Jazzy new signs in subway stations have been catching the eyes of commuters in Washington. Instead of rushing to board a train, people pause to read poems written by kids.
The lighted posters, called Metro Muse, are at 10 train stops in the busy city. On display: 12 thoughtful compositions to celebrate kids' creativity and promote reading.
Writer Laurie Stroblas began the District Lines Poetry Project in 1994, hoping to give bus riders something better to stare at than ads or graffiti. She had been leading poetry workshops in public schools, so she asked her students to lend a hand.
"The response was incredible," says Stroblas. Last year she decided to transfer her idea to the subways and picked new poems, with the advice of 150 students. Organizations have donated enough money to keep Metro Muse in subway stations all winter. This spring a new crop of poems will sprout on city buses.
What are the poems about? Snow falling, the arrival of a new year, love, fear and peace. Cindy Rosales, a sixth-grader at Oyster Elementary School, was inspired two years ago by her favorite type of music: "Kindness is the jazz," she wrote. "Bring the big jazz in/ The big/ whole jazz."
Like most poets, the kids had mixed feelings about letting the public read their private thoughts. "I would feel glad that someone read my poem," one girl said. "But I would feel sad if they missed their train."