By Michael Redmond, Lifestyle Editor
”This day will stand out for me as one of the perfect days in all my time with D&R Greenway,” said Richard Goldman, chairman of the Princeton Township-based land trust, during Sunday’s dedication of the Scott and Hella McVay Poetry Trail at Greenway Meadows park.
About 100 people turned out on a windy, golden autumn afternoon for a community event that featured solo music by saxophonist Paul Winter and readings by six of the poets whose work is to be found among the selections from 47 poets that are displayed on permanent signs along the mile-long trail.
Among those attending the dedication were Paul Muldoon of Princeton University, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Gerald Stern of Lambertville, poet laureate of New Jersey from 2000 to 2002 and chancellor of the Academy of American Poets since 2006; Jim Haba of Hillsborough, former director of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation’s poetry program, and Penny Harter of Mays Landing, known particularly for her nature poems.
Included were recitations of poems in Mandarin by Li Po and in Hindi by Rabindranath Tagore, along with the English translations of the same that one finds along the trail.
The event culminated in the dedication by Princeton Township Mayor Bernard Miller and the cutting of a festive green ribbon by Mr. and Mrs. McVay, the longtime Princeton residents who conceived the project, funded the construction and installation of the poetry signs and benches along the trail, and provided a charitable gift annuity to D&R Greenway to ensure their upkeep. The ribbon was actually cut by two of their three grandchildren, teenagers Matthew Hughes and Tess McVay.
Mr. and Mrs. McVay spoke of poring over hundreds of poems, seeking to identify “about 20” for the trail, but finding that number too low to accommodate their favorites and the sweep of history and cultures they were seeking to represent. All of the poems are keyed to the natural world. The aim, said Mr. McVay, is to prompt trail walkers to “reflect, learn, laugh, contemplate, and be inspired” as they experience the beauty of Greenway Meadows.
Mr. McVay, currently retired, was the founding executive director of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation of Morristown, at one time the largest funder of the arts in New Jersey. Under his leadership, the foundation created the biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, one of the largest such events in the world, in 1986.
Earlier this month, the 13th Dodge poetry festival took place in Newark, its first foray into an urban setting. It has previously been presented at Waterloo Village in Sussex County and Duke Farms in Hillsborough.
Dodge’s commitment to poetry and language arts is year-round through its Poetry-in-the-Schools program, which has reached thousands of New Jersey teachers and high-school students through mini-festivals and “poet visits” to schools. There have been more than 500 one-day poet visits since 1986.
”We wanted to salute what men and women at different times and places have gleaned from nature. The hope is to stir in the young a joy in language and poetry and to quicken the interest of others and move them to want to know more about the poets and their other works, or about the subject,” the McVays stated.
The couple was presented with a resolution of praise from the state Legislature.
According to Linda Mead, D&R Greenway executive director, “Art, music and poetry, drawn from the study of nature, help people understand the importance of protecting and caring for the environment because they reveal the natural world to their audiences in new ways. They touch both the heart and the mind. We are thrilled to be a part of the Scott and Hella McVay Poetry Trail and hope that everyone who experiences it will be inspired to do more to preserve our region’s natural lands and farms.”
Mayor Miller said, “The Poetry Trail brings together for our enjoyment the wonders of nature and human creativity in a very unique way. On behalf of the residents of all of Princeton, I want to say ‘thank you’ to Scott and Hella McVay for this wonderful addition to Greenway Meadows park.”
The D&R Greenway Land Trust preserved the 55-acre Greenway Meadows park in partnership with the NJDEP Green Acres Program, Mercer County, Princeton Township and Princeton Borough. Private funding to complete the preservation was provided by Bristol-Myers Squibb and dozens of local families.
