The document celebrates 25 years of the 'Poems on the Underground' initiative in London, featuring contributions from various poets including Grace Nichols, John Keats, and Seamus Heaney. Each poem reflects themes of nature, beauty, and human emotion, expressing profound truths about life and the world. The poems serve as a connection between art and daily transit, enriching the commuter experience.

1. For the Life of This Planet
The way the red sun surrenders The impulse of stones rolling
its wholeness to curving ocean towards their own roundness.
bit by bit. The way curving ocean The unexpected comets of flying fish.
gives birth to the birth of stars And Forest, Great-Breathing-Spirit,
in the growing darkness, rooting to the very end
wearing everything in its path for the life of this planet.
to cosmic smoothness.
Poems on the Underground celebrating 25 years Grace Nichols (b. 1950)
Reprinted by permission of Bloodaxe from I Have Crossed an Ocean: Selected Poems (2010)
MAYOR OF LONDON tfl.gov.uk/poems Transport for London

2. ‘Loving the rituals’
Loving the rituals that keep men close,
Nature created means for friends apart:
pen, paper, ink, the alphabet,
signs for the distant and disconsolate heart.
Palladas (4th century AD)
Poems on the Underground celebrating 25 years translated by Tony Harrison
Reprinted by permission of the translator
MAYOR OF LONDON tfl.gov.uk/poems Transport for London

3. Lines from Endymion n
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
Its loveliness increases; it will never A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Full of sweet dreams, and health, Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkened ways
and quiet breathing. Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits.
Poems on the Underground celebrating 25 years John Keats (1795-1821)
MAYOR OF LONDON tfl.gov.uk/poems Transport for London

4. Riddle
I was the cause of great troubles,
yet, resting among leaves, I did nothing wrong.
After much waiting I was taken in hand, But what I entered I also altered,
passed from one to another. bringing light where there had been darkness.
Broken I moved beyond sharp barriers I brought strife where there had been peace,
and was cradled in wetness, mashed to pulp. pain where there had been comfort.
Soon I entered a dark tunnel My journey ended in the place of corruption
where bathed in acids I altered my being. but by then I had changed the world.
Poems on the Underground celebrating 25 years Gerard Benson (b. 1931)
Reprinted by permission of Smith/Doorstop from A Good Time (2010)
MAYOR OF LONDON tfl.gov.uk/poems Transport for London

5. Colmcille the Scribe
M Wisdom keeps welling in streams
M
from the Irish, c.11th century From my fine-drawn sallow hand:
M Riverrun on the vellum
M Of ink from green-skinned holly.
My hand is cramped from penwork. My small runny pen keeps going
My quill has a tapered point. Through books, through thick and thin,
Its bird-mouth issues a blue-dark To enrich the scholars’ holdings –
Beetle-sparkle of ink. Penwork that cramps my hand.
Colmcille: 6th century Irish saint
Poems on the Underground celebrating 25 years Seamus Heaney (b. 1939)
Reprinted by permission of Faber & Faber from Human Chain (2010)
MAYOR OF LONDON tfl.gov.uk/poems Transport for London

6. Lines to a Movement in Mozart’s E-flat Symphony
Show me again the time
When in the Junetide’s prime
We flew by meads and mountains northerly! –
Yea, to such freshness, fairness, fullness, fineness, freeness,
Love lures life on….
Show me again just this:
The moment of that kiss
Away from the prancing folk, by the strawberry-tree! –
Yea, to such rashness, ratheness, rareness, ripeness, richness,
Mozart: Minuet, Symphony No. 39 Love lures life on.
arranged for piano by Julius Schulhoff, © The British Library Board, Images Online H 2345
Poems on the Underground celebrating 25 years of Mozart on BBC Radio 3 Thomas Hardy
celebrating The Genius (1840-1928)
MAYOR OF LONDON tfl.gov.uk/poems Transport for London