World Class Princeton Poet Leads the Way through an Immersive Public Art Installation in Rocky Hill

By Barbara A. Preston | Posted April 10, 2025

A community poetry path is now in place for the month of April. It begins at Rocky Hill Borough Hall with a Paul Muldoon poem, "The River Is a Wave."

"It is an astounding poem that we think is about the Millstone River because it mentions Lake Carnegie, and the river coming through that waterway," says Susan Bristol, the organizer of the public art installation.

Many readers know Muldoon as the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who lived in Griggstown by the canal for a number of years. He is a Princeton University professor and Founding Chairperson of the Lewis Center for the Arts.

‘The River Is a Wave’ from Joy in Service on Rue Tagore.

Those who have yet to read Muldoon's poetry may do so by walking the Rocky Hill pathway, or at an upcoming event: "Poetry Reading and Conversation with Paul Muldoon," at The Present Day Club in Princeton on Tuesday, May 13, from 5 pm to 7pm. The cost: $75 per person. Proceeds will go to SavetheMJL to fund the lawsuit against the Mary Jacobs Foundation — to preserve the Mary Jacobs Memorial Library in Rocky Hill.

This event will include a reading and conversation with Muldoon and light refreshments. His books will be available for purchase and signing. Labyrinth Books of Princeton is a partner in the event..

A poem from Rocky Hill resident Richard D. Smith titled "A Haiku for Our River."

The poetry path project includes submissions from local writers, and leads walkers down a short hill through Green Acres towards the Millstone River. "It essentially prepares you for an encounter with the river," Bristol said.

"The path ends with a poem by Mary Oliver, one of our now deceased neighbors who I admired a great deal. It is very fitting, [that it be the last poem] because you start to get a glimpse of the water through the trees."

The 6th Annual Poetry Path

The poetry path is a grassroots project started in 2020 when the Mary Jacobs Library (MJL) in Rocky Hill was being threatened with closure and then COVID shut everything down. It was a way to let the community share an experience safely outdoors.

The project features eight poets, whose works consider the relationships between people and rivers — often the Millstone River that borders Rocky Hill.

A bench along the Millstone River at the end of the Green Acres path.

This year it is dedicated to the Borough of Rocky Hill and the Save the MJL nonprofit community group, which is working with patience and dedication for the future of our community and our beloved library, Bristol said. ■

For more information, email: SaveTheMJL@gmail.com.

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POEMS

The River Is a Wave

The river is a wave that never breaks

though it may briefly surge

as it edges its way out of that three-mile-long lake

in which it’s managed to submerge

its ever so slightly diminished sense of hurt.

The river is a wave that never breaks

despite such fitful spurts

of “enthusiasm.” Let’s say, for argument’s sake,

that if it follows in its own wake

to satisfy an imperfectly remembered urge,

the river is a wave that never breaks

but is forever on the verge

of confronting an issue it’s inclined to skirt

since it’s only the sea, with its incomparable ache,

that may categorically assert

the river is a wave that never breaks.

‘The River is a Wave’ from Joy in Service on Rue Tagore.

www.paulmuldoonpoetry.com

River

The Millstone,

we knew it all too well,

an artery,

bursting around the seasons

of Rocky Hill,

running with the swift

winds of spring,

a Mecca for the wildlife,

who hid around each bend,

and as children

we wanted to hide out with

the turtles,

when their ageless faces

disappeared into the murky water.

Then one day the buck

found us twirling like fairies

in his private domain

and we ran,

our dream scattered

to the summer breeze.

By Kathryn Anne Washkevich

(Grew up in Rocky Hill.)

A White Elephant

An elephant remembers its path to the river

Society only knows development

An elephant breaks down a fence erected in its path

Society only knows development

There was plenty of elephant meat around that weekend

As society was developing.

By Ken Rizzi of Rocky Hill

*SavetheMJL is a 501c4 NJ non-profit. Donations are not tax deductible. All funds raised go directly to SavetheMJL to fund the lawsuit against the Mary Jacobs Foundation to preserve the Mary Jacobs Memorial Library in Rocky Hill, an invaluable community resource — and to ensure that the intent and dictates of Harold Jacobs are honored. No funds will be given to Mary Jacobs Foundation or Mary Jacobs Memorial Library. ■