Metroparks Toledo Announces Third Annual
Collaboration for National Poetry Month, #5poets5parks

Lansing, MI Poet Laureate to be Featured

Toledo, OH—Metroparks Toledo has announced its third annual #5poets5parks collaboration in honor of National Poetry Month. The free event will be April 3, 2026 at Glass City Metropark Pavilion and feature a poetry reading, park photography, and custom letterpress-printed poem postcards. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. with presentations beginning at 6 p.m. An author signing of the postcards will follow. Light refreshments will be served.

Five award-winning regional poets have been chosen to highlight five of the 19 Toledo Metroparks by composing a poem based on the history and biodiversity of each park—each with the aim of amplifying conservation, eco awareness efforts, and community relationships to greenspaces.

Since its inception in 2024, #5poets5parks has featured 10 poets—including Lucas County Poet Laureate Jonie McIntire (2024) and outgoing Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour (2025)— and will continue to extend its regional reach this year to Southern Michigan by spotlighting the work of Lansing Poet Laureate Ruelaine Stokes, bringing the total number of #5poets5parks poets to 15.

Selected Ohio and Michigan poets for 2026 include Cal Freeman (Dearborn, MI), Grace Guy (Raleigh, NC, formerly of Toledo), Charles Malone (Kent), Dior J. Stephens (Cincinnati), and Ruelaine Stokes (Greater Lansing, MI). This year’s parks will include Middlegrounds, Wiregrass Lake, Cannonball Prairie, Howard Marsh, and Toledo Botanical Garden.

2025 poets included Lydia Babcock (Cleveland), Darren Demaree (Columbus), Gunter-Seymour (Albany), and local poets Adrian Lime and Sandra Rivers-Gill, each representing Pearson Metropark, Blue Creek Metropark, Providence Metropark, Manhattan Marsh Metropark, and Swan Creek Metropark, respectively.

2024 Toledo-based poets included Ryan Bunch, Tim Geiger, Jonie McIntire, Dustin Pearson, and Kerry Trautman, each representing Glass City, Side Cut, Farnsworth, Oak Openings and Wildwood, respectively.

Stokes, whose collaborative poetry initiatives involve amplifying poetry through highlighting water spaces and Lansing’s Tollgate Drain Wetlands, said of the project, "It's really an honor to work on #5poets5parks. We all have a deep connection to our hometowns, especially to parks where we can relax with family and friends and enjoy the awesome beauty of nature. Parks are our homes away from home."

Each of the poets visited their park to compose original poems starting in mid-year 2025 and began letterpress print collaboration in January. 

• Freeman is the author of three collections of poetry, including The Weather of Names, released by Cornerstone Press in late 2025.

• Guy, currently an MFA candidate in poetry at North Carolina State University, graduated with a BA in English from the University of Cincinnati and is a former resident of Toledo.

• Malone, Assistant Director at the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University, is the founder and co-editor of CrayfishMag and winner of the Moonstone Arts chapbook prize.

• Stephens, co-editor in chief of Foglifter Press, is a doctoral graduate from the University of Cincinnati, and is currently at work on a second forthcoming poetry collection, ATOMIC I.

• Stokes, whose work has been featured on NPR, is the recipient of an American Academy of Poets fellowship. In partnership with RCAH Center for Poetry at Michigan State University, Stokes is currently creating a “Poetry Pathway” honoring water spaces for residents of and visitors to the state capital of Michigan.

Matt Killam, chief of external relations for Metroparks Toledo, and Julie E. Bloemeke, a Toledo native and award-winning poet currently in Atlanta, will host the event.

Bloemeke, the 2021 Georgia Author of the Year Poetry Finalist, is also a two-time recipient of Books All Georgians Should Read in 2021 and in 2024—a statewide honor only granted to two poetry collections per year. Passionate about community-focused efforts in arts collaboration and biodiversity amplification, Killam and Bloemeke collaborated to launch the #5poets5parks series in 2024, which Bloemeke directs. To date, a total of 15 parks and 15 poets have been a part of the initiative, along with Toledo-based letterpress printer and designer Sven Olaf Nelson—serving for three years—and three Toledo-based photographers, Doug Hinebaugh (2024), Art Weber (2025), and Christy Frank (2026).

During the poetry reading portion of the event, Frank’s photographs—focused on each respective park—will be showcased alongside each poet.

“Metroparks Toledo has shaped how I see home, reminding me how essential it is that we protect these wild spaces, both for the wildlife that depends on them and for our own well-being. It feels like a gift to share my images alongside these talented poets as we try, together, to honor these places with our different ways of noticing,” said Frank of the project.

Nelson, founder of Pineapple Press and Design in Uptown Toledo, has created custom-designed postcards for each of the #5poets5parks poems. Each postcard is letterpress printed on handmade paper that includes native seeds sourced from the Metroparks native plant nursery. At the close of the event, there will be an author signing of each of the postcards, which are then shared with event attendees to be saved as a keepsake, sent through the mail, or planted. Nelson spends about four months on the planning and printing for the project each year, and is especially dedicated to working with creative writers.

Said Nelson: “Working with poets and Metroparks Toledo reinforces the idea that parks aren’t just places we pass through; they are physical spaces for creative rejuvenation, reflection, and connection.”

Both 2024 and 2025 events sold out two weeks in advance. Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz attended the inaugural #5poets5parks events and has continued to support the initiative each year through an official welcome from the City of Toledo.

“We serve Lucas County by preserving 13,000 acres of shared greenspace – a park within five miles of every home,” said Killam. “Another part of our work is telling the stories of our local natural areas. It is our honor to provide a microphone and paper to these talented poets, whose words inspire others to visit and appreciate these special places.”

Free registration for 2026 is limited and open to the public. Link to register is here. Please visit #5poets5parks for more information.