commonwealth, and the posters were put up in collaboration with Glasgow City Council, in support of Glasgow’s bid to host the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

‘Runner’, written by Robert Seatter from England, marked the Great Scottish Run. The poem comes from Travelling to the Fish Orchards published by Seren.

‘The jive’ by Mafka Gwala from South Africa celebrated the Big Big World Music Festival in October, and is published in Ten South African Poets published by Carcanet Press.

‘The Butterfly’ by Arun Kolatkar from India celebrated the Inspiration Children’s Festival in November and is from The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets published by Oxford University Press.

‘I’ll wake up one morning’/’Dùisgidh mi aon mhadainn’ by Morag Montgomery celebrated Celtic Connections, Scotland’s biggest folk music festival, in January and is from An Tuil, An Anthology of 20 th century Scottish Gaelic Verse published by Polygon.

‘Falling Feeling’ by Finuala Dowling from South Africa celebrated Valentine’s Day in February and is from I Flying published by Carapace Press.

‘Folding the Sheets’ by Rosemary Dobson from Australia celebrated International Women’s Day in March and is from Collected Poems published by Angus & Robertson.

This series of posters was produced by the Scottish Poetry Library with the support of the Glasgow advertising company Non Stop Advertising, Strathclyde Public Transport, Primesight and Glasgow City Council. There has now been poetry on the Glasgow underground since 2005.

Gleaned from a news item on the Scottish Poetry Library website.