“Poetry in Parks” Travelogue: Redwood National and State Parks

In June, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón launched “Poetry in Parks,” which features site-specific poetry installations in seven national parks across the country. These installations, which will transform picnic tables into works of public art, will each feature a historic American poem that connects in a meaningful way to the park. Limón will travel to each of the parks for an unveiling, and we’ll be reporting on summer visits in “Bookmarked” throughout July.

Just off of a spectacular day in Mount Rainier National Park, the laureate and staff from the Library and the National Park Service caravanned south—with an overnight in Portland, then on to Redwood National and State Parks for our June 23rd visit. As with Cape Cod and Mount Rainier, Ada had a personal connection to the park: she visited often as a child, driving up from her home in the Sonoma area with her grandparents.

Limón shared this experience at the morning’s private event at the park’s Thomas H. Kutchel Visitor Center. The event, led by Interpretation and Education Manager Patrick Taylor, focused on cultural organizations south of the park and included not only the laureate but also dance artist, director and educator Lauren Godla—one of the recipients of the park’s year-old Artist-in-Residence program. Members of the organizations introduced themselves to each other and, after a brief conversation with Limón and National Park Service Education Strategist Shauna Potocky, shared ideas about how to connect to the park for arts-oriented programs and initiatives, with a focus on poetry.

A few hours later, after a stop to see some of the park’s famed “Big Trees” along the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway, the party arrived at the Crescent Beach Day Use Area at the park’s northwest tip. The public event took place under a tent facing the ocean, and a crowd of almost 90 loudly cheered for the laureate as she stepped onto the stage.

Limón read her own poems as well as the poem “Redwoods” by Dorianne Laux (Laux’s contribution to the “You Are Here” anthology) and the featured poem for the park, “Never Alone” by Francisco X. Alarcón. Park Superintendent Steve Meitz and Shelana DeSilva, deputy district superintendent of the California State Parks North Coast Redwoods District, offered comments (the park includes one national park and three state parks), then joined Limón for the table reveal.

At the book signing, Limón chatted with visitors, including a woman from Massachusetts who’d been to the “Poetry in Parks” opening event. She then called her son, who’d promised to pay for a trip of her choice—and she chose a week’s vacation at Redwood and another event with the laureate!

Afterwards, Limón returned to the picnic table and to her notebook, to take in the scene and respond to the prompt just as she invites anyone encountering the “Poetry in Parks” picnic tables to do.

Ada and the few remaining staff traveled south the next day to Ada’s childhood home in the Sonoma area, which she recently purchased. In her backyard, in the beautiful California sunshine, Limón pointed out the lemon tree she planted as a child—a perfect example of how the project connects to her own life in the most personal of ways, as the natural world does to us all.