Tag: Art on the Trails

Posted on

September Art on the Trails and Time in the Landscape

In retirement, I’ve been dedicating more time to submitting my writing. I recently opened my Submittable page and saw what every writer wants to see: an acceptance among all the declined work.

Dear Art on the Trails Poets-

Congratulations on your acceptance into the 10th Anniversary Art on the Trails Chapbook!

We are thrilled to have both returning and new poets join the ranks of hundreds of poets who have participated in the program.

Today is the gathering along the trail in Massachusetts where attendees will gather to move progressively through this landscape of artist and poet joining to celebrate the visual art pieces and the poems that were selected by the artists to represent each work.  When I saw the work of children’s woven moon phases in Selection 16: Phases, created with wire, wood, and yarn by Denise Johnson’s elementary school students who would be featured as part of the 2026 Art on the Trails: Time in Landscape, I thought of the young hands weaving this art, leaving their mark on the universe ~ a timestamp. And my poem was born.

Timestamp Tanka

children weave moonbeams

waxing, waning, wrapped in light

young hands shape vast skies

their marks on the universe

immense timestamps of presence

You can hear me read my poem Timestamp Tanka here (video). Or, hear the audio below.

I would like to encourage my writing friends to submit to next year’s call for poems. It’s revitalizing to be inspired by visual art that prompts writing.

Posted on

Walkin In a Spider Web

Chelsea Bradway <p> Chandelier pieces, wire, and fishing line </p><p> $1,500 Inquiries: artonthetrails@gmail.com </p><p> Repurposed chandelier crystals and an upcycled film reel form a sculptural spider web glimmering with stories of connection, resilience, and growth. The crystal fragments—once suspended in private spaces—now radiate outward as points of shared light, reflecting how individual experiences touch others. The film reel anchors the web, reminding us that memory, history, and community are inseparable threads. An invitation to consider how we build, mend, and sustain one another—how our shared stories, hopes, and vulnerabilities form the luminous webs that hold us all.</p>

Throughout the month of September, I’m taking the time to appreciate various forms of art and to be inspired by the creativity and thought that goes into each work – whether it’s a painting, a sketch, a collage postcard, or a structure created in nature along a trail. This week, I’m sharing poems that were inspired by Art on the Trails. Today’s ekphrastic poem is in response to Chelsea Bradway’s Walkin in a Spiderweb that you can read more about here. I chose a Huitian as my form, thinking of the eight legs of a spider and how poetic form can become a part of the overall impression when paired with visual art. A Huitan has eight lines of eight syllables, and this one has a rhyme scheme of abbaacca.


Crystal Chandelier Delight

one spider spins a web of light

to reach into our darkest fears

shares stories told throughout the years

then turns to others to invite

their own connections and insight

together, then, they all reach out

climb far beyond the waterspout

weave crystal chandelier delight

If you’d like to know more about the project, visit this page and watch the videos that were created to show how the shared vision became a reality. This makes me want to create a similar event in my own community. I have a trail in mind – a trail created in memory of a former student whose parents are my former colleagues. I just wonder……could we do the same thing here, inviting artists to create works of art, and poets to write poems inspired by that art, and then walk along a trail in celebration of it all?

I think that would be a beautiful thing to do!

Posted on

House of Straw

Pam Bonaguide <p> straw, old cedar shakes, Pal Tiya, wood, paint, wire, glue, string </p><p> $5,900 Inquiries: artonthetrails@gmail.com </p><p> You stand in front of a small straw house, about six by seven feet and ten feet tall, built on a simple wooden frame. Straw fills the walls, held in place by metal screen, while the roof is covered with old cedar shakes. As summer unfolds, the straw shifts in color, fading in sun and darkening in rain. Like the house in the nursery rhyme, it isn’t meant to last. The piece reflects Time in the Landscape, marking change as it slowly weathers and becomes more a part of its surroundings, shaped by season, memory, and the natural world.</p>

House of Straw

a house for today

out of the wind’s and rain’s way

for pig or for wolf

characters seeking shelter

we all need our own safe space

I enjoy writing poetry using art as inspiration, and that’s what Art on the Trails invited poets to do for their 10th Annual event in Southborough, Massachusetts. I read about the process and learned that once the artists were selected and their works installed along the trail, organizers invited poets to write ekphrastic poems inspired by the art, and then a poetry juror and the artist would select two poems for each piece of artwork to be published in this year’s chapbook.

That’s the sort of writing that makes me happy, so I decided to accept the invitation. I scrolled through the works of art and selected four that were particularly inspiring. The House of Straw took me back to my favorite childhood storybook days, and The Three Little Pigs came to mind, of course. I wrote a tanka with a variation of a borrowed line from Padraic Colum’s “An Old Woman of the Roads” in response to Pam Bonaguide’s work House of Straw as part of this year’s Time in the Landscape theme. 

You can hear the audio clip of my poem here:

This is one of four poems that I submitted for the works of art along the trail, but this one was not selected for publication. I’ll share the poem that the artist and poetry juror selected on Sunday, when the gathering of artists and poets will happen beside each work of trail art in Southborough during a progressive trail walk. Though I will not be able to be there in person for the closing event this year, I’m celebrating in spirit as the week leads up to the closing event on Sunday.

For today, may we all know our own safe spaces. As I see it, there are no safer spaces than the pages of books …..and nature trails with art, poetry, and fireflies.