Lovely Sandy Fussell (@SandyFussell) shared a link online last week, showing a Poetry Path at Worthington Libraries, in Ohio. Someone may have shared on #PoetryFriday before I joined the conversation (?) but if not, I’m sure you’d love to wander through. I know I appreciated Sandy tweeting it. (And shared it with my local library and regional council. :P)
Image taken from the Library as Incubator Project, where you can read more about the project – and admire the gardens.
The poetry path came about because the Worthington Libraries Green Team ‘wanted to transform the space… to serve as an outdoor learning space and as a home to birds, bees, butterflies and other wildlife.’ The poetry path features the work of six American poets, including three from Ohio. There are also ‘a variety of native Ohio plants, gravel pathways, a dry creekbed with local pebbles and boulders, a bird habitat area and safe “pondless” water features.’
Links on the website take you to copies of the poems featured. I particularly like this little visual, from David Baker’s poem, Neighbors in October.
And how like a field is the whole sky now
that the maples have shed their leaves, too.
The gardens look restive, and I imagine it would be inspiring, yet contemplative, to meander through, absorbing the poetry whilst surrounded by lush gardens. A wonderful initiative.
This week, Poetry Friday is being collated at Wee Words for Wee Ones. With a focus on the littlies, I thought I’d also include this little pony poem – just for fun.
I suffered from the timezones difference last week – my post was up but the host was not, then the host was up, but I was not, and I was up, but the host was not… (you get the picture) – and was a late inclusion in the round-up. So feel free to read last week’s Postcard from Mars while you’re here.
Like you, I’m in love with the idea of a poetry path. I love seeing poems in public places. There are poems on the long jetty in a neighbouring town in my part of the world. Your little pony poem is very sweet.
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Poems to discover in public places add an extra layer of complexity and delight to life. 🙂
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Adorable pony poem!
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Thank-you! I wrote it for a little class I was doing a skype visit with last year… and after reading this post, the teacher-author-friend tweeted to say she caught up with some little former students the other day and they mentioned this poem! #mademyday
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Aw!! That rocks!! Such tiny ripples can change the world.
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A poetry path is an initiative I could get behind! Every community needs one (many) of these! I love your pony poem – prance is a great word. =)
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Thank-you Bridget. Prance is a beautiful word – a light and lively sound.
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Poetry path! What a glorious idea! Imagine if every school had one..Best we did was turn our main hallway into an impromptu poetry gallery. We covered the walls with rolls of black art-paper and offered colored chalk with which students could post their poems–found or original… That was good, but an outdoor poetry path–that is great! (Now I know how to put an imaginary big lottery winning to literary work: create a poetry path and invite wannabee poets (like myself) to immerse themselves in writing verse while being immersed in works of nature and mentor-text poetry. Imagine! …Who knows! Meantime some creative computer genius might figure out how to give us a virtual poetry path…God bless you! And thanks for all the good imaginings your post has conjured up–including the childhood remembrance of wanting more than anything else to have a pony. (Which I never did.) Come to think of it, maybe that’s why I collect and surround myself now with figurines of carousel horses and ponies! I love your happy pony poem and its surrounding joyful-looking pony. Thank you!
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Love the sound of your black paper and chalk! Now there’s a thought. #inspiredagain As to the virtual poetry path… I think that happens every Friday, don’t you? 😉
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Yes! You are right! I never thought of it that way. PF is the Poetry Path! God bless you. …Glad you liked the black paper & chalk. Students loved sharing poems using different colored chalk. One downside–some of the “darlings” thought it funny to smudge the chalk. Tried putting the paper higher on the wall, but that posed a writing challenge for the poets. Never a dull moment…Thanks again for interacting! I appreciate so very much your encouraging feedback. God bless you!
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This is absolutely wonderful! I hope the idea catches on.
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Me too!
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That does sound like a lovely, inspiring place to visit. Thanks for sharing it. I thought you might get a kick out of an old post of mine with “random acts of poetry”: http://tabathayeatts.blogspot.com/2012/11/random-acts-of-poetry.html
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Thanks for sharing, Tabatha. Lovely to discover the random acts of poetry.
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