Poet's Beach, Urban beach near Marquam Bridge in Portland, United States

Poet's Beach is a public beach along the western bank of the Willamette River in Portland, featuring a stone pathway that leads directly to the water beneath Marquam Bridge. The shoreline extends along the river with accessible entry points and seating areas that overlook the water and surrounding landscape.

The Human Access Project transformed the location in 2014, changing it from a basic kayak launch into a fully accessible public beach for recreation. This renovation opened the river to wider use and created a destination where visitors could connect with water and nature within the city.

Stones placed along the pathway hold children's poetry about the Willamette River, combined with native Chinook language from the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. These inscriptions create a conversation between nature, local writing, and indigenous presence that visitors encounter as they walk.

The beach sits beneath the Marquam Bridge, reached by a path cut through basalt rock; the poetry engravings line that approach. A kayak launch point has existed since 2000. Lifeguards were added in 2017 but the city continued the program without them from May 2018, so swimmers enter the Willamette at their own risk.

The rocks along the path to the beach carry 30 excerpts of children's poetry about the Willamette River, contributed by Honoring our Rivers, alongside Chinook Jargon phrases with phonetics and English translation from the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. Both sets of texts were engraved into the basalt during the 2014 access improvements.