March 28, 2013
You Love Poets and We Know It

April is National Poetry Month! There’s nothing that pleases me more than to pair up one of the awesome photographs by our resident shutterbug Ivo with an excerpt from an equally awesome poem for our Morning Eye Candy features.

But I’m running low on poems. Help me out people!!

image

Submit a poem or answer below and you might see your favorite poem featured on our blog, Plant Talk! I’m looking for unusual suggestions, “I wandered lonely as a cloud,” and most Robert Frost works are already on our radar. Hit me with something from left field, I know you can. Tumblr is one erudite place! ~AR

So let’s hear it: What is your favorite nature/gardening/flower/tree/spring/science/cloud/sky/weather themed poem?

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(Notes: 23)
  
Filed under: poetry National Poetry Month Photography Literature Books Reading Poems 
February 17, 2013
Orchids, poetry, gardening, public transportation … so many of my favorite things all in one place!  This serves as a really great reminder that getting to the Orchid Show via public transportation is pretty easy. You can take the subway, the bus, or Metro-North! artsfortransit: Have you seen the newest member of the Poetry in Motion collection? Mary Ruefle is an author of numerous books including the forthcoming book Trances of the Blast due out this year. Her poem Voyage, from an earlier book of hers, Memling’s Veil, is paired with Francesco Simeti’s permanent artwork, Bensonhurst Gardens. Located at the 18th Ave subway station on the D-Line in Brooklyn, this laminated glass work is based on wallpapers, ranging from Renaissance and Baroque garden architecture to hunting. Look for this beautiful poster commissioned by the Poetry Society of America and AFT, the next time you take the subway!

Orchids, poetry, gardening, public transportation … so many of my favorite things all in one place!  This serves as a really great reminder that getting to the Orchid Show via public transportation is pretty easy. You can take the subway, the bus, or Metro-North!

artsfortransit:

Have you seen the newest member of the Poetry in Motion collection? Mary Ruefle is an author of numerous books including the forthcoming book Trances of the Blast due out this year. Her poem Voyage, from an earlier book of hers, Memling’s Veil, is paired with Francesco Simeti’s permanent artwork, Bensonhurst Gardens. Located at the 18th Ave subway station on the D-Line in Brooklyn, this laminated glass work is based on wallpapers, ranging from Renaissance and Baroque garden architecture to hunting. Look for this beautiful poster commissioned by the Poetry Society of America and AFT, the next time you take the subway!

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(Notes: 93)
  
Filed under: Arts For Transit Poetry in Motion Poetry Orchids The Orchid Show New York City 
October 30, 2012

Wow! What an amazing old photograph of the Bronx River! Is that a house on its banks? Elizabeth Akers Allen was born in Maine, began writing in her teens, attended college, married, divorced, traveled in Europe and then married again. It was this second marriage that brought her to the environs of the Bronx, when she and her husband moved to Tuckahoe where I am assuming she wrote The Ballad of the Bronx. Allen is best known for a poem called “Rock Me To Sleep Mother,” but it is this poem, “Witch Hazel” towards which I am drawn today. There is little information about her online, so if anyone knows more about this woman, please let me know! ~AR

vsw:

Ballads by Elizabeth Akers, 1897

Tipped-in handwritten note states: “This is the only copy of ‘The Ballad of the Bronx,’ illustrated by the author herself, from photographs taken in the locality of the Bronx River which the poem celebrates.”

from the Visual Studies Workshop Rare Books Archive

www.vsw.org

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Filed under: Elizabeth Akers Allen Bronx Poetry Photography Bronx River Women Poets 
June 6, 2012
"To walk the gardens, read the words, take in the artist’s palette, and stand before two of Monet’s rarely seen paintings is to get a sense of the rush of creative spirit and intelligence that marked the interactions of the Mardistes, painters, poets, writers and musicians who gathered regularly at Mallarmé’s Paris apartment more than 120 years ago."

— Your Soul is a Landscape Rare: The Monet to Mallarme Poetry Walk at the New York Botanical Garden (through October 21, 2012) by Madge McKeithen - The Best American Poetry

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Filed under: Monet's Garden monetsgarden Poetry Claude Monet Mallarme 
June 2, 2012
"Par les soirs bleus d’été, j’irai dans les sentiers,
Picoté par les blés, fouler l’herbe menue:
Rêveur, j’en sentirai la fraîcheur à mes pieds.
Je laisserai le vent baigner ma tête nue."

— From Sensation by Arthur Rimbaud. Part of the ‘Monet to Mallarmé’ Poetry Walk during Monet’s Garden.

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Filed under: botanical garden The New York Botanical Garden Monet's Garden monetsgarden Poetry Arthur Rimbaud 
April 2, 2012
"Disdaining butterflies
as frivolous,
she puttered with caterpillars,
and wore a coarse kimono,
crinkled and loose at the neck."

