Berkeley is a wellspring of literary and artistic history. As a way of preserving and celebrating that history, the City of Berkley called on former poet laureate Robert Hass and award-winning artist David Lance Goines to design a series of poetry panels that have been installed in the sidewalks of BerkeleyÂ’'s thriving downtown arts and theater district. The Berkeley Poetry Walk is a unique testament to the living poetic tradition. Filled with history, poetry, and anecdote, it is a splendid introduction to the history of poetry in the city, with full commentary on each poem by Hass himself. This work makes clear the importance, passion, playfulness, and episodic looniness of one of AmericaÂ’'s most vibrant cities.
Discover all those who have lived in or been moved by this city: from Robert Duncan, Josephine Miles, Czeslaw Milosz, and Lyn Hejinian to Thornton Wilder, Allen Ginsberg, and Kenneth Rexroth, from an Ohlone Indian song fragment to poems about urban spaces, war, music, and of course... love.
