Collect Pond

Collect Pond was the name given to a large pool of water in downtown Manhattan, now filled in, which used to be a source of drinking water and place for recreation. The current Collect Pond Park is a tiny pocket park located at Leonard and Centre Streets. The Bag Snaggers have tried to make it a point to keep this particular park bag free since it has seemed to get more than its fair share of bags in trees and too little attention from the NYC Parks Department.

Several years ago, Tim and Bill McClelland wrote a hymn to bag snagging entitled "Collect Pond" in honor of the park. It was recently recorded by William Appling Singers & Orchestra on a CD devoted to music by Bill. The CD is entitled "The Revenge of Hamish" and also includes "The Ballad of Don & Dan," with text by Ian Frazier, along with many other works. It's available now at Albany Records and in record stores and many online sites.

Click here to listen to Collect Pond:

Collect Pond

There is plastic in the air and it catches in the hair
Of the trees that all around us grow.
And in sycamore and elm in the breezy upper realms
You will see it waving to and fro.

There has seldom been a blight that has suffered less a fight
Than the bags that no one seems to see.
Although cause for some to frown, there are none to take them down
So the answer must reside in you and me.

Let the bags be borne out of the trees;
Let the green leaves remain.
With no harm done by us and with little or no fuss
Let the bags be borne away.

When walking in a glade seeking peacefulness and shade
There is nothing better than to share
A maple's place on earth and one's thoughts for what it's worth
And the tangled wads of plastic everywhere.

No! That last part must come out! We will purge the vagrant lout
With hook and pole of proper length.
We will banish from the scene all the polypropylene
Using no small measure of our strength.

Let the bags be borne out of the trees;
Let the green leaves remain.
With no harm done by us and with little or no fuss
Let the bags be borne away.

Collect Pond

Here is the plaque located at Collect Pond Park in Manhattan:

Here is a map showing the location of the original Collect Pond: