In 2025, the project returned to Southern Rhode Island, the landscape where it began over twenty years ago. I had the pleasure of working with both the Hopkinton and Charlestown Land Trusts. Kathan Tepee, the Land Trust director (the same for both), was an enthusiastic collaborator, as were the board members. Five new boxes went out; three boxes which I built were sited on Hopkinton Land Trust trails. Charlestown Land Trust volunteers built two boxes featuring the poems of Susan Killingbeck, both sited at the Mill Pond Preserve. We felt fortunate to work with writers with deep connections to this landscape: Wanda Hopkins, Miles Hardingwood, and Susan Killingbeck.
Since we had the privilege of working with such fine local writers, the project expanded. For the first time, we could offer writing workshops. Thanks to funding from the Rhode Island Foundation, in partnership with the Cross Mills Library and the Charlestown Land Trust, the Writing About Place series took place over the month of May. It included writing workshops with three local writers and two weekend walks to visit the poetry boxes installed in the refuges. Each workshop and walk was very well attended. Watch the two videos made about the series by Kris Craig.
The workshops may have ended, but the writing continues in the journals tucked into all the boxes. They are at the Canonchet Brook Preserve in Hope Valley, and at the Mill Pond Preserve in Charlestown. Both are open spaces full of natural beauty protected by the good work of the Charlestown and Hopkinton Land Trusts. Take a walk, find the poetry boxes, and add your own response in the journals.