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You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World
Published in association with the Library of Congress and edited by the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate of the United States, a singular collection of poems reflecting on our relationship to the natural world by fifty of our most celebrated contemporary writers.
In recent years, our poetic landscape has evolved in profound and exciting ways. So has our planet. Edited and introduced by the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate of the United States, Ada Limón, this book challenges what we think we know about “nature poetry,” illuminating the myriad ways our landscapes—both literal and literary—are changing.
You Are Here features fifty previously unpublished poems from some of the nation’s most accomplished poets, including Joy Harjo, Diane Seuss, Rigoberto González, Jericho Brown, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Paul Tran, and more. Each poem engages with its author’s local landscape—be it the breathtaking variety of flora in a national park, or a lone tree flowering persistently by a bus stop—offering an intimate model of how we relate to the world around us and a beautifully diverse range of voices from across the United States.
Joyful and provocative, wondrous and urgent, this singular collection of poems offers a lyrical reimagining of what “nature” and “poetry” are today, inviting readers to experience both anew.
In recent years, our poetic landscape has evolved in profound and exciting ways. So has our planet. Edited and introduced by the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate of the United States, Ada Limón, this book challenges what we think we know about “nature poetry,” illuminating the myriad ways our landscapes—both literal and literary—are changing.
You Are Here features fifty previously unpublished poems from some of the nation’s most accomplished poets, including Joy Harjo, Diane Seuss, Rigoberto González, Jericho Brown, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Paul Tran, and more. Each poem engages with its author’s local landscape—be it the breathtaking variety of flora in a national park, or a lone tree flowering persistently by a bus stop—offering an intimate model of how we relate to the world around us and a beautifully diverse range of voices from across the United States.
Joyful and provocative, wondrous and urgent, this singular collection of poems offers a lyrical reimagining of what “nature” and “poetry” are today, inviting readers to experience both anew.
152 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 2, 2024
About the author
Ada Limon
36 books2,390 followersAda Limón is the author of three books of poetry, Lucky Wreck, This Big Fake World, and Sharks in the Rivers. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from New York University. Limón has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, and was one of the judges for the 2013 National Book Award in Poetry. She works as a creative writing instructor and a freelance writer while splitting her time between Lexington, Kentucky and Sonoma, California (with a great deal of New York in between). Her new book of poems, Bright Dead Things is forthcoming from Milkweed Editions in 2015.
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March 15, 2024
I always really enjoy when the current US Poet Laureate gets to use their post to put out a poetry anthology of their choosing. Our current Laureate, Ada Limón, is an absolutely brilliant poet and I’ve loved that her initiative has been the You Are Here project, which includes Poetry In the Parks to place poetry installations in National Parks around the country. It’s such a lovely idea, and I have a massive and very personal love for public poetry so I was thrilled to see her release You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World. This anthology collects 50 previously unpublished poems commissioned for this book from some of the most amazing contemporary writers in the US who share some of their poetic gifts with us on the subject of nature. ‘Nature is not a place to visit. Nature is who we are,’ Limón writes in the introduction and these poems remind us of our place in the natural world amongst all the wonders of plant and animal life and all the beauty of the Earth. Even with the central theme, it is a very versatile collection with a brilliant variety of approaches to the subject with words that will touch your heart as you ‘let the world / soften you with its touching,’ as Ruth Awad writes. A brief but powerful little anthology that captures the beauties of the natural world and the joys of our life amongst it.
EAT
—Joy Harjo
Grasshoppers devour the sunflowers
Petal by petal to raggedy yellow flags—
Squash blossoms of small suns blessed
By dewdrops flare beauty in the morning
Until an army of squash bugs land
And eat, then drag their bellies
From the carnage—
Field mice chew their way
Into the house. They eat anything
Sweet and leave their pebbled shit
In staggered lines to the closet door.
Hungry tree frogs cling to the screen.
Their curled tongues catch anything
With wings driven to the light—
We find a snake hidden on the porch,
There are rumors in the yard
Of fat mice frolicking here.
The night is swallowing
Daylight.
We sit down to eat.
‘If in order to have one tree flourish, we must plant more around it,’ writes Limon, ‘the same goes for poetry.’ Here we have nature and poetry flourishing together and encouraging us to help both blossom and grow. And with the most extraordinary collection of poets, this collection is a powerhouse of talent. In her introduction here Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden writes that these poems ‘serve as a call for readers to take in the nature all around them,’ because, as author Robin Wall Kimmerer instructs, ‘the land is the real teacher.’
