Poetry in the Parks

The Poetry Society of America and New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation are pleased to announce five new poetry installations as part of their ongoing public art partnership Poetry in the Parks. First launched in 2024, Poetry in the Parks transforms poems into works of public art, delighting visitors to New York State parks and historic sites stretching from Westchester to Columbia County.

The new poems, which feature the work of former US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith and Pulitzer-prize winner John Ashbery, among others, have been installed at Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site in Yonkers, Olana State Historic Site in Hudson, Clarence Fahnestock Memorial State Park in Carmel, Mills-Norrie State Park Marina in Staatsburg, and Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park in Yorktown Heights. Poetry in the Parks now features a total of ten poetry installations in the Taconic Region, with previous poems still on view at Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park, Clermont State Historic Site, Lake Taghkanic State Park, and a second poem at FDR State Park.

2025 Installation

John Ashbery at Olana NY State Historic Site
Toi Derricotte at Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park
Heid E. Erlich at Fahnestock State Park
Cindy Juyoung Ok at Mills Norrie State Park
Tracy K. Smith at Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site

John Ashbery is recognized as one of the greatest 20th-century American poets. He won nearly every major American award for poetry, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Yale Younger Poets Prize, the Bollingen Prize, the Ruth Lily Poetry Prize, the Griffin International Award, and a MacArthur "Genius" Grant.

Toi Derricotte is the author of numerous collections, including "I": New and Selected Poems, which was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award. She is the cofounder of Cave Canem, an organization devoted to the development and support of Black poetry in the United States.

Heid E. Erlich is the author of numerous collections, including, most recently, Little Big Bully. She edited the anthology New Poets of Native Nations. She Ojibwe, enrolled at Turtle Mountain.

Cindy Juyoung Ok is the author of Ward Toward, winner of the Yale Younger Poets Series, and a finalist for The Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize.

Tracy K. Smith is the author of several poetry books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection Life on Mars. She was the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States.

Inaugural Installation 2024

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.