Sudbury poet laureate launches 'Moving with Poetry'

Starting this fall, you may notice more local writing inside of Sudbury transit buses.

The city’s poet laureate, Tom Leduc, is launching a program in Sudbury called Moving with Poetry. The work of local authors and aspiring poets will be on display for transit passengers. 

“In the advertisement spaces on the inside, whenever there’s a blank space, we’re going to slip in some poetry,” he said.

“Hopefully this way, it will meet people when they’re in a time of transition, you know, going to work or to school … this way, they’re not thinking about either place and maybe their minds are a little more open to the idea of poetry.”

Leduc said other cities have similar programs and were happy to let Sudbury adopt the idea under a different name.

The poems don’t have to be about riding the bus, Leduc said.

“It can be anything about the city,” he said.

“It doesn’t have to be about transit — just life in Sudbury generally.” 

Those stories and poems about Sudbury may encourage locals and tourists alike to check out a place they haven’t been to before, he said.

“So maybe if they’re from out of town … or visiting, they can get a broader sense of what life is like, what the people are like here in Sudbury.”

Poems should be relatively short, about 12 lines, he explained.

Once written, they can be taken to Leduc or any branch of the Greater Sudbury Public Library.

Completed work must be submitted by the end of August to be considered for use on a transit bus.