Reading and writing poetry can situate us in the natural world.
Ada’s Signature Project as the U.S. Poet Laureate
“You Are Here” was launched during National Poetry Month of 2024 and continues today. Please learn more below.
Poetry in the Natural World
You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World was published by Milkweed Editions in association with the Library of Congress in 2024. The anthology features a foreword by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, an introduction by Limón, and 50 original poems by living American poets, including former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo; Pulitzer Prize winners Jericho Brown, Carl Phillips and Diane Suess; and PEN/Voelcker Award winners Victoria Chang and Rigoberto González. Learn more.
#youareherepoetry
We encourage everyone, everywhere — poets and non-poets to join us in our efforts to celebrate poetry & the natural world. We hope many will feel moved to write their own responses to the You Are Here prompt. It's simple: What would you write in response to the landscape around you? People can share their responses on social media if they choose, using the hashtag #YouAreHerePoetry.
POETRY IN THE PARKS
The “Poetry in Parks” portion of the project included installations of poetry on picnic tables in seven national parks. As public works of art, the picnic tables each feature a historic American poem selected by Limón to encourage visitors to pay deeper attention to their surroundings.
An initiative with the National Park Service and the Poetry Society of America, “Poetry in Parks” features site-specific poetry installations in seven national parks across the country. These installations transformed picnic tables into works of public art & each feature a historic American poem that connects in a meaningful way to the park. Limón traveled to each of the participating parks to unveil and celebrate the new installations and support community outreach.
A Poem in Space
The Library of Congress and U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón embarked on a mission with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory to send a poem to space! The poem, written by Ada and dedicated to the Europa Clipper mission, was engraved on the spacecraft.
Learn more at the Library of Congress
NASA Collaboration with Ada Limón
In The End, Everything Gives
Poem for Andy Goldworthy’s “Roof”
In September of 2023, Limón participated in the John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art and Community Celebration at the National Gallery of Art. This symposium brought poets from across the nation together to premiere original poetry inspired by works in the Gallery’s collection, and it opened with a keynote address by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón—who wrote a poem, “In the End, Everything Gives” in response to Andy Goldsworthy’s sculpture “Roof.”
SHELTER: A LOVE LETTER TO TREES
Ada Limón has kept a catalog of cherished trees that have grounded and inspired her throughout her life—trees that have marked time and place and have expanded meaning about what it is to be alive on this planet. Here, in a piece that is equal parts a tribute to nature’s power and mystery, boldly confessional memoir, and honest reckoning with our world’s beauty and its many upheavals, she takes the reader on a tour tree by tree, from California and New York City to Cape Cod and Kentucky.
Available from Scribd as both an ebook and audiobook narrated by the author.
“Beautiful personal essays told in vignettes,” Washington Independent Review of Books