The Poem Forest: Poet W. S. Merwin and the Palm Tree Forest He Grew from Scratch
by Carrie Fountain ; illus. by Chris Turnham
Primary     Candlewick    32 pp.         g
9/22     978-1-5362-1126-9     $18.99

Readers meet poet and conservationist William Stanley Merwin (1927–2019) as a child, reading a book in his clover-and-dandelion-studded backyard. Alas, that’s the closest he can get to the “wild places” he loves, as his family lives in a town “where the wild parts had been straightened out.” This is depicted by Turnham as an oppressive grid, with smoke issuing from automobiles, chimneys of identical row houses, and a factory. Summertimes, though, are spent in the woods, “where trees grew where their seeds had fallen.” As a young man, Stanley realizes “writing poetry was like visiting a wild place,” but he still yearns to live among nature and moves to Hawaii. There he finds a plot of land on Maui that’s been “wounded” by chemicals—and that he heals over decades until it is a thriving wilderness. Fountain uses a spare text that emphasizes Merwin’s role of conservationist over that of poet (she does append one poem following her author’s note). The metaphor of “unstraightening” is effective, and the message that “poisoned” land can be healed with care and time is a bracing one. Turnham’s crisp illustrations are somewhat more effective for the “straightened-out” scenes than for Merwin’s wilderness, where muted tones fail to capture true lushness, but his palm trees do spread out in profusion.

From the September/October 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.