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annwallace409

@annwallace409

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Poet Laureate Emeritus of Jersey City, NJ
Host & Producer, @thewildstory_podcast
Writer of poems, essays & memoir; Educator; Illness Advocate

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Who we are: Poets Playground is a generative poetry circle

Our leader: Tara Temprano, a certified instructor with 25 years of experience, runs Poets Playground utilizing mentor poems, and prompts that get that pen moving.

Status: We are the proud poetry division of the Golden Fleece Collective (501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization)

Mission and Purpose: Poets Playground aims to build an inclusive poetry community around writing, sharing, and offering useful, positive feedback to strengthen the craft of poetry. All types of poets are welcome. (Literary, Spoken Word, Lyrical, Performance)

Where and When: It takes place on the second and last Thursday of each month at Louis Bay II Library
345 Lafayette Avenue in Hawthorne, NJ 07506

What’s needed: notebook, be 18+, writing instrument

What’s not needed: experience, pretension, bad vibes

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Posted is page 16 from Emily Dickinson’s Herbarium, which features the violet wood-sorrel, Oxalis violacea, as its most prominent specimen.

“This is an extremely rare species in the Holyoke Range of Massachusetts. This is the plant that brought Emily Dickinson alive for me, immediately placing her not just on the landscape but in a very specific place and habitat, one of the most special habitats in New England which has many rare species and continues to yield new discoveries into the present day!”

- Peter Grima, Botanist and Emily Dickinson Scholar

There is a second rare plant on this same herbarium page, the purple clematis, Clematis occidentalis, which is also very rare and particularly well-represented in the Holyoke Range (though still rare). The photo of was taken by @taluswalker from Mt. Toby just to the north of Amherst, another place Dickinson likely visited.

Listen to episode 33 of The WildStory podcast to learn more about Emily Dickinson as a botanist from expert Peter Grima.

Photo of the Emily Dickinson herbarium page “courtesy of Houghton Library, Harvard University”

Photos of violet wood-sorrel, Oxalis violacea and purple clematis, Clematis occidentalis by Peter Grima

Photo of violet wood-sorrel, Oxalis violacea by Peter Grima

Photo of purple clematis, Clematis occidentalis by Peter Grima

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Did you know that the English Department’s Dr. Ann Wallace co-hosts and co-produces The WildStory: A Podcast of Poetry and Plants (available wherever you listen to podcasts). This month, for their 33rd episode, The WildStory has a special focus on Emily Dickinson. Dickinson was known for her keen observer of the natural world, as well as for her garden. And we are all the beneficiaries, as the life she observed and cultivated animates her poetry.

The episode opens with an interview with multi-Grammy-award winning mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, who joins Dr. Wallace to discuss her latest album and touring project, Emily — No Prisoner Be, a collaboration with the Grammy-winning string trio Time for Three, composed by Pulitzer- and Grammy- winning Kevin Puts. Together, they bring new life to Dickinson’s poetry. Music from the song-cycle is woven throughout the episode.

In the next segment, a Q&A with native plant expert Dr. Randi Eckel, Randi talks about the kinds of pollinators that would be attracted to meadows such as the one at The Homestead in Amherst, MA where Dickinson lived.

Then botanist and Dickinson-expert Peter Grima—described as a walking encyclopedia of botanical knowledge— shares fascinating information with co-hosts Kim Correro and Dr. Wallace about the herbarium of local plants Dickinson created as a teen, and how her knowledge and appreciation of the natural world informed her poetry.

And the episode closes in discussion with Therapeutic Horticulture Practitioner Kate Irvine, who speaks on the healing benefits of nature.

We hope you enjoy the episode. And be sure to check out past episodes for conversations with some of today’s most fascinating eco-poets who explore cultural histories, environmental consequences, metaphors and meanings of nature through their work.

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My four features rocked the @underdog_bar on Saturday! Thank you for gracing us with your poetry, your presence and your beauty. I am grateful for every moment. Thank you @ibpen @annwallace409 @t_ony9871 @eesahvel #poetry #poems

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Vids of POETIC JUSTICE last night. Features and open mic’ers came with serious bars and left no crumbs!

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They can’t hold us. If you were anywhere last night you might have missed my new favorite open mic. Lucky for you I was there at the inaugural POETIC JUSTICE with @teachingandpoetrywithtemprano open mic in Haledon and it was fantastic. Keep on eye on this one, it’s going to keep growing and getting better!!

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The Wildstory returns after a longer summer hiatus than we had planned. In May, Ann’s father Vern Wallace suffered a devastating stroke and Ann was in Massachusetts for several weeks helping with his care. Sadly, he passed away in late June, just shy of his 90th birthday and of her parents’ 70th anniversary.

In this month’s episode of The WildStory podcast by @nativeplantsocietynj

@gabrielle_myers joins us as our guest poet, speaking with @annwallace409 about her new collection: Go Forth, Lose Yourself into Life, from Finishing Line Press.

Dr. Randi Eckel of @toadshade_wildflower_farm introduces us to the fascinating Eastern Carpenter Bee and why these impressive native pollinators deserve a little more understanding.

Then @kimcorrero catches up with @rachel.mackow.art , co-owner of @wildridgeplants , a nursery dedicated to restoring native plant communities that sustain people and wildlife. Rachel shares the realities of running a native plant nursery, why the location a plant is grown matters, and a lot more.

Ann and Kim close the episode with a long-awaited conversation with Bill Young and Bob Swain, pioneers in restoring some of New Jersey’s most disturbed landscapes—from landfills and Superfund sites to brownfields and mines. They reflect on the early days of the Native Plant Society of New Jersey, their respective years serving as president, and Bob’s remarkable legacy, now honored through the Bob Swain Native Plant Leadership Award. Meet up with Bob and Bill Sept. 24th and 25th at the @serestoration Mid Atlantic Chapter Regional Conference.

Be sure to listen right up to the end of this month’s show. We close with “Plant People FTW,” a new song by @martinebotany and Billy Kelly celebrating all of us who love plants. And don’t skip the ending—the final minute features 25 different lab groups joining in as the Botaneers. Chris Martine, President of the Botanical Society of America, will also be teaching for NPSNJ this fall, so stay tuned for more!

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Vids from Fridays open mic. Just a sampling of the talent that showed up!!

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2nd half of the open mic poets One Mic Stand with SJ. Everyone was great.

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Another open mic for the books as people came out to lay down some serious bars. What an incredible display of talent and heart. Come out and join us next month and you can see for yourself what the fuss is about!!

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We are proud to announce another of our FOUR featured Open Mic is the one and only… Ann Wallace! Ann E. Wallace, PhD served as 2023-24 Poet Laureate of Jersey City, New Jersey and is author of Keeping Room (Nixes Mate, 2026), Days of Grace and Silence: A Chronicle of COVID’s Long Haul (Kelsay Books, 2024), and Counting by Sevens (Main Street Rag, 2019). Her work is anthologized in The Nature of Our Times (Paloma Press), The Big Brutal Act (Harbor Editions), The Long COVID Reader (Long Hauler Publishing), and other collections. Wallace hosts The WildStory: A Podcast of Poetry and Plants. Her work is online at AnnWallacePhD.com. We are honored to feature @annwallace409 🔥
#poetry #openmic

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SEALEY CHALLENGE: DAY 27
“Keeping Room” By Ann E. Wallace @annwallace409
Performed By Cyn Grace Sylvie @cyngracesylvie
Nixes Mate Books, 2026 @nixesmate
#sealeychallenge #poetrycommunity #poetry #newjerseypoetry #newjersey

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