What Is a Garden?

Poet and environmentalist W. S. Merwin moved to Hawaii in 1976 and has spent the last forty years planting nineteen acres with more than eight hundred species of palm, creating a lush garden on a ruined former pineapple plantation. Now the Merwin Conservancy, this land has served as Merwin s muse and his passion, appearing as a consistent subject of his poems and his germinal essays on conservation. What Is a Garden? collects eight of Merwin s poems and three of his essays emblematic of his palm garden writings from the 1980s to the present and presents them alongside photographer Larry Cameron s spectacular images of Merwin s garden, all taken between 2013 and 2014. These photographs lure readers deep into Merwin s palm garden and offers a rare glimps into this private exotic landscape as a visual feast for the viewer, rich with insights into the spirit of the place that has inspired Merwin s poetry.

Cameron first met Merwin in the early1990s while working on a documentary film about the emergence of Merwin s environmental consciousness. What Is a Garden? also includes a new introduction by Merwin chronicling his personal history with his palm garden, Cameron s photographer s note on his friendship with the poet and his inspiration for this collection, and an identification guide to the plants featured in the volume."