State Poet Laureate Kimiko Hahn to debut new poem at "Moon Tree" in NYC park

A sweetgum tree grown from a seed that traveled around the moon. Photo credit: Madison Square Park Conservancy

New York State Poet Laureate Kimiko Hahn was a featured guest at Madison Square Park’s Moon Tree Launch Party in New York City on Thursday, July 16.

The daylong evebt marked the park’s newly-planted American sweetgum tree, grown from a seed that traveled around the moon aboard NASA’s Artemis I mission.

As part of the festivities, Hahn read her newly commissioned poem inspired by the Moon Tree’s lunar orbit.

The Madison Square Park Moon Tree is part of NASA’s Artemis Moon Tree initiative, developed in partnership with the USDA Forest Service.

The Adventures of the Moon Tree

By Kimiko Hahn

Stu carried five hundred seeds

of loblolly, pine, sweetgum, and sycamore

on his Apollo mission around the moon

while their siblings stayed home in a nursery., j

Loblolly, pine, sweetgum, and sycamore seeds

orbited so foresters could see how they'd fare

(their siblings pouted in the nursery)

in playgrounds and schoolyards and city parks.

Orbiting so foresters could see how they'd fare

(after Stu returned with the five hundred seeds)

one moon tree landed in Madison Square Park.

After Apollo, after Artemis, she orbited to us.

Kimiko Hahn was installed as the 15th New York State Poet at a ceremony held at the University at Albany in 2025.

The summer celestial poetry installation was presented in partnership with the Poetry Society of America.