Just in time for National Poetry Month in April, Madison's Poet Laureate and the Madison Arts Commission (MAC) are announcing the new project that combines literature and transportation Bus Lines.

Nice wordplay title, no?

It's a high school poetry competition that will print selected poems on the placards right above the seats on Metro Transit buses in the 2008-09 academic year.

It's a that will print selected poems on the placards right above the seats on Metro Transit buses in the 2008-09 academic year.

It's a that will print selected poems on the placards right above the seats on Metro Transit buses in the 2008-09 academic year.

Students whose work is selected will also be invited to read their work at the Wisconsin Book Festival next October.

Teachers, parents and anyone who interacts with high school students should encourage them to submit poems to Bus Lines.

Students who are enrolled in a Madison high school during the 2007-08 school year are eligible and are invited to submit up to three original, unpublished poems to Bus Lines.

Poems can be submitted in any language, but must also include an English language translation.

Each poem must be no longer than EIGHT lines.

There is no entry fee. And there will be no monetary prize awarded to students whose work is selected.

BUS LINES Applications and Guidelines are available on the MAC Website at http://www.cityofmadison.com/mac/buslines/ or by calling the Arts Program Administrator at kwolf@cityofmadison.com or (608) 261.9134. Entries accepted April 1-30, 2008.

April 30, 2008 is the last day to apply.

Bus Lines, is a collaborative project involving: Fabu (Madison's Poet Laureate), Madison Arts Commission, Metro Transit, Madison Metropolitan School District, Madison public Library, and the Wisconsin Book Festival. The various sponsors thank to Adams Outdoor Advertising for donating the advertising space and their creative services as part of their Public Service Advertising Program.

Art Talk really likes the idea.

A lot.

Now if, as I expect, it works: How about extending it beyond high school students?

I even think the busses should have short poems (haiku might be perfect?) by well known writers.

Or maybe quotes from great literature and excerpts from great poetry.

Maybe some Harper's Index-like statistics about national or local things.

And maybe even some local photos on show all the time.

Or maybe they could rotate things monthly or quarterly.

Or what about even commissioning a short short story (flash fiction it is sometimes called), and, just like Charles Dickens used to be published books in serial installments in newspapers and magazines, put up a new paragraph as a poster each week or month until it is completed.

I say: Let's turn that commuter time into learning time.

Into entertainment time.

From collective passivity into collective activity.

But what do you think of the Bus Lines poetry project?

And of my ideas for similar projects?

Do you have other ideas or suggestions to make?

Let Art Talk know and I'll pass it along to the Madison Arts Commission.