Poetry in the Parks

Launched in May 2024 to celebrate the Centennial of New York State Parks, Poetry in the Parks is a new public art initiative that integrates poems in New York State’s public parks and historic sites. Poems and poets reflect the diversity of park visitors and celebrate the beauty of nature found in these public places, encouraging exploration and discovery. Poetry in the Parks is presented as a partnership between the Poetry Society of America and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.

Featuring Poems by

Andrea Cohen, at FDR State Park
Robert Hass, at Lake Taghkanic State Park
Ishion Hutchinson, at Clermont State Historic Site
Patrica Spears Jones, at Walkway Over the Hudson
Ada Limón, at Walkway Over the Hudson

Andrea Cohen is the author of numerous poetry books, including most recently The Sorrow Apartments. She directs the Blacksmith House Poetry Series in Cambridge, MA, and is teaching at Boston University in the spring of 2024.

Robert Hass is the author of numerous poetry books, including Time and Materials, which received both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. He served as the United States Poet Laureate from 1995 to 1997. He is a Professor of the Graduate School at UC Berkeley.

Ishion Hutchinson was born in Port Antonio, Jamaica. He is the author of several books of poems, most recently School of Instructions. He is the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, among others. He teaches in the graduate writing program at Cornell University.

Patricia Spears Jones is a poet, playwright, anthologist, educator, and cultural activist. She won the 2017 Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets & Writers and is the 2023 New York State Poet Laureate. Her most recent book is The Beloved Community.

Ada Limón is the author of six poetry books, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Her most recent book of poetry, The Hurting Kind, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. She is the 24th Poet Laureate of The United States and the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship.