| Navigating the New York subway can be more than a little intimidating because the tangled map is veinier than a full head of romaine lettuce, and it’s emblazoned with colors, letters, numbers, double letters, locals, expresses, circles, squares, dots and more. However, I’ve gotten better at decoding it over the years – AND – I love the “credit card tap in” feature to enter stations so that I don’t also have to figure out a complex fare card system on top of deciphering the labyrinthine map. On my recent trip to New York, we rode the subway a few times to various destinations, and on one train, I glanced down and saw a poster on display with what appeared to be a two-stanza eight-line poem. Of course, I immediately thought it was a poem by Dickinson, but no – it was an excerpt from a longer poem called “Queens of the Night” by Katherine Bradford. The poster was sponsored by the Poetry Society of America. |  |
 | Click the image at the left to enlarge. Anyway, that made me wonder – if I were to display a poem by Dickinson on the subway, which one would it be? Well, like this poster, I would select a short poem or a brief excerpt from a longer poem, but nothing from one of her darker poems of death, pain, loss or grief. Also, I wouldn’t post something too abstruse – say, like “Expectation is Contentment”-- nothing that would be overly baffling and/or require deep reflection and contemplation – not that there’s anything wrong with that – but for a quick subway ride, I’d want something captivating, joyful, and uplifting – and something that people could read quickly and think, “Wow! I love that.” |
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| The poem that jumped into my mind is “The Skies can’t keep their secret!” That’s a four stanza poem, so I’d post just the first two stanzas.: The Skies can't keep their secret! They tell it to the Hills – The Hills just tell the Orchards – And they—the Daffodils! A Bird – by chance – that goes that way – Soft overhears the whole – If I should bribe the little Bird – Who knows but she would tell? The complete poem is at the right. Click the image to enlarge. |  |
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