If you’re visiting a New York State park or historic site in the Hudson Valley this year, you might have a poetic encounter!

New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) is presenting a new temporary public art project, Poetry in the Parks, to celebrate the Parks Centennial. Poems selected by the Poetry Society of America (PSA) and OPRHP are installed in three New York State parks and one historic site stretching from Westchester to Columbia County.

This inaugural installation of Poetry in the Parks includes works by Andrea Cohen at FDR State Park in Yorktown Heights; U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón and New York Poet Laureate Patricia Spears Jones  at Walkway Over the Hudson State Park in Highland and Poughkeepsie; Robert Hass at Lake Taghkanic State Park in Ancram; and Ishion Hutchinson at Clermont State Historic Site in Germantown. Integrated with the architecture found in the parks, the selected poems are meant to be discovered by visitors to help them reflect on the beauty of their natural surroundings.