Arts & Entertainment

Spreading Poetry in Somerville

Somerville resident Akshay Ahuja is distributing poetry booklets around the city, hoping to promote poetry, which most people associate with school assignments.

Over the next few weeks, when you stop into a local coffee shop, drop by the library or visit other locations in Somerville, keep your eyes open. You may stumble upon a small handmade booklet, bound together with green or red string, filled with poems and blank pages.

It's part of a project, the brainchild of Somerville resident Akshay Ahuja, to open people's eyes to poetry.

For most people, poetry is a drag, Ahuja feels. They associate it with school assignments and homework and, in general, not having fun.

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But it doesn't have to be that way. Poetry "doesn't have to be a chore. It's fun; it's entertainment," he said. When people see his booklets, they should know, "It's not a puzzle and it's not an assignment."

The booklets are filled with poems by a diverse collection of writers: William Shakespeare, Emily Brontë, D.H. Lawrence, Po Chü-i, to name a few.

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And what does Ahuja, 30, plan to do with these booklets? He plans to leave them around town so Somervillians can read them, share them and even write in them—that's what the blank pages are for.

"I'm hoping there are enough poetry lovers out there that they'll pick them up and spread them around town," Ahuja said.

He's conducting this Somerville poetry project with a small grant he received from the , enough, mostly, to cover the printing costs of the booklets, which he's binding himself, by hand.

Poetry can—and perhaps should—captivate people when they least expect it. For Ahuja, it was during a exam when he was about 14 years old, and one of the poems on the test was written by World War I poet Wilfred Owen. Although it was in the middle of a time-sensitive exam, Ahuja was drawn into the writer's description of war.

The Somerville resident hopes at least some people will have a similar experience with his booklets. He thinks poetry, taken outside the confines of school, will inspire a few people.

He's printing up about 100 of the booklets, and he's not sure how long they'll last or where they'll end up. He's hoping they'll still be in circulation in Somerville a few months from now.

Better yet, maybe some people will discover the booklets a few months from now and email Ahuja at somervillepoetry@gmail.com. Maybe, at that point, there will be some original poems or thoughts written on the blank pages.

If the booklets inspire just a handful of people, Ahuja will be happy. One of the great things about poetry, he said, is if you're able to memorize a line or stanza, "You can sort of keep it in your head, and you can have it forever."

Request a location

Ahuja plans to distribute his booklets at Somerville's libraries and at coffee shops and book shops around town. If you have a suggestion about where to leave a booklet, he'd like to know. Write your suggestion in the comments section. 


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