Our zoo isone of five across the nation chosen for this project, funded by a grant fromthe Institute of Museum and Library Services. Each of the five zoos was assigned anationally known poet to select zoo-appropriate poems and assist in placingthem within the zoo grounds. Milwaukee was lucky to get the outstandingColorado-based nature poet Pattiann Rogers. And it was lucky to have a chief zookeeper who appreciatespoetry. “When the offer came, I jumped at it,” says Milwaukee County ZooDirector Charles Wikenhauser.
The zoo'screative director, Marcia Sinner, collaborated with Rogers in selecting the 60 specific spots atthe zoo where the lines of poetry are displayed in various imaginative ways.Some poems, like Wendell Berry's “The Peace of Wild Things,” are given inentirety. Others arerepresented by brief excerpts. Lines by Pablo Neruda about the anaconda areetched on the glass window of that formidable serpent's enclosure. TheodoreRoethke's poem “Bat” graces the bat wing of the small mammals building.
Lines byLucille Clifton appear on a metal banner beside a gleaming ebony Earth globethat revolves on a current of water. Lines by American-Indian poet Linda Hogan,pointing out that the earth comes in all the colors humans come in, bless achildren's playground area. WaltWhitman's majestic line “Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beamsfull dazzling” crowns an expansive view of sunset over the zoo's lake.
PattiannRogers will speak at the grand opening of this marvelous poetry project at 10a.m. Saturday, June 19, on the zoo's Lake Evinrude deck. She will also give a reading/discussion onMonday, June 21, in the Rare Books Room at the Central Library, reception to begin at 6:30 p.m., program at 7.
