The Merwin Conservancy

About the Conservancy

Image courtesy of the National Tropical Botanical Garden & Mary Grierson

Mission

Preserving the living legacy of W.S. Merwin, his home and palm forest, for future study and retreat for botanists and writers, for environmental advocacy and community education programs.

About the Conservancy

The Merwin Conservancy was founded in Summer 2010 but has been more than three decades in the making. William Merwin, U.S. Poet Laureate, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and one of the most widely-read and distinguished poets of our time, has spent over 30 years planting, palm by palm, one of the most extensive private palm collections in the world. Simultaneously,  Merwin has written poetry and prose that speak to and for the natural world, Hawaii, and the human condition, creating a body of work that is a rare literary achievement.

At this stage, The Merwin Conservancy seeks to define the best use for the home and land—and what may have the greatest impact and benefit to the literary and botanical world as well as the Hawaii community. With the help of the Board of Trustees and our partners, we will consider artist-in-residence programs, botanical residencies, and a land stewardship program in collaboration with local schools and community groups. In addition, we will pursue a partnership with an established organization, such as a university creative writing program or major foundation, to ensure our long-term financial sustainability.

The goals of the The Merwin Conservancy include:

• Exploring the best use for the land and home for the greatest public benefit, from poets-in-residence and literary programs to land stewardship and advocacy work to community educational programs and alliances;
  
• Botanical recording of over 800 palm species, including written/illustrated, video filming, and GPS mapping, including several species that are otherwise believed to be extinct;
• Capturing William Merwin’s stories of gardening, the palms, the interweaving of poetry and gardening, on film and in interview;
• Development of a foundational and strategic plan to support long-term financial sustainability;
• Preservation of this one-of-a-kind model of sustainability, living in harmony with nature, and reclamation of degraded land for Hawaii residents and visitors.

The Land and The Home: “Putting Life Back into the World”

“The relation with the world that I want is to be putting life back into the world, rather than taking life out of it.”—W.S. Merwin

William Merwin’s life has been evenly divided between poetry and the garden. On the Hawaiian island of Maui, he has reclaimed 19 acres of land officially designated as “waste land.” For over 30 years, he has planted well over 800 species of palms from around the world, as well as nearly all the native Hawaiian palms, creating a lush and rare tropical palm forest.

The property is as close to self-sustaining as the Merwins could make it.

The soil has been steadily augmented by compost and manure. No green waste has been allowed to leave the property—it all becomes compost over time. Once the seedlings in the small screen house have been planted and have a solid start, they are not watered except by rainfall. Before they can fend for themselves, buckets of dishwater are regularly carried to them.

For 25 years, electricity has come from solar energy. All water is rainwater held in cisterns around the property. The water is “pumped” by gravity and filtered by charcoal, sand and coral for use in the home. There is no air conditioning, as the house, which Merwin designed and helped build, is sited to catch the trade winds that blow nearly year round. And the forest of trees that Merwin has planted reduces the temperature significantly, as well as helps retain moisture in the soil. The only cement—and Merwin tried to use it as little as possible—is in three cisterns, the floor of a small tool room, and the footings of the house. The only bulldozer he allowed was a small one for the 300-foot driveway.

Merwin has gardened and written on this property for over thirty years. Every aspect of the house and the garden reflects his ideas and feelings about nature and art. There is no separation between his poetry and the life he has made here.

“In between twenty-five or thirty years I have planted about 850 species of palms, and at least four or five times that many actual trees. I have had no map….We both hope that the whole of this land can eventually become a palm sanctuary. Just being here, with the garden, the `palm forest,’ all around us, day after day, I think has taught me a great deal.” —W.S. Merwin