Poetry in the Parks/NPS

Seven national parks, including Cape Cod National Seashore, were selected by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón to be part of her signature project “You are Here: Poetry in Parks.”

The initiative is a partnership with the Library of Congress, the National Park Service, and the Poetry Society of America that features site-specific poetry installations in the parks. Each one will transform a picnic table into a work of public art by featuring a historic American poem that relates to the park in a meaningful way.

“I want to champion the ways reading and writing poetry can situate us in the natural world. Never has it been more urgent to feel a sense of reciprocity with our environment, and poetry’s alchemical mix of attention, silence, and rhythm gives us a reciprocal way of experiencing nature—of communing with the natural world through breath and presence,” said Limón. 

Mary Oliver Picnic Table/NPS

Cape Cod National Seashore is the first stop of Limon’s "Poetry in Parks" tour. Over the next several months, she will also visit Mount Rainier National Park in Washington, Redwood National and State Parks in California, Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee, Everglades National Park in Florida, and Saguaro National Park in Arizona. In every park, Limón will celebrate the installation of a public art picnic table and support community outreach events that nurture connections with the natural world.

For the Cape Cod visit, Limón will unveil a picnic table with an overlay featuring Mary Oliver’s poem “Can You Imagine?” at the trailhead of the Beech Forest Trail. Oliver was a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who lived in the Provincetown, Massachusetts, area for more than 50 years. Oliver was known for her nature poetry and Beech Forest was a special respite for her. She spent hours walking the trail and finding inspiration in the natural surroundings of the area. 

On June 14 at 10 a.m., the public is invited to the unveiling at the trailhead, followed by a short, guided hike on the Beech Forest Trail.