… tampering with visual stuff in metro stations and cars. She doesn’t seem to mind just a little tampering on occasion. Not all-out defacement! But – you know – say you take out your black pen and fill in just one of a big smiling set of teeth. Is that so horrible?
So a couple of college students in New York, depressed by a poem prominently installed in a subway tunnel (it was meant stay up there for a year, but never got taken down) climbed a ladder last week and rewrote it. They didn’t write a whole new poem; with great care, they used the poem as written, but tweaked it to be upbeat.
Here’s the original poem. A draggy little ditty about the miserable working life of the commuter. A major downer inside a derelict subway tunnel. Makes the Russians look giddy.
Is it so horrible that these two felt moved to subvert its words? UD applauds their literary ingenuity, and she notes that the new poem, as of this writing, remains on the wall.
November 30th, 2011 at 2:10PM
“Sounds of Silence” anticipated this?
November 30th, 2011 at 3:11PM
The quote from the poet’s widow is just so perfect! “Be realistic – life sucks!” Thanks, poetry!
November 30th, 2011 at 4:07PM
Yes – I loved that.