A Poet Treds a Path to Recovery Through Central Park–in Iambic Pentameter Verse

Above a bit of bedrock protruding from the ground in New York City’s most iconic parks sits a man, Aaron Poochigian, silently meditating. He wears a monochromatic brown outfit, blending in with the nearby trees, and a large black backpack with his hands folded neatly over his lap. Here, he allows himself a few minutes to simply exist.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the poet and translator struggled with a debilitating cocaine addiction. Poochigian turned to Central Park to heal. The 52-year-old East Villager forced himself to walk through the park every morning, beginning at 8 a.m., focusing his energy on his sensory experience within the natural world. During this process, he began jotting down his thoughts in short, confessional verse. Four years later, he’s recovered and has transformed his journaling into a full-length poetry book, Four Walks in Central Park: A Poetic Guide to the Park.

“I credit Central Park with a good bit of my recovery from that addiction,” Poochigian said, holding a stack of papers scribbled with notes before entering the park to give a tour.

Published this fall by Familius Books, Four Walks in Central Park: A Poetic Guide to the Park includes four guided walks based on different emotions: overworked, fallow, melancholy, and disillusioned.

Poochigian brings readers through some of Central Park’s iconic landmarks, like Bow Bridge and Strawberry Fields, while also highlighting hidden histories of lesser-known monuments, such as the Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument. The book is written in iambic pentameter and uses didactic verse—an ancient form with the aim of teaching the readers about the park and themselves.

“I wanted to get people to focus on getting out of their minds and into the sights and smells of the natural world,” Poochigian said in front of the Artists Gate on 59th St. and 6th Ave.

Born and raised by two humanities professors in North Dakota, Poochigian has been translating and writing poetry in Manhattan for the last 15 years. Yet, he had rarely visited the park before his addiction. As his personal poems about his wanderings started to connect, Poochigian saw a larger narrative forming—one that mirrored the structure of the park itself. He began reworking them into didactic verse, reminiscent of the poetry he studied in school.

With a doctorate in classics from the University of Minnesota and a Master of Fine Arts in poetry from Columbia University, Poochigian’s main interest is in Greek poets. He’s well known for his translations of Sappho’s poems, and has earned a National Endowment for the Arts grant for translation. He cites Sappho, alongside Virgil and Hesiod, as his main poetic inspirations.

As an adjunct assistant professor of Greek and Roman studies at Vassar College, Poochigian feels a strong need to share the literary history that sparked his inspiration. He hopes his writing will bring the “power of poetry” to larger audiences, as he feels poetry is inaccessible to many readers.

“American poetry is disconnected from people outside academia,” Poochigian said, walking along the south side of Central Park. “What I want is for America to have a national literature where people outside of academia are aware of contemporary poets.”

Poochigian selected the four emotions that pilot the book through observing how Central Park has helped him personally. In the first walk, “For the Overworked,” he wanted to create an escape from the “exhausting” and “oppressive” environment of Manhattan, allowing readers to feel a “liberation from all restrictive limitations of the world.” Spirited by this theme of freedom, Poochigian took a spin on the Central Park Carousel during his tour, allowing himself to indulge in a sense of childlike wonder.

That emotional honesty presented throughout each walk not only reflects his internal battles, but also his broader frustrations with the nation as Poochigian inserts his own political opinions. In one poem, “Strawberry Fields,” Poochigian addresses John Lennon’s 1980 assassination with the line “America is good at shooting people.” However, he did tone these statements down considerably from his first draft per his editor’s request.

“If my political views were stronger, then I might have turned off certain readers,” Poochigian said. “The political views [that] are there are because I just couldn’t help myself.”

For him, writing about the Central Park wasn’t just an escape — it became a way to confront difficult truths and speak out for what he believes in.

What began as a personal exercise for healing has now become critically praised work, with a 4.23-star average rating on Goodreads.

Nicole Killian, a contributing writer for arts and culture outlet The Mob, commended Poochigian’s heartfelt appreciation for the park. In her review, Killian encourages readers to bring the book with them for their next walk in Central Park. “Unlike run-of-the-mill guidebooks, which present destinations as moments to check off on a list and move on, this one has a poet’s heart, and a poetic pace,” she wrote.

Within Central Park’s 843 acres, Poochigian transforms. He lights up at the chance to read his poetry aloud surrounded by the familiar greenery, pronouncing every syllable with deliberate care in a booming, expressive voice. “You look enlivened now, less too tired and more gung ho,” he reads passionately from the concluding section of “For the Overworked.” The poet waves his arms as he recites, gesturing to the landmarks with which he now shares a personal bond.

The park isn’t just the subject of his latest book — it’s the backdrop for his living recovery. “I just realized that a new world without cocaine is preferable to the old one with cocaine,” he said.

Sources:

Aaron Poochigian, avpoochigian@gmail.com