The D&R Greenway Land Trust will be hosting their Poetry of Migration series, along with renowned local poets, for guided walks along nature trails, and poetry and picnics to celebrate migrations in nature.
The Poetry of Migration series of guided hikes and readings begins Wednesday, April 25, 10:30am to noon, at the vintage barn at St. Michaels Farm Preserve in Hopewell. Poet and Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association Education Director Jeff Hoagland, as well as Poets of Preservation Gael Gardner and Rosemary Wright, will read nature poems surrounded by natural lands preserved by D&R Greenway.
The Poetry of Migration is presented in conjunction with the Princeton Migrations Project, a community-wide investigation of the theme of migration taking place throughout Princeton spearheaded by Princeton University Art Museum.
The second event in the series will take place at Cedar Ridge Preserve on Wednesday, May 23, 10:30am until noon, with poets Lois Marie Harrod, Maxine Susman, and Carolyn Edelmann. The third will take place at the Sourlands Ecosystem Preserve on June 13, 10:30am until noon with poets Linda Arntzenius, Winnie Hughes, and Jane McKinley.
Poets of this series were selected from D&R Greenway’s Poets of Preservation roster by D&R Greenway President & CEO Linda Mead. Mead organized the project around the idea that D&R Greenway lands preserve habitat for migrating species; and, when we are walking on these preserves, we ourselves are migrating.
Guests are encouraged to bring a picnic lunch, blanket and/or beach chair, water, and a hat. For all New Jersey hikes, D&R Greenway strongly recommends sun block, insect repellant, long pants tucked into long socks in closed shoes, and long-sleeved shirt. The poetry will accompany lunch, after the hike.
To register, [email protected]. Directions and parking information will be conveyed upon registration. In the event of rain, the St. Michaels event will be held inside the barn, and the Cedar Ridge and Sourlands events will take place in the RWJ Room of the Johnson Education Center, 1 Preservation Place, Princeton.
At D&R Greenway, there is a symbiotic relationship between poetry and nature. The Scott and Hella McVay Poetry Trail begins behind D&R Greenway Land Trust’s Johnson Education Center, winding up through an allee of sycamore and chestnut trees. Walk out past poems of Emily Dickenson, Rumi, Walt Whitman and others, up a hill blooming with aster, thistle and milkweed, to a place where the birds and insects sing a salute to the season. There are benches from which to contemplate Mary Oliver’s question, “Who made the world?” and the ground is fertile with inspiration.
Established in 2010, the Scott and Hella McVay Poetry Trail loops a meandering mile through a native plant meadow on D&R Greenway’s Conservation Campus. Forty-nine poems feature the work of poets from 14 countries and cultures. The common thread is each poet’s intense response of some aspect of the natural world.
Many notable poets, from Pulitzer Prize-winning C.K. Williams and Paul Muldoon to American Academy of Poets Chancellor Jane Hirshfield, American Book Award winner Joseph Bruchac and Rumi interpreter Coleman Barks have all participated in D&R Greenway poetic events.
