New Poems on the Underground November 2022

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being, 

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

We are delighted to offer tube travellers a new autumn set of poems which show how interconnected we are, to the natural world, to our families and to the wider world.

The poems will circulate on London Underground and Overground trains for 4 weeks from November 7th.

To end our celebration of the bicentenary of Shelley’s death, we feature the first stanza of his greatest poem Ode to the West Wind. Included too are Jackie Kay’s warm tribute to her parents as they set off for yet another anti-war protest  and poems by four poets new to our programme, Jo Clement, Romalyn Ante, Kerry Shawn Keys and Cyril Wong.

from Ode to the West Wind by P.B. Shelley

George Square by Jackie Kay

Paisley by Jo Clement

from Invisible Women by Romalyn Ante

Vesper by Kerry Shawn Keys

Crow by  Cyril Wong 

from Ode to the West Wind by P.B. Shelley

Ode to the West Wind by P. B. Shelley 'O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, Pestilence-stricken multitudes; O Thou, Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed The wingèd seeds, where they lie cold and low, Each like a corpse within its grave, until Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow Her clarion o’er the dreaming earth, and fill (Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air) With living hues and odours plain and hill: Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; Destroyer and Preserver; hear, O hear! '

George Square by Jackie Kay

George Square by Jackie Kay ' My seventy-seven-year-old father put his reading glasses on to help my mother do the buttons on the back of her dress. ‘What a pair the two of us are!’ my mother said, ‘Me with my sore wrist, you with your bad eyes, your soft thumbs!’ And off they went, my two parents to march against the war in Iraq, him with his plastic hips, her with her arthritis, to congregate at George Square, where the banners waved at each other like old friends, flapping, where they’d met for so many marches over their years, for peace on earth, for pity’s sake, for peace, for peace.' Reprinted by permission of Bloodaxe Books from Darling: New & Selected Poems (2007)

Paisley by Jo Clement

Paisley by Jo Clement ' With India’s hand on the loom I untwist a paisley square from round my neck: red, green and gold threads repeat almonds some call figs, figs the Welsh call pears and pears you might call teardrops. Shook onto the grass, I smooth out Kashmir -- so close to silk – over the fault line made of my body: feet in England, head in Scotland, a heart elsewhere.' Reprinted by permission of Bloodaxe Books from Outlandish (2022)

from Invisible Women by Romalyn Ante 

from Invisible Women by Romalyn Ante ' My mother walks to work when the sky is black and comes out from work when the sky is black, her footsteps leave a snowdrop-studded path. In the middle of a plaza, she pauses -- the downpour tricking her eyes to believe the statue in the square is a fellow invisible woman.' Reprinted by permission of Chatto & Windus from Antiemetic for Homesickness (2020)

 Vesper by Kerry Shawn Keys Reprinted by permission of the author Kerry Shawn Keys (2020)

Vesper for my mother by Kerry Shawn Keys ' Next to the grapes to the side of the house, the mother with the disappearing bones showed me the flowers opening at dusk, perfuming the silence. See, they unfold the dark to make music with the moths. She stepped inside. Far off, the yellowing moon crocheted its starry nightgown into her shadow.' Reprinted by permission of the author Kerry Shawn Keys ( 2020)

Crow by  Cyril Wong 

Crow by Cyril Wong ' How does one begin to drink the sky? By tasting its tears, of course, the crow realised. Yet why does it remain so full – a pitcher of blue without end?' Reprinted by permission of Math Paper Press from Animal Season (2020)

You can find the rest of our Poems from November 2022 here