Stories
Director’s Notes
Monthly meditations on The Conservancy’s unfolding story.
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March 5, 2026 | Sonnet Coggins
Rooting in Rich Soil
I’ve been thinking about beginnings, endings, and new beginnings early in this month of remembrance; March is the month of Paula’s birth, and also of Paula’s death and William’s death, two years apart and one week apart.
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February 11, 2026 | Sonnet Coggins
What Is To Be Done
A few years ago, deep in the waist-high stacks of papers and books W.S. Merwin left behind in his study, we found a classic black and white composition notebook to which he had given the title “GARDENING IN THE DARK #1.”
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January 15, 2026 | Sonnet Coggins
The Tutelar of The Place
I take with me into this new year a remembering that the fragment and the whole, the local and the universal, are inextricably linked.
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December 9, 2025 | Sonnet Coggins
Marking Time’s Passage
The first five years of our stewardship have drawn to a close, and so too has the vista across the palm garden to the Pacific Ocean.
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November 1, 2025 | Sonnet Coggins
Rhythms and Rituals
In these last months of the year, I am reminded that these sights, scents, cycles, and surprises make for the intimacy of our stewardship.
The Merwin Conservancy Conversations
Highlighting the voices of friends of The Merwin Conservancy exploring the intersections of place, poetry, & practice.
Listen to the recorded conversations below.
Poet Arthur Sze (April, 2025)
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Poet Carol Moldaw (November, 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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March 31, 2025 | Sonnet Coggins
Growing in Rhythm with Remembrance
The irises in the understory tell me it’s March, though it’s not March at all to the irises. Paula Merwin’s favorite flowers bloom beyond syllables, only when soil and sun suggest, and always in rhythm with our remembrance.
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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.
