The Poetry in the Parks Video Project
"It's not what you look at that matters. It's what you see."
- Henry David Thoreau
In 2019, Poetry in the Parks began as a short poetry film project whose mission was to bring place-based poetry to life. These films are archived on Instagram and YouTube. Within each short film a national, state or local park is celebrated through the words of a poet . . . and a poem is celebrated through the beauty of a park. One film, I Sing the Body Electric, was selected for three film festivals and received honors at the Porto Film Festival in 2022.
Poetry in the Park's mission was as it is now: to increase participants' abilities to see, to borrow Thoreau's words . . . that is, to increase their awareness of the sacred mystery, majesty and delight that is constantly revealing itself in the land communities to which we belong. A secondary and no less important goal has always been to make the serious delight of poetry accessible to people everywhere.