When riding the subways in NYC I keep my eye out for the Poetry in Motion poems that are at one end or the other of the subway cars. These poems aren’t in every car, but when I see one and if the opportunity is there to take a photo of it, I do.
“Lullaby,” a poem by the Jewish Ukrainian-American poet Ilya Kaminsky has been featured on New York City’s trains recently. This poem is about a parent watching their daughter while she sleeps and shares space with advertisements and public service announcements.
Kaminsky, 46, was born in Odesa, a Ukrainian city that at the time was part of the former Soviet Union. He became deaf at the age of 4 due to complications from mumps. Like many thousands of Soviet Jews, Kaminsky and his family were granted political asylum and immigrated to the United States in 1993, settling in Rochester, New York.
A few times after taking a photo, someone has commented that they've never noticed the poems. With so many advertisements on the subway walls, they do blend in. But once you see one and you know where to look, at least for me, the poems add a special element to the underground ride.
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