Two stories on poetry in unlikely places these past few days highlight our contention that poetry is far from dying, far from hidden – in fact, it is alive and kicking and it belongs to the people as much as it does to the ivory towers of the academics. Poetry has room for everyone, from the 7 year old who is just learning to mix up words and colors and feelings to the Pulitzer Prize winner who shares his vision of his world with the rest of us.

If you live in Chicago, you”ll be seeing the results of a cooperative program between Chase Bank, who provided an $8,000 grant, and the Chicago Poetry-in-the-Schools program. On Monday, the Chicago Transit Authority kicked off the Elevated Poetry program which put poems by 25 Chicago schoolkids up at 50 El stations across the city. Teachers say that the benefits to the kids involved are immense – one 12 year old whose poetry was chosen for the project has entered two speech contests, riding on the success of her poems. The impact on other students is no less.
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“We want this to have an impact on the city,” said Lisa Buscani, executive director of the Poetry Center of Chicago. “It”s another way to wake people up to poetry. The only way the public can become more comfortable with poetry is to be bombarded by it.”

There”s a far different voice that”s no less uncompromising and truthful in the San Joaquin Valley. In an article published in Sunday”s Arizona Daily Star, writer Juliana Barbassa talked about the region Where poetry grows like weeds. Boosted by the poetry of Pulitzer Prize winner Philip Levine (1995 for The Simple Truth), the area has developed its own regional poetic voice.

“This place is very dramatic and uncompromising and vast,” Levine said. “When you sit down to write, you think: “I want to write large to measure up to this.”" Joyce Jenkins, editor of Poetry Flash, a magazine focused on West Coast poetry, said Levine”s writing style meshed perfectly with the valley. “The valley isn”t a very romantic place, or a particularly intellectual place,” she said. “Levine”s straightforward, honest poetry was a wonderful fit for these kids who were hungry to learn, who were from working class backgrounds. He taught some wonderful poets, who went on to teach themselves. There was a big ripple effect.”
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