Two poems by Alaska writers have been selected for installation on permanent signs in Alaska’s state parks as part of Poems in Place, a collaborative project to install poetry outside in state parks throughout Alaska, coordinator Wendy Erd of Homer announced last week. Tom Sexton’s poem, “Independence Mine, August,” will be placed in Independence Mine State Historical Park near Palmer.  Tim Troll’s poem, “The Wisdom of the Old Ones,” will be installed at Lake Aleknagik State Recreational Site/ Wood Tikchik State Park near Dillingham. Local creative writing workshops will accompany the installation and dedications to be held in late summer or early fall. 

Alaska State Parks, the Alaska Center for the Book, and a steering committee of Alaska writers, poets, and other Alaskans, began the Poems in Place project to celebrate the connection Alaskans have with their state parks through the language of poetry.  The project grew from the poem by former Homer poet, Kim Cornwall, “What Whales and Infants Know,” dedicated in May 2011 at Beluga Point in Chugach State Park.

The Poems in Place project will be seeking poems by Alaskans in 2014-2015 for Fort Abercrombie State Historical Park in Kodiak and Caines Head State Recreational Area in Seward.  Information will be posted later this year at www.alaskacenterforthebook.org.