When travelling on the underground in London last week, I found my eyes drawn to Anne Stevenson’s poem “It looks so simple from a distance...”. Apparently the London Underground has paired up with a bunch of culture institutions bringing poetry to the commuters and done so successfully since 1986. I say successfully since according to their website, the ninth edition of the book, "Poems on the Underground", has sold more than a quarter of a million copies since it was published in 1999.I suppose that this mix of providing free samples on the underground and on the web together with selling books is a great example of Chris Anderson’s theories regarding how to give things away in order to make money.
The series “Science Poems on the Underground” celebrates 350 years of the Royal Society. They have a really clever way of integrating scientific papers into modern media.
Planning a conference on innovation and sustainability, I might just look for inspiration here... Perhaps a competition on innovation poetry rather than business plans?
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