Poetry On Buses

4Culture's use of the Metro bus fleet to showcase the work of citizen poets has been embraced by the featured poets and by ordinary citizens who have encountered poems in this unexpected venue. In response to the most recent call for poetry, 3,000 poets submitted their work for consideration.

Beginning in 1992, 4Culture partnered with Metro King County to place poetry on buses throughout the County. A call for poetry on a given theme was issued and citizen poets submitted poetry of 50 words or less to a panel of distinguished poets. Selected poems were collected in a book that was distributed on buses and at transit hubs, and a public reading was held in honor of the included poets. Placards of the selected poetry shared the book's design and were placed on buses for a period of one or two years. Individual poems were paired on most buses, with one or more buses hosting that year's entire collection.

Since 2007, changes to the configuration of Metro's buses and the need for advertising revenue have created fewer opportunities for showcasing poetry. Weighing the cost of the program against the reduced opportunity, 4Culture has chosen to suspend the program for the foreseeable future.

There will be no call for poetry in 2010. Copies of the 2007 collection, Dreams, are still available at our offices, as well as limited copies of older collections. Unfortunately, we are not able to mail books.

We invite you to visit the Metro website to read past poetry collections online. 4Culture values poetry and poets and continues to look for ways to bring literature to the public realm. For more information call 206 205.5436.

Are you a writer, poet or performer, or do you simply love the literary arts? Explore opportunities to take classes, attend readings and perform at open mike events by visiting Richard Hugo House online and in person. This unique literary center, located in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, is a rich source of learning and experience.