Stuck in Traffic and Bored ?!!

I recently discovered the perfect solution for whiling away time during the hour long journey to and from office everyday – this would work for anyone traveling to office by bus, car (except for those driving, of course), or cab. The antidote to boredom, irritation and mind-numbing frustration is to read from a book of poetry during the trip – mind you, to avoid a headache/nausea, it is essential that the poems are printed in a large font size.

Unlike a newspaper, a book, or (horror of horrors) printouts from work, poetry does not demand continuous reading – in fact, discrete intervals of reading enable one to savour the poem far more. Thus it is prefect reading material for someone stuck in start-stop-start-stop peak hour traffic. Every time the vehicle is a rest at a traffic light or in a jam, one can read a few lines of poetry; once the vehicle starts moving, one can soak in the lines, relish the imagery and the ideas and give one’s imagination free rein.

For a start, choose to drive away the Monday morning blues with some Ogden Nash, Shel Silverstein, Wendy Cope or Piet Hein and arrive in office with a grin plastered all over your face. Trust me, you will notice the traffic and travel time far less then you do currently if you try out this solution.

Note :
I discovered this solution by chance while trying to quickly finish an anthology of poems borrowed from a friend. Apart from the discovery of a solution to peak-hour-travel-blues, this anthology also enabled the discovery of a marvelous poet called Billy Collins. I found his poems remarkably fresh, witty, ironic, endearing and always an interesting read. Given here are links to some of his poems : Flock, Special Glasses, You, Reader
(Go ahead – print these out and enjoy them on your way home from work)

For poems by Ogden Nash, Piet Hein, Wendy Cope and Shel Silverstein, you can check the wondering minstrels, the poems are sorted by poets and have interesting commentary by the minstrels owners and readers too – the commentary really adds to the pleasure of reading the poems.

Zenobia D. Driver