Poetry in parks, from coast to coast. ✨ The first three poetry installations in national parks as part of U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s signature project have been unveiled!
“You Are Here: Poetry in the Parks” will bring public art installations to seven parks by the end of the year, and you can now find them at Cape Cod National Seashore, Mount Rainier National Park and Redwood National and State Parks!
Learn how you can participate in #YouAreHerePoetry by visiting loc.gov/poetry.
Photos by Shawn Miller/Library of Congress
Yesterday, we unveiled the poetic picnic table at Redwood National & State Parks. What a great and grounding joy. The poem is called Never Alone Francisco X Alarcón. It’s from his beautiful book Snake Poems, which was the first book I ever got signed (outside of Readers’ Books where I worked as a teenager).
The wind blew and the ocean was moving and the trees were treeing as we read poems and talked about the importance of stewarding this spectacular place.
I may have cried when I met a big tree. Thank you, earth, thank you poetry, for this life.
You Are Here: Poetry in Parks has been such a healing project this June. Thank you to all who have traveled near and far to help us commemorate this dream.
Next stops, Cuyahoga Valley National Park and Smoky Mountain National Park in July! 🌲❤️
Photos by Shawn Miller, Shauna Potocky, Vaughan Fielder, and Daniel Rose.
Thank you @librarycongress , @nationalparkservice , @poetry_society and The Field Office.
Yesterday afternoon, we unveiled the A. R. Ammons poem “Uppermost” at Paradise at the base of Mount Rainier on the full strawberry moon. My little bother—who had been a ranger on Rainier—helped me unveil the accessible picnic table with the prompt “What would you write in response to the landscape around you?”
People came up the mountaintop to celebrate this place and deepen our connection to nature through poetry. The sun was out, solstice was vibrating in us, the mic cut out but we used our lungs and our stronger selves to collectively honor the moment.
I am grateful, I am humbled, and I am not doing any of this on my own.
Thank you @librarycongress@nationalparkservice@poetry_society and The Field Office!
Today, we are on our way to California to Redwoods National and State Parks! From one home to another. 🌲
Here are the details for tomorrow:
Redwood National and State Parks - June 23, 2024
Unveiling Event
Location: Crescent Beach Day Use Area
Time: 3 - 4 pm PT
Featured poem: “Never Alone” by Francisco X. Alarcón
Last weekend, we launched the first of 7 poetic installations in the National Parks as part of You Are Here. We began with the Cape Cod National Seashore. The poem "Can You Imagine?" by Mary Oliver is now facing the calm of Blackwater Pond on a beautiful (accessible) picnic table and includes the prompt, "What would you write in response to the landscape around you?" About 120 people came out to the public unveiling, followed by a guided walk by the phenomenal ranger (and poetry lover) Aleutia Scott. This week, we head to Mount Rainier and Redwoods to launch more poems in more National Parks. I am forever grateful for the folks that are doing this work and who are recognizing the need to protect our natural lands and nourish our need for wonder. If the solstice is about manifesting in some way, I'll add that this project seemed to want to exist and all I had to do was be its steward. That evening, we had a public event that celebrated the whole project at The Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. Thank you to the Library of Congress, to the National Parks Service, to the Poetry Society of America, and to this earth we take too often for granted. Photos by Shawn Miller.
After two years of meetings and discussions and incredible collaboration, the Poetry and Parks initiative of my signature project You Are Here launched this Friday in Cape Cod! So thrilled that these iconic poems are being installed. I continue to be in awe of everyone who works so tirelessly (in small and large ways) to shine a light and add even a glimmer of hope in this world.
Hello from Provincetown and the Cape Cod National Seashore! What a beautiful and special place to launch You Are Here: Poetry in Parks. U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón @adalimonwriter unveiled the first of 7 poetry installations in national parks with a poem by Mary Oliver on a picnic table here. What would you write in response to the landscape around you? #YouAreHerePoetry#poetry#poetrylovers#findyourpark
Can I admit that I don’t know how to heal the world or how exactly poetry can “save” us? But I know I don’t want to give up. Not on the planet and not on humanity. This summer, I’m heading out to honor both poetry and nature and their power to change us for the better. Sending love to every living being on this earth. Even the ant that just crawled on my lap.
JUNE 14: CAPE COD NATIONAL SEASHORE, MA FEATURED POEM: “CAN YOU IMAGINE” BY MARY OLIVER
* 10:00 am: Public Event: Unveiling of the Installation Location: Beech Forest Trailhead, Cape Cod National Seashore, MA
* 5:30 pm: Public Event: Kickoff Celebration Location: Fine Arts Work Center (in person SOLD OUT), Provincetown, MA & Livestream
JUNE 21: MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, WA FEATURED POEM: “UPPERMOST” BY A. R. AMMONS
* 5:00 pm: Public Event: Installation Unveiling Location: Henry M Jackson Memorial Visitor Center Plaza (in Paradise), Mt. Rainier, WA
JUNE 23: REDWOOD NATIONAL AND STATE PARKS, CA FEATURED POEM: “NEVER ALONE” BY FRANCISCO X. ALARCÓN
* 3:00 pm: Public Event: Installation Unveiling Location: Crescent Beach Day Use (Exit Enderts Beach Rd. off HWY 101), Crescent Beach, CA
JULY 12: CUYAHOGA VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, OH FEATURED POEM: “THE VALLEY” BY JEAN VALENTINE
* 6:00 pm: Public Event: Installation Unveiling Location: Ledges Shelter (or Environmental Education Center if inclement weather)
JULY 20: GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK, TN/NC FEATURED POEM: FEATURED POEM: “THE EARTH IS A LIVING THING” BY LUCILLE CLIFTON
* 11:00 am: Public Event: Installation Unveiling Location: Oconaluftee Visitor Center
OCTOBER 8: EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK, FL FEATURED POEM: “ECOLOGY” BY JUNE JORDAN
* 3:00 pm: Public Event: Installation Unveiling Location: Royal Palm Area/Ernest Coe Visitor Center
DECEMBER 3: SAGUARO NATIONAL PARK, AZ FEATURED POEM: “NA:NKO MA:S CEWAGĬ / CLOUD SONG” BY OFELIA ZEPEDA
* 1:00 pm: Public Event: Installation Unveiling Location: Mica View Picnic Area
May marks the end of National Poetry Month. But poetry never ends. Nor does love or the human capacity for wild transformations. And what is time anyway? I’m not sure time exists. What are nations and borders even? Who invented the rules? Who says who belongs on this earth and who doesn’t? I still only trust the seasons. The bloom and the green that follows.
Like many of my friends, I have been writing a poem (small messy draft) a day for the month of April (maybe a few little stragglers to make up). It’s been useful. Helpful. Necessary. To examine language and its failures. I still believe in poetry’s power to change us even if it’s only ourselves. Even if it’s only noticing grief and rage, or the ants coming up through the patio tiles.
Yesterday, I spoke about poems and read poems to 700 high school students and 1000 adults and in between visited Emily Dickinson museum. And as if she knew we needed her, a groundhog showed her face and I loved her so and felt recognized.
Maybe it’s not the end of National poetry month maybe it’s the beginning of poetry’s expansiveness beyond our imagination.
“I see poetry as spiritual medicine.” Mahmoud Darwish
On the last day of National Poetry Month, I’ll be reading and sharing at Smith College. Looking forward to seeing you if you are able to join.
Sending love. ❤️
