Praise for You Are Here
“Whoever you are, you will find yourself and your own world in the expansiveness of this collection. Even in the specificity of each poet’s own inimitable experience, you will find your own voice and your own perceiving self, for the natural world includes us and enfolds us all.”—Margaret Renkl, New York Times
"Ada is one of those people who can recognize all the ways we inflict pain on one another, not to mention our planet, without getting consumed by it. She writes in that space between grief and joy, and I love that space."—Rachel Martin, NPR
“A lovely book to take with you to read at the end of your next hike.” –Los Angeles Times
“Lush with lyricism and striking imagery, these poems by Jericho Brown, Diane Seuss, and others contemplate seascapes, backyards, national borders, and built environments where life sings beneath the surface.”—Poets & Writers
“Contemporary American poets were asked to reflect on their relationship to the natural world in this evocative anthology of poems edited by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón . . . The poems range from meditating on planting flowers in a garden to flora and fauna in parks and the wild, and express how each poet has their unique—frequently surprising—relationship to nature.”—Seattle Times, “6 books to check out this spring”
"Ada Limón needs no introduction whether it’s to outer space, or with her feet on the ground because of how she has impacted an entire new generation of minds with the weight of her words. [...] Limón sees poems as a vessel and a remedy for all kinds of hurt, even for the hurt we cause. And now we need poems and their remedies more than ever to bring us back to earth and back to ourselves."—Electric Literature
“This beautifully curated anthology of 50 previously unpublished poems challenges preconceptions about ‘nature poetry’ as it meditates on humanity’s relationship to the planet . . . This collection stands apart for the strength of its entries and the breadth of its superb meditations on a pressing theme.”—Publishers Weekly
"Ada Limón commissioned some of the finest poets of our era to write to perhaps the most pressing issue of our time, in an anthology that is uniformly intimate, if diverse in subject matter.... This collection will speak to those who love contemporary poetry and those who don’t yet realize they do, as well as all who care about our natural world, and our place within it.... This collection is superbly designed for multiple audiences: nature lovers, poetry mavens, casual readers, or even as a generative teaching tool."—Mandana Chaffa, The Brooklyn Rail
“Nature is the unifying theme of this poetry anthology edited by current U.S. poet laureate Ada Limón, who was born and raised in Sonoma County. Each featured poet, including Joy Harjo, Paul Tran, Rigoberto González and more, is invited to tangle with their local landscape to produce previously unpublished work.”—San Francisco Chronicle, “22 new works to energize your spring reading”
“Whatever you think ‘nature poetry’ is, you might be surprised by this collection. Each poet writes about their local landscape in new and sometimes unexpected ways, showcasing a diversity of methods with which to interact with the natural world. It’s a slim but powerful volume of poetry that demands you slow down, stop, and immerse yourself in the natural world, if even just for a few minutes.”—BookRiot, “8 New Science Books to Look For in Early 2024”
"It’s clear through her work—including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award—that Ada is connected to something higher, bigger, more ethereal in all that she notices, discovers, and shares. Yet it is exactly those same attributes that plant her so firmly in this physical plane, here on Earth. It’s no surprise, then, that this kind of groundedness is at the heart of her latest book, a project that uplifts individual voices while creating authentic and profound unity. [. . .] Through her work, written and otherwise, Ada reminds us of everyday magic and the importance of connection."—Chicago Review of Books
"In a moment where many are reevaluating their relationship with the natural world, this collection of poems by 50 celebrated contemporary writers reflects on just that topic. Published in association with the Library of Congress, and edited by Ada Límon, the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, You Are Here challenges readers to rethink what they know about 'nature poetry,' as both the poetic landscape and the literal landscape of the world are currently changing before our very eyes."—W Magazine
“The poems in this collection explore various facets of nature, from the beauty of the earth to the looming climate crisis [. . .] there’s no better time to read this meditation on the world around us.”—Washington Square News
“The expansive You Are Here surveys both the landscape of the natural world and the landscape of contemporary poetry. Pastoral witness neighbors environmental concern; established talents neighbor emerging voices; lakes and forests neighbor pools and cemeteries. Dear gardeners, bookworms, lumberjacks, cartographers, bird-watchers, scholars, students, poets, and general readers: You Are Here will leave you more attuned to the textures of countryside and country. Language and land become a capacious singularity in Ada Limón’s superb compilation.”—Terrance Hayes, author of American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin
“The poets in this collection share the richness of their breathing. Rich with noticing, rich with longing, rich with grace, their breath—preserved in poems—become our breathing. The gift here is the true scale of our breath, an interspecies, planetary scale. The scale of gratitude. I am so glad you are here.”—Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author of Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Donika Kelly is the author of The Renunciations, winner of the Anisfield-Wolf book award in poetry, and Bestiary, the winner of the 2015 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and a Kate Tufts Discovery Award. A recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, she is a Cave Canem graduate fellow and founding member of the collective Poets at the End of the World. She currently lives in Iowa City, where she teaches creative writing the University of Iowa.
