The Poetry of a New York Cabbie

It's a thing.

From a story in the New York Times...

Tip the waitress or barman well,” one verse began, “’cause you’re going to need their toilet.” 

These are the bards of gridlock, a group of New York City’s yellow taxi drivers coached in recent weeks to produce a series of poems about their jobs, to be presented as part of the PEN World Voices Festival. On Saturday, inside a darkened theater on Lafayette Street, the drivers recited their work as a roomful of the city’s literary class observed. “The idea is to take the creative writing workshop out into the community of workers,” said Mark Nowak, the group’s instructor and the director of the master’s program in creative writing at Manhattanville College. Mr. Nowak said he had in the past organized similar workshops for Ford autoworkers in Minnesota, Somali nurses, and electricians from Chicago. 

Organizers turned to the taxi for this year’s event. “What could be more New York City than the yellow cab?” Mr. Nowak said.