A Thousand Miles of Poetry: Poemwalking Wisconsin’s National Ice Age Trail
Katrina Serwe
7.99 ebook
29.99 paperback
39.99 hardcover
Wisconsin's Ice Age National Scenic Trail is a dream woven in single-track, multi-use, bike trails, and back roads. It's tacked together through shared public spaces, private lands and easements. Every year the trail gains miles toward the goal of uninterrupted path ribboning off-road over 1,200 miles of Wisconsin's glacial terrain.In this evocative poetry collection, poet, hiker, and outdoor enthusiast Katrina Serwe traces a thousand-mile odyssey along the Ice Age Trail, each segment etched into verse. Poemwalking, as Serwe describes it, captures the trail's pulse across every season, woven into reflections, layered metaphors, and the whispers of ancient moraines. These poems, like the glacial till that inspired them, walk the reader over the rugged and gentle landscapes of Wisconsin, shaped by the energy and ice of long ago.
Poetry, like hiking, is an experience best served in chapters, much like each segment of Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail in this new book that combines the art of walking and observing. Serwe's loving tribute to Wisconsin's National Ice Age Trail through poetry will bring you back over and over to explore the trail which are is the process of being established along the edge of the last glacier advance across the state. Some segments hard to traverse, some easy walking, some through cities and some on rough terrain where you can get lost without signs. Full of insight and self-discovery, the poetry will carry you along, as "I would give you a trail / wide enough / to navigate with ease / and close enough / for nature to touch you / in spiderweb and leaf tickles" from “When You Are Stressed” and the pleasure of finding new friends from "I Remember": Let’s go make a trail friend! / It’s not that easy, I say. She laughs, of course it is— / if they’re on the same trail as you, they’re your friend!" Not just for poetry lovers and hiking enthusiasts, A Thousand Miles of Poetry will teach you something about Wisconsin and maybe even push you into poemwalking your own neighborhood. The book includes maps and background information on the trail and creating poetry.
Katrina Serwe, PhD, worked as a therapist, professor, and researcher in the field of occupational therapy for over two decades. She started writing poetry after a transcendent midlife crisis brought her back to her love of literature, art, and nature. Her first collection of poetry, First Steps (Brain Mill Press), was published in 2025. Her poems have been featured in a variety of publications such as The Solitary Plover, Blue Heron Review, Bramble, Portage Magazine, and Scrawl Place. Serwe's awards include the Jade Ring in poetry (Wisconsin Writers Association, 2024) and the Muse Prize (Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, second place, 2025). Her favorite pastime is a made-up hobby she calls poemwalking. You can follow her journey at www.katrinaserwe.com.