WHEN THE FACT OF YOUR GAZE MEANS NOTHING, THEN YOU ARE TRULY ALONGSIDE
late spring wind sounds an ocean through new leaves. later the same wind sounds a tide. later still the dry
sound of applause: leaves chapped falling, an ending. this is a process. the ocean leaping out of ocean
should be enough. the wind pushing the water out of itself; the water catching the light
should be enough. I think this on the deck of one boat
then another. I think this
in the Salish, thought it in Stellwagen in the Pacific. the water leaping
looks animal, looks open mouthed,
looks toothed and rolling; the ocean an animal full of other animals.
what I am looking for doesn’t matter. that I am looking doesn’t matter.
I exert no meaning.
a juvenile bald eagle eats a harbor seal’s placenta. its head still brown.
this is a process. the land jutting out, seals hauled out, the white-headed eagles lurking
ready to take their turn at what’s left. the lone sea otter on its back,
toes flopped forward and curled;
Friday Harbor: the phone booth
the ghost snare of a gray whale’s call; an orca’s tooth in an orca’s skull
mounted inside the glass box. remains. this is a process.
three river otters, two adults, a pup,
roll like logs parallel to the shore. two doe, three fawns. a young buck stares, its antlers new, limned gold
in sunset. then the wind again: a wave through leaves green with deep summer, the walnut’s
green husk. we are alive in a green crashing world. soon winter.
the boat forgotten. the oceans,
their leaping animal light, off screen. past. future. this is a process. the eagles at the river’s edge cluster
in the bare tree. they steal fish
from ducks. they eat the hunter’s discards: offal and lead. the juveniles
practice fighting, their feet tangle midair before loosing. this
is a process. where they came from.
for how long will they stay.
that I am looking doesn’t matter. I will impose no meaning.
Joy Harjo is the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, and a member of the Muscogee Nation; she is also the author of ten books of poetry, seven music albums, two memoirs, and several plays and children’s books. Her honors include Yale’s 2023 BollingenPrize for American Poetry, a National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, a Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize,a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Tulsa Artist Fellowship. She is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, the chair of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation, and the inaugural Artist-in-Residence for the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she lives.
EAT
Grasshoppers devoured the sunflowers Petal by petal to raggedy yellow flags— Squash blossoms of small suns blessed
By dew drops flared beauty in the morning Until an army of squash bugs landed
And ate, then dragged their bellies From the carnage—
Field mice chewed their way
Into the house. They eat anything Sweet and leave their pebbled shit
In staggered lines to the closet door— Hungry tree frogs clung to the screen Their curled tongues catch anything With wings driven to the light—
We found a snake hidden on the porch, There were rumors in the yard
Of fat mice frolicking here.
The night is swallowing
Daylight.
We sit down to eat.
