Everybody on the bus – that”s the slogan of my local Regional Transit Authority – but it”s also good advice for poets these days. From Chicago, where poems by schoolkids are posted in bus stations and on busses, to New York”s subway readings to Seattle”s Wave Books” Poetry Bus Tour 2006, busses have taken a big part in poetry these days. Okay – poetry busses are not something new. The Merry Pranksters took to the road in 1964 on their own version of the poetry bus, and for the last few years, poets have criss-crossed the country on a Greyhound bus, stopping in various venues to perform, read, write and generally spread the love of poetry. This year, Wave Books sponsors the Poetry Bus Tour 2006, which will leave Seattle on Monday, September 4, and return to it on October 27 – just under two full months of traveling on a decked out bus with a bunch of poets.

In the interim, the poets will be visiting 55 cities and numerous venues. The tour includes:

The Space Needle in Seattle, WA; The Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD; The Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, MN; The Bama Theater in Tuscaloosa, AL; James Turrell”s Roden Crater in AZ; Dia:Beacon in Beacon, NY; Dia Art Foundation in New York, NY; as well as bookstores, galleries, clubs, prisons and schools across the continent.

Participating poets include: Eileen Myles, James Tate, Cole Swensen, Dean Young, Joshua Beckman, Erin Belieu, Noelle Kocot, Matthew Zapruder, Tyehimba Jess, Hoa Nguyen, Richard Siken, Katy Lederer, Dara Wier, Arthur Sze, Catherine Wagner, Srikanth Reddy, Matthew Rohrer, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Bhanu Kapil and over 100 more.

For more information – and to follow the tour once it starts – visit poetrybus.com