Spring brings new life and color to Gaining Ground’s farm as fresh produce begins to grow—lettuce heads and snap pea plants pull us out of winter and serve as Mother Nature’s artwork. It pairs well with the community-driven art installed on our land each spring. 

Now in its fifth year, Poetry on the Farm celebrates language, food, nature and agriculture. Community members submit poems for display around the farm, and visitors can take self-guided tours that, despite the name, are ripe for numerous types of connection. All are welcome to tour the grounds and submit poems about food, farming and nature. There are no barriers or standards for what qualifies as “art” in these parts.

And submit you do — Brenna Broderick, the development and communications manager at Gaining Ground, says on average we receive more than four dozen submissions each year. They come from published authors, professional poets, and elementary schools where students are just learning about poetry. Volunteers, members of partner organizations, people who receive food and current and present staff members submit their work, too. It’s a multi-generational melting pot.

“It’s local, it’s low stakes, it’s connected to the land, and it’s really beautiful to walk around and see the poems on the farm itself,” Brenna said.

Some poems come from the sixth-grade class of Kevin Richardson and Sue McCarthy at Tenacre Schools. The two teach a poetry unit every spring and ask the students to write free-verse poems about whatever they want. 

“Typically, they write about pets, sports, friends, summer camp and getting braces,” Kevin said. “When Gaining Ground started Poetry on the Farm, we thought it would provide students with an opportunity to expand their choice of topics and possibly share their work with other people.”

The opportunity has done more than give students more topics to write about.

“Poetry on the Farm has provided students with the chance to look beyond themselves and learn about the larger world,” Kevin said.

Kevin says his students have learned about the spirit of a farm and working as a team with classmates and a farmer to spread mulch and what goes into planting, weeding and harvesting the vegetables they eat. It’s also taught them about food insecurity and the value of helping people you’ll never meet — lessons that are best taught outside the four walls of a classroom. Lessons that were part of the hopes when Gaining Ground started Poetry on the Farm five years ago and made it a community event rather than a contest. Lessons that align with Gaining Ground’s overall mission.

“We believe that food is a human right,” Brenna said. “We don’t believe in there being any barriers, questions or process to get access to food, and that carries over to what we believe about the stories and experiences of the people most connected to our mission…Poetry on the Farm is another vessel to bring to life the power of a wide range of voices. It gets people thinking about how poetry connects to the land that they see, gardens that grow food and the people receiving our food. We want to make sure that they are a part of the story we’re telling.”

The entire public can also be part of the story. Poetry on the Farm is free and open to the public through June 15. Self-guided tours take place daily from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.