Poetry and Garden Project 2026

Week Two of our poetry and garden project is here (a poem read, a garden visited each week). We arrive in April with Aeneas' "sudden" encounter with his mother Venus in disguise as a huntress on the Libyan cliffs and a humble side-street garden in Brooklyn.

To see a full image of the garden and the article for this week head over to https://theuplands.substack.com/p/the-aeneid-and-an-april-garden-brooklyn

The adventure: Visit a garden, read a poem, and share them here with you, each week.

The first one for the (old-style) New Year: St. Vincent Millay and (almost) Spring.

With forays into St. Nicholas, The History of New York, bored lawyers, Peter Stuyvesant's tomb, bumping into President Washington, Knickerbockers, St. Marks-Church-in-the-Bowery, American fun, the West Village, Dutch hobbits, smoke rings, American Aeneid, the Grid, St. Lukes-in-the-Fields, Clement Clarke Moore, Santa, Old Christmas, the Alhambra, Columbus, Rip Van Winkle, The Little Church Around the Corner, Edwin Booth, the Catskills, and old Bars.

For illustrations and links head over to https://theuplands.substack.com

The future of education will not be in a classroom, or certainly nothing that resembles today's idea of a classroom.

I am going to make the case for gardens (somewhat as metaphor, but mostly real gardens) as (in part) as our future classrooms.

To read the essay (which is shorter than this expanded verision) head over to Green Shade at SubStack and subscribe.

What (real) books can do differently. It's not exactly what you think.

To read the essay and more, head to:

https://greenshade.substack.com/p/read-old-books-readiness-for-ai

Introduction to the A.I. mines and the problem of Education....

Original essay here:

https://greenshade.substack.com/p/we-all-work-in-the-a-i-mines-explained

 

We wonder about the missing herds of cattle in New York City and praise milk. 

Dispatches from the forests of New York City. 

For the written verion and images go to dovecote.substack.com

Re-Enchantment of the Hudson Valley - Origins of Central Park 

We go in search of the mystical project behind Central Park. Also hamburgers. 

Dispatch from the forests of New York City. 

For the written version and images head to dovecote.substack.com

The Lost Sheep of Prospect Park. 

We go in search of the missing Dairy in Propect Park, Brooklyn. 

Dispatches from the forests of New York City. 

For the written version, images of the Dairy and more go to dovecote.substack.com 

The Lost Sheep of Prospect Park. 

We go in search of the missing Dairy in Propect Park, Brooklyn. 

Dispatches from the desk of the Chief Forester of NYC. 

For the written version, images of the Dairy and more go to dovecote.substack.com