I have to admit this collection and Limon’s initiative speak directly to my heart though. Over the past several years a hobby of mine has been to create temporary public poetry installations. It started as a joke to post a poem in the center of our city’s park like a medieval decree but I began leaving favorite poems all over trees everywhere I went, teaching myself to paint so I could write poems on the painting and leave them for people to find.
[photo: a collage of some examples of Poe-a-tree]
I like the idea of being surprised by art in the wild and having strangers stop and think about poetry for a brief moment while also having their attention called to the idea that nature itself is a sort of poetry. If you are curious, I have them all collected on instagram at @poe_a_tree where the project mostly lives now as I was shut down by the city. Though you can still occasionally find them on the local college campus who doesn’t seem to mind. I hope. ‘I hope you will consider making your own version of a “You Are Here” poem to grow alongside ours,’ Limon writes, and I definitely agree with spreading the love of public poetry and art.
LETTERS
—Ilya Kaminsky
Rain has eaten ¼ of me
Yet I believe
Against all evidence
These raindrops
Are my letters of recommendation
Here is a man worth falling on.
There is a wonderful variety of takes on the subject in this collection. We have poems on the beauty of nature but also the destruction of it through climate change or commoditization. ‘Every place i have loved has forced me to leave,’ write b Ferguson in Parkside & Ocean about the way nature is often commoditized and taken from indigenous peoples under colonization, old dream / will either of us return to what we once were?’ Patricia Smith uses nature symbolism to great effect to speak of bodies in To Little Black Girls, Risking Flower, with some wonderful metaphors on blossoming into oneself: ‘If your aim was / to unfurl, terrify, sparkle with damage, you’ll do that and more.’ torrin a. Greathouse also excels with symbolism on the body with an exploration on gender transition in No Ethical Transition Under Late Capitalism (you can read it here).
I love a good poetry anthology, I love me some nature and I loved You Are Here. A highly recommended collection. Now I need to go see some of her installations in the parks!
5/5
LULLABY FOR THE GRIEVING
at the Sipsey River
—Ashley M. Jones
make small steps.
in this wild place
there are signs of life
everywhere.
sharp spaces, too:
the slip of a rain-glazed rock
against my searching feet.
small steps, like prayers--
each one a hope exhaled
into the trees. please,
let me enter. please, let me
leave whole.
there are, too, the tiny sounds
of faraway birds. the safety
in their promise of song.
the puddle forming, finally,
after summer rain.
the golden butterfly
against the cave-dark.
maybe there are angels here, too--
what else can i call the crown of light
atop the leaves?
what else can i call
my footsteps forward,
small, small, sure?
EAT
—Joy Harjo
Grasshoppers devour the sunflowers
Petal by petal to raggedy yellow flags—
Squash blossoms of small suns blessed
By dewdrops flare beauty in the morning
Until an army of squash bugs land
And eat, then drag their bellies
From the carnage—
Field mice chew their way
Into the house. They eat anything
Sweet and leave their pebbled shit
In staggered lines to the closet door.
Hungry tree frogs cling to the screen.
Their curled tongues catch anything
With wings driven to the light—
We find a snake hidden on the porch,
There are rumors in the yard
Of fat mice frolicking here.
The night is swallowing
Daylight.
We sit down to eat.
‘If in order to have one tree flourish, we must plant more around it,’ writes Limon, ‘the same goes for poetry.’ Here we have nature and poetry flourishing together and encouraging us to help both blossom and grow. And with the most extraordinary collection of poets, this collection is a powerhouse of talent. In her introduction here Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden writes that these poems ‘serve as a call for readers to take in the nature all around them,’ because, as author Robin Wall Kimmerer instructs, ‘the land is the real teacher.’
I have to admit this collection and Limon’s initiative speak directly to my heart though. Over the past several years a hobby of mine has been to create temporary public poetry installations. It started as a joke to post a poem in the center of our city’s park like a medieval decree but I began leaving favorite poems all over trees everywhere I went, teaching myself to paint so I could write poems on the painting and leave them for people to find.
[photo: a collage of some examples of Poe-a-tree]
I like the idea of being surprised by art in the wild and having strangers stop and think about poetry for a brief moment while also having their attention called to the idea that nature itself is a sort of poetry. If you are curious, I have them all collected on instagram at @poe_a_tree where the project mostly lives now as I was shut down by the city. Though you can still occasionally find them on the local college campus who doesn’t seem to mind. I hope. ‘I hope you will consider making your own version of a “You Are Here” poem to grow alongside ours,’ Limon writes, and I definitely agree with spreading the love of public poetry and art.
LETTERS
—Ilya Kaminsky
Rain has eaten ¼ of me
Yet I believe
Against all evidence
These raindrops
Are my letters of recommendation
Here is a man worth falling on.
