Alaska State Parks: Scenery, history, wildlife. . . and poems

Travelers visiting Alaska’s state parks can enjoy more than just scenery and wildlife through a new program called Poems in Place. Supported by a partnership between the Alaska State Council on the Arts, Alaska State Parks and the Alaska Center for the Book, the program places signs throughout Alaska’s state parks displaying poems by contemporary Alaskan poets.

The first sign was erected last spring at Beluga Point in Chugach State Park featuring a poem by Kim Cornwall called, “What Whales and Infants Know.” At least seven more poems will be installed in the next couple years. Officials hope to expand the program to include an artists-in-residence program and other activities in communities near the parks.

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