Take a hike in the Smithfield’s Fort Refuge, along the Pond Overlook hiking trail, about a half-mile in, you’ll find a decorative box on a post by the pond. It looks a little like a mailbox in the middle of nowhere. On the box is a poem. Inside the box is a journal with notes made by the hikers that have discovered this blend of art, poetry, and nature.

This box is one eight installed this summer by a group of artists and environmentlists, punctuating wild places in Smithfield. The project entitled,”Poetry of the Wild” was conceived by Ana Flores, a Rhode Island sculptor and environmentalist. It is one of numerous featured installations that were brought to Smithfield and the Bryant campus for the Community and performance art Conference that Bryant hosted in June. But unlike most installation art that dominates gallaries and the lobbies of public builings, this installation has found its home along the hiking trails and spots of natural beauty in the Smithfield Wilderness.

It's is a participatory project, inviting the public to take a hike into the wild and discover the poetry in nature. It features birdhouse sized, decorated boxes, called ” Poetry boxes”, created by local artists, poets and conservationists. Inscribed inside each box is a different poem about the natural world as well as a journal for the public to add their own observations and musings. The 8 sites for the boxes are on trails protected by the Smithfield Conservation commission, the two Audubon refuges in town, and the pond at Bryant campus. The boxes stayed up through the summer and will remain into the first week of October 2004, each monitored by a designated poetry warden -- a volunteer who maintains the boxes and monitors the activity in the journals.

Ana says that the project evolved last year while she was artist-in-residence for the Wood Pawcatuck Watershed organization, an environmental group that protects the rivers and watershed lands in Southern Rhode Island where she lives. "I was honored to be artist-in-residence in my own backyard; responding to a landscape which had profoundly influenced the way I work and think but felt that the title was a bit presumptuous, I was merely in residence with the grand artist and creative force -- Nature."

Wild places and their denizens have always played a powerful role in inspiring the imagination and the arts of any culture. With the dangerous decline of open spaces and natural habitats for wildlife not only is the health and well being of all species threatened but the source of our creativity itself. Beginning with cave paintings, the earliest records of art making, artists have always addressed our fragile and ever changing relationship with nature.

As artist-in-residence, beginning in January of 2003, she walked some of the trails and river assess areas in the 300 mile Wood-Pawcatuck watershed for inspiration. She found myself picking up litter, and as her bags filled, she realized this was her focus. "Litter represented mindlesslessness, thoughtlessness, I needed to somehow encourage mindfulness, thoughtfulness, inspire people to go into nature like poets rather than slobs. On my walks I also noticed the many unused bird houses put up in ponds and on private properties, these represented a thoughtful human gesture."

By March when the ice began to melt on the river, her ideas had flowed together and the 'poetry box' presented itself. An artful box- with a small door instead of a birdhole. Inside would be one of many poems by published poets about the natural world but also a journal for passers-by to add their thoughts.

She designed the project with plenty of room for participation from different populations. The poetry boxes could be created by community members and schoolchildren, and once they were installed they needed stewards to maintain and watch over them -- a designated group of volunteer “poetry wardens”. She also organized a residency advisory committee of four diverse professionals and community people to provide me with a sounding board, suggestions and support.

She found the response to the the first Poetry of the Wild wonderful and full of surprises. "We were all amazed by the number of poems and thoughts written into the journals and the fact that the boxes had proved to be such an incentive for the public to get out and explore their natural surroundings."

She had designed the project so that it could fit and be created by communities almost anywhere. Smithfield was her first opportunity to try it in a different setting.

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"I was fortunate to have connections with the Audubon Society because of other environmental work I have done in the past, they have two large refuges in town. I asked Eugenia Marks, the director of policy and publications, also an artist and poet, to work with me and also to create a poetry box. Eugenia brought in Sandy Marks, a very active conservationist in town and they were delighted to host some of the boxes on the trails they maintained. I also asked two sculptors in the Providence area who are comfortable with public, environmental art projects to create boxes."

One of the many things that Ana hopes this project does is to remind people what an inspiration nature has been for our species and with the decline of wild places comes the decline of our creative powers -- our own bird song. "I think it is especially relevant that some of the boxes in Smithfield are on Audubon refuges, Audubon was after all an extraordinary artist and naturalist who by his travels, cataloging and paintings brought the wonder of birds to the public consciousness."

The poem in the Fort Refuge box is by Robert Penn Warren, from the book, Audubon, A Vision. The artist for the box is Ana Flores, the project director.

Read the Robert Penn Warren Poem here.

This project, like cave paintings, is situated in the heart of the natural world and the poems selected for the boxes include both odes to the wonders of the natural world and laments regarding our destruction of nature. The poems of two Rhode Island poets are featured, Larry Sasso, editor of the Observer newspapers and Tom Chandler, Poet Laureate of Rhode Island and Associate professor of Creative Writing at Bryant College, along with poets Gerald Manly Hopkins, Robert Penn Warren, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The creators of the boxes are Ana Flores, sculptor and project director, Eugenia Marks, Director for Policy & Publications, Audubon Society of RI, Sandy Mayer, Smithfield Conservation Commission, Jay Coogan, sculptor, Roger Mayer,visual artist, OlivaMcCullogh, visual artist, Lydia Breckon-Smith and Duncan Smith, lovers of poetry.

