It is no exaggeration to say that renowned Philadelphia poet Elaine Terranova’s work has reached a wide audience. Besides being featured in some very high profile literary publications such as The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, and the Prairie Schooner, Ms. Terranova’s poems have been posted on buses and in subways throughout her hometown.

Her poem “The River Bathers” was used in 2003 on illustrated posters by the city’s Public Poetry Project and “The Choice” was part of Philadelphia’s Poetry in Motion. Inspired by a similar program in the London Underground, Poetry in Motion, started with New York’s MTA system in 1992 and expanded to cities across the country. It arrived in Philadelphia in 1999. At its peak, the program brought the work of prominent poets to some 13 million daily commuters in 14 American cities.

“Poetry in Motion put short poems or parts of poems on placards on buses and subways and I was one of a dozen Pennsylvania poets, including Lee Upton, David Slavitt, and Steve Berg, to participate,” notes Ms. Terranova. “Although it only lasted in Philadephia for about six months, it was great to have public transportation carry poetry; I wish it would come back.”

On the second Monday of every month, U.S.1 Poets’ Cooperative and the Delaware Valley Poets join with the Princeton Public Library in presenting “Poets at the Library,” a reading series that features one or two seasoned poets followed by an open reading with local poets stepping up to the podium to share their works. “It’s a pleasure to read poetry in Princeton,” says Ms. Terranova. “I like the charm and tradition of the place. It’s a town with a well-used and well-appreciated library and that tells you a lot about the population.”

This Monday, May 13, brings Ms. Terranova and longtime U.S.1 Poets’ Cooperative member John McDermott to the comfortable space before the fireplace on the library’s second floor.

Born in Philadelphia 1939, Ms. Terranova received her Bachelor’s degree in 1961 from Temple University. Her literary career began in publishing as a manuscript editor for J. B. Lippincott Co. While there, she studied for her Master’s degree through Vermont’s Goddard College and then, in 1977, began teaching English and creative writing at Temple University. After a decade at Temple, she joined the Community College of Philadelphia as a reading and writing specialist. She teaches there currently.

Ms. Terranova’s interest in poetry prompted a chapbook, Toward Morning/Swimmers, in 1980. But it was with her first collection The Cult of the Right Hand that she came to prominence. The Cult of the Right Hand won the 1990 Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets and led its author to being asked to lead workshops at the 1991 Rutgers University Writers Conference and the 1992 Writers’ Center at the Chautauqua Institution.

In 1991, Ms. Terranova was interviewed on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and in 1992, she held the Robert Frost Fellowship in Poetry at the 1992 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. In the same year, her poem “The Stand-up Shtetel” took first prize in the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Competition for poems on the Jewish experience.

Damages, her second collection, received warm reviews in 1996, the same year she was Margaret Banister writer-in-residence at Sweet Briar College. Besides Damages (Copper Canyon Press,1996), her books include The Dog’s Heart (Orchises, 2002), and Not To: New and Selected Poems (Sheep Meadow Press, 2006), runner-up for the 2007 William Carlos Williams Award, Dames Rocket (Penstroke Press. 2012) and Dollhouse (Off the Grid Press, 2013); her many awards include a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, a National Endowment in the Arts Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize.

Her poems are accessible and memorably disconcerting. Keenly aware of loss and with deep empathy for others, Ms. Terranova’s sensibility offers a fresh perspective. She is an intimate observer who is able to give voice to others such as the distracted office worker at his desk, capturing the thoughts behind a troubled expression. Her poems have an elegance borne of fleeting images deftly captured.

These lines from “Laterna Magica,” convey the poet’s compelling imagery: “And one day/a house burns down/as a woman cooks dinner./Miraculous — the family escapes./Expensive place. Acres/of feathery trees. You know the man,/have in your mind a glimpse of him/as you turned a corner/or at a blind landing of the stairs./You forget this fire/until a plane crash lands/and he and his child are listed/among the lost./Their names/could be tubas and kettledrums,/a music too important/for the radio. Pink/messages/pulse across your desk/but you are staring/at the irises in a vase/that rise like faces out of smoke.”

Joining Ms. Terranova at Monday’s reading, Mr. McDermott is a familiar voice in Princeton’s poetry community. A former poetry editor of U.S.1 Worksheets, he is an associate professor of English as a Second Language at Union County College. He’s read at the Dodge Poetry Festival and served many years as a Dodge Poet working with teachers and students. His poems have appeared in numerous journals.

Poets at the Library takes place Monday, May 13 at 7:30 p.m. in the Fireplace Area on the library’s second floor. For more information, call (609) 924-9529 or visit www.princetonlibrary.org.