There is a wonderful variety of takes on the subject in this collection. We have poems on the beauty of nature but also the destruction of it through climate change or commoditization. ‘Every place i have loved has forced me to leave,’ write b Ferguson in Parkside & Ocean about the way nature is often commoditized and taken from indigenous peoples under colonization, old dream / will either of us return to what we once were?’ Patricia Smith uses nature symbolism to great effect to speak of bodies in To Little Black Girls, Risking Flower, with some wonderful metaphors on blossoming into oneself: ‘If your aim was / to unfurl, terrify, sparkle with damage, you’ll do that and more.’ torrin a. Greathouse also excels with symbolism on the body with an exploration on gender transition in No Ethical Transition Under Late Capitalism (you can read it here).
I love a good poetry anthology, I love me some nature and I loved You Are Here. A highly recommended collection. Now I need to go see some of her installations in the parks!
5/5
LULLABY FOR THE GRIEVING
at the Sipsey River
—Ashley M. Jones
make small steps.
in this wild place
there are signs of life
everywhere.
sharp spaces, too:
the slip of a rain-glazed rock
against my searching feet.
small steps, like prayers--
each one a hope exhaled
into the trees. please,
let me enter. please, let me
leave whole.
there are, too, the tiny sounds
of faraway birds. the safety
in their promise of song.
the puddle forming, finally,
after summer rain.
the golden butterfly
against the cave-dark.
maybe there are angels here, too--
what else can i call the crown of light
atop the leaves?
what else can i call
my footsteps forward,
small, small, sure?
May 15, 2024
I love the spirit of the project behind You Are Here--especially Ada Limón's encouragement to readers to get outside and write our own You Are Here poems. Unfortunately, I felt like Limón's introduction was among the best parts of the collection. I only connected with a handful of the poems included. I think I went in expecting nature poetry in the mode of Wendell Berry or Mary Oliver. But these poems are...different than that. Several of them are surprisingly disconnected from the natural world. Like Dr. Ian Malcolm, I occasionally found myself wondering, "Will there be any nature in your nature poem?" I mean, sure, we humans are nature ourselves, but I wanted critters, trees, and transcendence.
That said, I did like aspects of the collection. First, I applaud the choice to include poet bios with each poem, rather than leaving those until the end of the book. Even if I didn't read each one thoroughly, it was nice to briefly orient myself to the writer, and to note possibilities for further reading. And of course, there were some exquisite poems. My favorites include "You Belong to the World" by Carrie Fountain, "Mouth of the Canyon" by Traci Brimhall (Kansas! Woot!), "Taking the Magnolia" by Paisley Rekdal, "Manifesto of Fragility/Terraform" by Erika Meitner, and "Heliophilia" by Aimee Nezhukumatathil.
That said, I did like aspects of the collection. First, I applaud the choice to include poet bios with each poem, rather than leaving those until the end of the book. Even if I didn't read each one thoroughly, it was nice to briefly orient myself to the writer, and to note possibilities for further reading. And of course, there were some exquisite poems. My favorites include "You Belong to the World" by Carrie Fountain, "Mouth of the Canyon" by Traci Brimhall (Kansas! Woot!), "Taking the Magnolia" by Paisley Rekdal, "Manifesto of Fragility/Terraform" by Erika Meitner, and "Heliophilia" by Aimee Nezhukumatathil.
May 15, 2026
I took far longer than I should have to read this collection but did so to prolong my enjoyment of the experience and allow myself to spread out the reading as well as re-read as I went along. No racing allowed in reading poetry. This book is one of the reasons I created my “reading over time shelf” here at GR.
I discovered many new to me poets and poems that warrant further exploration and the book is loaded with my small markers on half of its pages to draw me back to those I want to pursue the hardest.
If you enjoy poetry, are interested in poetry or would like to try it on for size, this collection might be a good place to check in, with its ties to the world around us.
I discovered many new to me poets and poems that warrant further exploration and the book is loaded with my small markers on half of its pages to draw me back to those I want to pursue the hardest.
If you enjoy poetry, are interested in poetry or would like to try it on for size, this collection might be a good place to check in, with its ties to the world around us.
July 19, 2026
"[Nature] is the lover walking out, their self-justified gait as they disappear through the tunnel of flowers."
- Page 20, Diane Seuss
Limon's selection of writings will make you smile whilst teary eyed, befitting of becoming a true classic (if not the entire book, at least some of the poetry within for sure). A quick read with high re-readability value. I mean, c'mon, where else could you read the endearing words "fat mice frolicking?"
