We hope that your walk through the park has inspired your creativity. Send Poem Quest a poem of your own! You can write about your experience of the park, a spot in it that caught your attention, or a story about yourself and what brings you here. We would love to see it.

Upload your poem or type it into the editor.

About

Take a walk through Newark’s Riverfront Park searching for poems that tell the stories of the people who visit it! Listen to the poems by following the trail of photographs by photojournalist Ed Kashi that provide clues for discovering the poetry in and of Riverfront Park. 

Poetry has long been a means of personal storytelling; PoemQuest tells the story of Riverfront Park through the voices of local poets commissioned by Newest Americans to interview visitors and share their stories through poetry. The poets asked questions designed to understand how visitors are connected to the park and to New Jersey—Where did your family come from before settling in New Jersey? What brought you here? What brings you to this park? 

PoemQuest connects art to history through an interactive game that peoples the park with poetry. Once you play the game we encourage you to share your own poem about the journey that led you to Newark and your connection to Riverfront Park. Submit your poem

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Dmitri Reyes

Tire Read Poem

Dmitri Reyes

Tire

I couldn’t tell what it was 
at first 

my sister and I thought  
turtle-myth 

like the Jersey Devil 
still living in forest fires 

this sighting can outlast 
dumps of chemical waste 

evolving a filtration system 
within lungs not absorbing lead 

it could’ve been a burlap bag 
that held something like rice 

there is a Seabra’s in the Ironbound 
and another in Harrison 

that could kiss this river littered 
with bags and bag-like items 

plump and floating 
it could’ve been a rock she said 

but I remember reading 
about the five families of New York 

and our five wards and these bridges 
have seen rocks around ankles that sink 

to the bottom 
by the boardwalk 

When it revealed itself as a car tire 
not bald nor used 

 I wondered how it got there 
in the water brand new but travelled 

I went scouring the park 
that morning for a culture 

to dissect a down neck history 
to spin a new legend 

around a thing that was only a tire 
it was still in the water 

out of place and something to ponder 
this unused object without myth nor story 

just floating in the water