The Poetry Path in Battery Park City
Click on a poet to view their poem, bio, installation pictures and video!
Walking Map
1. Orientation Panel & More Information
2 Antonio Machado, from “Proverbs and Songs 29,” tr. Anonymous
3 Willie Perdomo, from “Poet in Harlem”
4 Josh, 4th Grade, PS1 (2016), “Rice and Beans”
5 Wendell Berry, from “The Peace of Wild Things”
6 Dorianne Laux, from “Life Is Beautiful”
8 Jorie Graham, from “Positive Feedback Loop”
10 Tommy Pico, from Nature Poem
11 Julian Talamantez Brolaski, from “Myths of Manahatta”
12 Juan Ramón Jiménez, from “Time, Give Me the Secret,” tr. Ralph Nelson & Rita García Nelson
13 Patricia Spears Jones, from “Life Lessons”
14 Ross Gay, “A Small Needful Fact”
15 Chen Chen, from “Set the Garden On Fire”
16 Grace Paley, “At the Battery”
17 Mark Doty, from “Atlantis”
19 Jessica Greenbaum, from “I Love You More Than All the Windows In New York City”
20 Birago Diop, from “Breaths,” tr. Anonymous
21 Rumi, from “Burnt Kabob,” version by Coleman Barks
22 Jenny Xie, from “Chinatown Diptych”
23 W. S. Merwin, “Place”
24 Danez Smith, from “Warming”
25 Anne Waldman, from “Denouement”
26 Rita Dove, from “Transit”
27 Pablo Medina, “Cityscape 1”
29 Joy Harjo, from “Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings”
30 Patricia Smith, from “Practice Standing Unleashed and Clean”
31 Jayne Cortez, from “I Am New York City”
32 George Oppen, from “Of Being Numerous”
35 Marie Howe, from “New York City, October 2002”
37 Martin, 2nd Grade, P.S. 276 (2019), “Ponds”
38 Brenda Hillman, from “Species Prepare to Exist After Money”
39 Lawrence Joseph, “Once Again”
41 A. R. Ammons, from Garbage
42 Federico García Lorca, from “Dreamwalking Ballad,” tr. Sarah Arvio
43 Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are *
44 Margaret Noodin, “Umpaowastewin” *
45 Audre Lorde, from “Touring”
46 June Jordan, from “These Poems”
47 Sappho, from Fragment 104a, tr. Diane Rayor *
48 William Blake, from “Auguries of Innocence”
49 Han Shan, from “Cold Mountain,” tr. David Hinton
50 Lucille Clifton, from “Breaklight”
51 D. A. Powell, from “The Imaginal Stage”
52 Li-Young Lee, from “Praise Them”
53 Poets House
Also of Interest:
7 Demetri Porphyrios, Pavillion
9 Tom Otterness, The Real World Sculptures
18 Ugo Attardi, Ulysses
28 Martin Puryear, Pylons
33 Frank O’Hara, from “Meditations in an Emergency”
34 Walt Whitman, from “City of Ships”
36 Seamus Heaney, “Death of a Naturalist”
40 Mark Strand, “The Continuous Life”
54 Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier), Quotation
The Poetry Path is made possible through a partnership with Battery Park City Authority, partners in design and fabrication of the Poetry Path, with additional support from our Outreach Partner, Goldman Sachs. Special thanks to the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Foundation for funding the Poetry Path planning process, and to the Marcia Brady Tucker Foundation for supporting Poetry Path educational initiatives for youth and children.
We are so grateful to all who made the Poetry Path possible: to the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Foundation who supported our work in planning the path; to Goldman Sachs, our outreach partner; to the Marcia Brady Tucker Foundation for their support to provide educational programs based on the path; and to Battery Park City Authority, who partnered with us in design, fabrication, and installation of the Poetry Path—especially Abby Ehrlich, BJ Jones, Nick Sbordone, and the amazing team of craftspeople they work with.
Special thanks to Michael Maggio, Kelsey Mitchel, and Robert Bolesta from Ralph Appelbaum Associates, who brought the signage to life with their imaginative designs; to Frederick Courtright from the Permissions Company, whose work made the use of these poems possible; and to Katerina Economo, whose feasibility study helped launch the project.
Our deep thanks to Sandra Alcosser, Joseph Bruchac, Katharine Coles, Alison Deming, Mark Doty, and Patti Ann Rogers, who worked with us as Poets in Residence on poetry path projects around the country, and whose selections for those projects helped to inform this newest path. A warm thank you to poet Evelyn Reilly, for her invaluable role on the project. And to all of the many people who advised or consulted with us, among them Cornelius Eady, Patricia Spears Jones, and Cecilia Vicuña—thank you!
Finally, thank you to the Poets House staff, especially Valentine Conaty, Amanda Glassman, and interns Klara Pokrzywa, Katie Hwang, Emory McCool, Lydia Finkel, and Amaya Tavares, who worked so hard to bring this project to fruition.