Stories
Director’s Notes
Monthly meditations on The Conservancy’s unfolding story.
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February 28, 2025 | Sonnet Coggins
A Place of Both Constancy & Change
This month marks a full five years since The Merwin Conservancy became the custodian of the garden. Though so many drastic changes have left their emphatic marks on the world since early 2020, I can hardly conceive of the passage of time here in a place where time seems altogether suspended.
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January 31, 2025 | Sonnet Coggins
Reaching for Words
Bewilderment keeps my words at bay in these early weeks of the new year, and the high winds churning above Maui keep my thoughts aloft and out of language. I look to poets—those who conjure words from emptiness, even while knowing that words themselves are made of emptiness, and hold it in the bends of their…
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December 31, 2024 | Sonnet Coggins
A Story of Attention
Earlier this December, I sat with two hundred others, rapt, as a magenta blossom from a coyote willow glided across stone on the back of an ant—like a pink sail over its tiny body. Terry Tempest Williams was telling a story of attention.
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November 30, 2024 | Sonnet Coggins
Reflecting on 2024
Here at the end of a disquieting year, I look out over this dense forest of palms in search of purchase. I imagine my way back to the time when this unlikely garden took root through W.S. Merwin’s curiosity and commitment, and then flourished through William and Paula’s partnership.
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October 30, 2024 | Sonnet Coggins
Why Palms?
I’ve been making my way through the first pages of a handwritten manuscript that William wrote late in his life. It’s a memoir of sorts, with two working titles: a small piece of notepaper fixed to the first page by a rusty paperclip reads “The Palm Question,” and “Palmistry.”
The Merwin Conservancy Conversations
Highlighting the voices of friends of The Merwin Conservancy exploring the intersections of place, poetry, & practice.
November 8, 2024: Associate Director Nina Peláez reconnected with poet Carol Moldaw to talk about her new book Go Figure (Four Way Books), which features poems written while she was in residence at The Merwin Conservancy in 2022. Listen to the 45-minute conversation about craft, creative inspirations, and poetic connections to the natural world.
Poet Carol Moldaw (November 8, 2024)
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A New Pritchardia Project
Found in the attic, W.S. Merwin’s “Outline of a Project to Save the Hawaiian Pritchardias—” a genus of palms native to Hawaiʻi—made its way into our imaginations as we began to consider how we might contribute to recovery efforts in Lāhāina. Read on to see how this project is unfolding.
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May 29, 2024 | Sonnet Coggins
Our Loulu Project
Found among his papers in the early days of our stewardship, W.S. Merwin’s 1989 proposal for “A Project to Save the Hawaiian Pritchardias” made its way into our imaginations as we began to consider how we might contribute to recovery—and eventual resilience and revitalization—in Lāhāina.
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November 1, 2023 | Sonnet Coggins
A Thirty-four Year-Old Idea Takes Root At Last
Today it’s this striking loulu that pulls me in.
Peʻahi Stories
The Conservancy brought together neighbors, local historians, knowledge-keepers, and partners at Hawaiʻi Land Trust to uncover stories that animate our surroundings and enrich our stewardship of Peʻahi, the name for the land The Conservancy is situated on. Learn more about this special place through the stories below.
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Protecting What We Love: Hāmākualoa, Our Shared Home
We are inspired to continue to deepen our own literacy of place here in Hāmākualoa, with gratitude to all who have, over generations, called this place their home.
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Nā Inoa Ola: The Living Names
Hawaiian place names are an important record of cultural attachment and traditional knowledge of place. The names document the intimate relationship shared between the natural landscape practices, and culture of the Hawaiian people.
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Hāmākualoa: The Birthplace of a Demigod
Our moku (land district) of Hāmākualoa is cited in the “Legend of Kana and Niheu” as the birthplace of the kupua (demigod) Kana.
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A Great King’s Footprint
Not far from Peʻahi Stream valley is a storied site that played a pivotal role in recent Hawaiian history.
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Lost Histories, Enduring Meaning
The trace of Pe‘ahi’s naming may no longer be present in the written record, but the essence that gave rise to the name can never be lost.
Elsewhere
“Episode 40: W.S. Merwin,” The American Writers Museum Podcast
Episode 40 of The American Writers Museum Podcast highlighted W.S. Merwin in an interview with our Executive Director, Sonnet Coggins.
“A Hawaiian paradise, built by a revered modern poet,” The Washington Post
A 2023 article by Adam Chandler for The Washington Post uplifted the work of The Conservancy and W.S. Merwin’s legacy.
“Garden Time: The Palm Forest of W.S. Merwin,” Granta
In 2019, Robert Becker reflected on W.S. Merwin’s palm forest, describing it “as equal parts oasis, stage set and work of art.”
“W.S. Merwin: At Home in the Garden of the Unknown,” Hawaii Public Radio
In 2019, in honor of National Poetry Month, Hawaiʻi Public Radio showcased The Merwin Conservancy alongside interviews conducted by HPR’s Noe Tanigawa with W.S. Merwin in 2008.
“The Poet who Planted Trees,” New York Times
In 2019, Dr. Hope Jahren offered tribute to W.S. Merwin’s life and legacy.
“How Poet W.S. Merwin Found Paradise by Planting Palm Trees,” PBS NewsHour
In 2015, Jeffrey Brown visited W.S. Merwin’s garden in Maui.
