Every so often, poets are called upon to visit a high school classroom. We recite our verse and dissect our craft before a gaggle of bemused teenagers. It’s not always easy to connect, and sometimes we feel perilously close to being regarded as figures of fun. But in my experience, what shifts the mood in the room is three words they recognize: POETRY IN TRANSIT.

Whenever I mention my involvement in this beloved program, there’s an instant spark of energy. The boys grin and nod, the girls squeal with excitement. Now this is something they know; this is poetry in the real world of the daily commute. These are the poems that they and countless others — the harried mother shushing her toddler, the dusty construction worker at the end of his shift — have found themselves facing on public transit while jammed alongside other riders, peering at the posters from under a stranger’s armpit or over his bald spot.

What do these poems, these odd treasures tucked between ads, provide? A jolt of hilarity, a surge of sorrow. A moment of contemplation, stillness in the chaos — a reminder that there is beauty in the mundane, if we pay attention. The timeless pleasure of engaging with words — a breathtaking image, original metaphor, crackling verb. Since Poetry in Transit first arrived in this province in 1996, courtesy of poet Sandy Shreve, it has been enthusiastically supported by the Association of Book Publishers of BC (ABPBC). Over 25 years, it has featured hundreds of emerging and established poets, some of whom dreamt of their poems riding the bus long before they began to publish. Even award-winning poets have cited the selection of their work for Poetry in Transit as the highlight of their careers, thanks to the program’s ability to reach audiences beyond the literary magazine, bookstore and cafe reading circles.

Honestly? Editing this anthology was a dream job, the best I’ve had in years. Sifting through stacks of poems and collections — many archived at the ABPBC, others at the Vancouver Public Library — was a fascinating nostalgia trip, a foxed portrait of the literary community in BC. I revisited names and faces from the 1990s, some gone silent, others who went on to national acclaim. Often, their subject material was reflective of the times, and of the province they had chosen to call home — from the travel-brochure beauty of British Columbia’s coast, islands, and interior, to the economic and social challenges of its towns and cities.

The pleasure of this research was tempered by the knowledge that I could only select 40 poems for this anthology. Forty poems for twenty-five years! At first, my goal was simply to showcase the spectrum of poetry chosen by peer juries over the years — a range of atmosphere and emotion, style and subject. But as I read on, patterns began to form, and recurring themes floated to the surface — work and art, place and transportation, family and relationships. Ordering poems within these sections created a specific journey; the verses jostled against each other, one poet’s preoccupations sparking conversation with another’s.

Perhaps most importantly, each of the poems in this anthology gave me that “moment” that they gave riders on the bus. Each of these poems provoked a shift inside me, and startled me into a response — an involuntary burst of laughter, a gasp of recognition, the tingling of tears — on the twenty-fifth reading as much as on the first.

– Evelyn Lau