Stories


Director’s Notes

Monthly meditations on The Conservancy’s unfolding story.

  • Stepping Toward Our Vision on W.S. Merwin’s Birthday

    September 30, 2024  |  Sonnet Coggins

    Stepping Toward Our Vision on W.S. Merwin’s Birthday

    Today, we step into our vision for a forest-garden that is thriving, mindfully expanding, perpetually changing, and endlessly inspiring.

  • The Current of Convictions

    August 31, 2024  |  Sonnet Coggins

    The Current of Convictions

    I’ve learned to bring along a question. This month, I carried this one: how did William, across the years, enact his sense of belonging to the island he had made his home? 

  • As Summer Shifts Toward Close

    July 31, 2024  |  Nina Peláez

    As Summer Shifts Toward Close

    Lately, I have been struck by the many pieces William wrote about summertime, envisioned across the places he cherished.

  • Repairing the Roof

    June 30, 2024  |  Sonnet Coggins

    Repairing the Roof

    All of these objects, the old roof tiles among them, are both relics from the past and guides to the future of this place.

  • Our Loulu Project

    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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Photo by Morgan Jones
Cover and inset image by Howard Wolff
The Merwin Conservancy's logo; image displays a palm frond oriented vertically