How do Parks & Poetry reside side-by-side?
What do they share together?
They penetrate with peace, in permanence they abide,
They can refresh your mind forever!
© Forrest W. Heaton April, 2017
Studies provide overwhelming evidence that poetry can and usually does stick in your mind more easily and longer than prose--witness the nursery rhymes and songs that you learned as a kid that still seem as fresh and fun as the day you learned them. Studies also provide overwhelming evidence that the mind is refreshed by being near or in nature--nurturing peace and well-being. When mixed with each other, parks and poetry can add years to your life and life to your years!
Example: Imagine Wendell Berry, standing in the midst of a National Park or a place of wild things, writing his stunning poem below:
“The Peace of Wild Things”
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Wendell Berry
Yes, most assuredly, Parks & Poetry can live wonderfully side-by-side . . . adding years to your life and life to your years!