In celebration of the National Park Service Centennial in 2016, the Academy commissioned fifty poets to write poems about a park in each of the fifty states. These poems were featured in Poem-a-Day, celebrating different regions across the country, including Ansel Elkins representing Alabama’s Little River Canyon National Preserve with her poem “Native Memory,” Joan Naviyuk Kane representing Alaska’s Bering Land Bridge National Preserve with her poem “Exceeding Beringia,” Linda Gregerson representing Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore with her poem “Sleeping Bear,” Kazim Ali representing Ohio’s David Berger National Memorial with his poem “Hesperine for David Berger,” and Kathleen Graber representing Virginia’s Assateague Island National Seashore with her poem “America (Assateague).”
Imagine Our Parks with Poems was part of Imagine Your Parks, a grant initiative from the National Endowment for the Arts created in partnership with the National Park Service to support projects that use the arts to engage people with the memorable places and landscapes of the National Park System.
Read all 50 poems on our Imagine Our Parks with Poems page.