—

The Woman Who Loved Worms - by Colette Inez

I nearly forgot that April is National Poetry Month! Poetry, plants, and gardening are, to my mind, highly complimentary. What is your favorite poem about plants or gardening? ~AR

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Filed under: Poetry Gardening Literature Plants 
February 1, 2012

Today is the birthday of poet and writer Langston Hughes. Thank you to the Brooklyn Public Library for alerting us to this. Above is a video-poem we made of ‘April Rain Song.’ It may not be raining today, but it sure feels like April. Enjoy!

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Filed under: April Langston Hughes Poetry The New York Botanical Garden Nature 
January 26, 2012
Poem Forest: An Audiovisual Tour Last November’s reopening of the NYBG Forest brought with it an exploration of verse as it relates to the experience of nature—“a call to become more attentive and active” in the world around us, wrote Jon Cotner. In order to create a sense of immersion within the surroundings, Jon’s literary architecture provided visitors with a set of fifteen carefully-selected lines of poetry pulled from the archives of a 2,500-year tradition. Each one encouraged guests to read them at pivotal points along the Forest’s trails: “The overwhelming message was that the poetic lines encouraged everyone to slow down, to see and sense more clearly, to inhabit the present more deeply, and to fill with enchantment.” See Jon’s write-up on the blog of the BMW Guggenheim Lab for photographs of the locations in question, along with the timeless verse that helped the NYBG’s visitors experience the tranquility of our 50-acre wood. Then come and wander the space for yourself. —MN

Poem Forest: An Audiovisual Tour

Last November’s reopening of the NYBG Forest brought with it an exploration of verse as it relates to the experience of nature—“a call to become more attentive and active” in the world around us, wrote Jon Cotner.

In order to create a sense of immersion within the surroundings, Jon’s literary architecture provided visitors with a set of fifteen carefully-selected lines of poetry pulled from the archives of a 2,500-year tradition. Each one encouraged guests to read them at pivotal points along the Forest’s trails:

“The overwhelming message was that the poetic lines encouraged everyone to slow down, to see and sense more clearly, to inhabit the present more deeply, and to fill with enchantment.”

See Jon’s write-up on the blog of the BMW Guggenheim Lab for photographs of the locations in question, along with the timeless verse that helped the NYBG’s visitors experience the tranquility of our 50-acre wood. Then come and wander the space for yourself. —MN

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(Notes: 15)
  
Filed under: Forest NYBG Jon Cotner Poetry Botanical Garden 
December 22, 2011
A Wanderer in Poem Forest

Marni Berger’s essay about Jon Cotner’s temporary poetry installation in the Garden’s Forest—Poem Forest—if full of deep, deep thoughts, and raw emotions.

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Filed under: Poem Forest Jon Cotner The Millions The Forest The New York Botanical Garden Poetry 
November 10, 2011
Taking a Walk to Remember

More love for Jon Cotner’s “Poem Forest.” “Poem Forest” is a self-guided poetry walk in the Thain Family Forest that was created with the Poetry Society of America as part of the celebratory Forest Dedication Festivals at the Garden. Come enjoy the intersection of poetry and landscape this weekend!

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Filed under: Poetry Forest Jon Cotner Thain Family Forest Poetry The New York Botanical Garden 
November 2, 2011
Poem Forest

Jon Cotner has been invited by The Poetry Society of America to design a walk for The New York Botanical Garden’s Thain Family Forest Dedication Festival weekends. These walks are just one part of the fun happening this weekend and next in the Forest.

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Filed under: Thain Family Forest New York City The New York Botanical Garden Poetry 
November 1, 2011
"Was that storm worse than others?
Yes and no. The wind’s torque twisted open the tree’s tibia."

—

Some Questions about the Storm ~ Hilda Raz

Seeking comfort in poetry.

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Filed under: Poetry Trees October Storm The New York Botanical Garden 
October 7, 2011
"People who kill violets
will do anything."

—

Planting the Sand Cherry ~ Ann Struthers

This has got to be one of the most perfect poems ever written about gardening.

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Filed under: Poetry Poems Gardening Violets Flowers 
August 15, 2011
Green I Love You Green

To many of those people, the language and style of scientific communication are rarely compelling. What other vocabularies might scientists use to engage the public with the importance of nature and the enterprise of science? “Poetry is prayer and good medicine,” wrote a colleague of mine, Craig Carlson, when I asked for input on a book I was writing about the relationships between trees and humans. He was right.

Dr. Nalini Nadkarni in Poetry Magazine on how she uses poetry to help people understand the scientific work she undertakes in studying trees and the role they play in ecosystems.

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Filed under: Trees Poetry Science Nature Dr. Nalini Nadkarni Ecosystems 
July 19, 2011
Digging Deeper

Is this the only poem in the world to open with a vignette about squash bugs?

fooled the squash bugs
by setting young plants
in the center of piles
of old weathered cedar shingles
that i had dumped
one truckload at a time
around the perimeter of the woods

Digging Deeper~ By Phillip Carroll Morgan

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Filed under: Poetry Poetry Foundation Gardening Squash Bugs Garden Pests Bugs 
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