So take a hike in Smithfield and look for the boxes, be inspired by art, poetry, and nature, and leave your own notes in the journals.

A Few Journal Entries From The Project

Stillwater Walkway:

Love

Impermanence

The water flowing
is never here
now

All encounters, relationships, and 
experiences
end in
separation

Here in this tranquillity
I try to let go—
To let gravity pull
on me
As it does
the water.


The River

A calming place
against
An uncalm world…..
Peaceful.

Welch
6/19/04

A pair of swallows
Scan pollen-coated water
First day of summer.

  -- Gaytha Langlois



The Fire

My forest was aflame
Tree bark dripping tears of sap
Ashes crunching under my sneakers
Sadness hanging over the woods
Young saplings blackened and stunted
Destroying the habitat of nature
Life defenseless.

(This entry was typewritten and came 
with a handwritten note: "This poem 
was inspired when this exact area was 
under a brush fire. It was written to 
expose the strong feelings a young girl 
felt about her back yard under seige. 
Her name is Brenna McCarthy. Age at that 
time — 8 years.")


June 27 1:10 p.m. Gabby +
Sammy+ Eddie + Mom + Dad. 80 degrees. 
Sunny + breeze! Sunday Family
Outing. Thank God everyone's getting along.

Son of bird in meadow bright, 
along this shaded vale,
Yet sight of progress and mosquito 
Bite this half-hidden trail.

We went on a hike to look at
the trees; We salked and we walked
--it was good for our knees.

Ancestral fallen grey stones 
piled high a forest where
once was farm; 
as man returns to this place today, 
the blue jays sound
alarm.

Jakob's first hike -- Age 12 weeks

Poetry of the Wild Box Locations

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“What Happened Next”
by Tom Chandler, Artist: Ana Flores
Smithfield Conservation Commission Trails: 1150 Douglas Pike / Rt.7 in Smithfield, Exit 8 off I-295. By fountainless pond in planting bed near the wrought iron gate.

"Narrative from an early hand-drawn map of Smithfield"
by G.E. Matteson 1946, Artist: Sandra Mayer
Mowry Conservation Area: On Old Forge Road which extends between Rt. 104 (Farnum Pike) and Log Road. Take bridge across stream and look for the box near the massive ledge outcrop.

“If this weren't a town"
by Larry Sasso, Artist: Roger Mayer

Connors Farm Conservation Area : Take Swan Road from Rt. 116 at Pleasant View Farm until it abuts Mann School Road. Turn right onto Mann School Road and immediately left into Connors Farm subdivision. The conservation area is clearly marked on the left between houses #20 and #24. box is by brook as you look up at ledge.

"Continuity of Springtime"
translated from Dietman von Eist by Duncan Smith, Artist : Sandy Mayer
Stillwater Scenic Walkway: Take Capron Road from Rt. 104 (Farnum Pike) to trailhead OR from I-295, Exit 8 at Route 7 proceed north on Douglas Pike (Rt. 7)to Thurber Blvd., turn right; proceed to bottom of hill and turn left onto Stillwater Road. Take first right onto Capron Road to trail head. First trail branching off to the right about 300 feet down the trail, box by stream

“Brooks”
by Edith Ballinger Price“, Artist: Jay Coogan
Powder Mill Refuge: Entrance to the refuge is on Rt. 5 (Sanderson Rd.), just south of Rt. 44 in the Apple Valley section of Smithfield. Take Exit 7-B from I 295. Near Pond.

"Pied Beauty"
by Gerard Manley Hopkins, Artist: Eugenia Marks
Powder Mill Refuge: Entrance to the refuge is on Rt. 5 (Sanderson Rd.), just south of Rt. 44 in the Apple Valley section of Smithfield. Take Exit 7-B from I 295. Bench at powerline.

“The Birds of Killingworth"
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Artist: Olivia McCullogh
Powder Mill Refuge: Entrance to the refuge is on Rt. 5 (Sanderson Rd.), just south of Rt. 44 in the Apple Valley section of Smithfield. Take Exit 7-B from I 295. Pine grove.

“Love and Knowledge”
by Robert Penn Warren, Artist: Ana Flores
Fort Refuge: Take Rt. 7 Providence Pike travelling north. Continue through traffic signal at intersection of Rt. 104 & 5, look for Primrose Volunteer Fire Station on right. Just beyond on the left, find a small sign on the left to Fort Refuge. Follow driveway to parkingarea. Begin walking on trail; continue straight; do not take left fork. Approximately 1/2 mile to sign "Pond Overlook." Box by pond

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