"People love the word pride... [but] I want to be a Giraffe... just one of me is a parade."
- Page 62, Jericho Brown
You Are Here may also stir up thoughts regarding your own personal connection with nature, triggered by only a few words - such as Molly Mcgully Brown's "I once believed I wouldn't see another winter."
I was also touched by the below passage, a striking indication of the cruel dismissal of speciesism, which a couple excerpts do exemplify throughout the book (this being just one of example):
"Why do we need to be in the cage to survive?
Because they will make use of us if they don't find us beautiful."
- Page 86, Danez Smith
Prageeta Sharma's poem "I'm Learning to Find the Horizons of Peace" eloquently paralleled my psychological experience as a chronic pain survivor of trauma, having recently finished reading The Alchemy of Illness by Kat Duff.
Here is an excerpt from Sharma's passage; "the will to live without you and frame what you have given me, that which feels immutable: The windows to expand into who we are... the fact of acceptance and this holy blush of loss."
"These mountains have given us so much & we will not even give ourselves to each other."
- Page 131, Kiki Petrosino
On an ending note, the passages Staircase by Jason Schneiderman and Reasons to Live by Ruth Awad resonate with my soul. If anyone relates to such intense eco-anxiety, I urge you to read Generation Dread by Britt Wray.
"I found my way here less because and more in spite of, to spite the land and the hands I'd been dealt with... my spirit persisted despite resistance."
- Page 124, Paul Tran
August 5, 2024
A book of poetry that's both devastating and uplifting, about the connection between poetry, humanity and nature.
August 8, 2024
"[...] and obviously you can't grab someone by the shoulders on an airplane and scream YOU ARE WHY THE WORLD IS ON FIRE, which is good, I support that, I should not have done that, but that's where my mind keeps going [...]"
October 2, 2024
Unfortunately this collection was not what I expected. It could be subtitled: "Anthology of poets famous for other reasons try their hand at nature writing." Unlike other reviewers, I didn't like the inclusion of each poet's biography/accolades right beside their poem. The collection quickly felt like a "who's who" of "important" people, a very human construct that was at odds with a collection that claimed to return poetry to the natural world. The biographies competed for attention with the poems due to their length and density and felt like a distraction from the tone the poems were trying to portray.
The biographical juxtaposition also suggests that the poets got to be included because of their prior reputations, rather than because of their experience as nature poets. I find that selection process disappointing. There are many, many "minor" poets that have written much better poems that could have been promoted by this collection, which would have been refreshing in comparison to what felt like a pretentious attempt to signal who's currently important in the field of poetry under the guise of a writing prompt. Probably no surprise, but I returned this book.
The biographical juxtaposition also suggests that the poets got to be included because of their prior reputations, rather than because of their experience as nature poets. I find that selection process disappointing. There are many, many "minor" poets that have written much better poems that could have been promoted by this collection, which would have been refreshing in comparison to what felt like a pretentious attempt to signal who's currently important in the field of poetry under the guise of a writing prompt. Probably no surprise, but I returned this book.
June 15, 2025
A poetry collection is a great excuse to experiment with reading: read aloud, mouth words, make sounds to yourself. I decided to download the audiobook and listen, and when that wasn’t quite enough, I listened while reading along with my eyes. I listened before falling asleep, letting my subconscious tangle with the words. I woke up and listened again. I read this collection starting in the middle, then forward, then backward.
Nature writing is powerful. Humans are not separate from the environment and this collection positions poetry in the natural world, here and now with the one planet we all share. Death and mortality are common themes and teachers, “this holy blush of loss” as Prageeta Sharma describes it. Poets writing about the nostalgia of lost paradise and the resistance required to create sanctuaries are the Greek chorus of the climate emergency.
Nature writing is powerful. Humans are not separate from the environment and this collection positions poetry in the natural world, here and now with the one planet we all share. Death and mortality are common themes and teachers, “this holy blush of loss” as Prageeta Sharma describes it. Poets writing about the nostalgia of lost paradise and the resistance required to create sanctuaries are the Greek chorus of the climate emergency.
July 2, 2024
i looooove poems about nature, so naturally i loved this collection! the contributors list was STACKED, so many of my favorites and edited by ada limon too! would love to own a copy of this to annotate.
May 4, 2024
3.5 ⭐️
May 9, 2025
I really have no business reviewing a poetry collection, but here I go anyway. This was an impulse choice when the cover grabbed my attention at the library and I really loved it. I discovered that the anthology format was very appealing. When I came across something I didn't like (or understand or both), I could just turn the page to something new. All of these works are tied by theme, in this case nature, but stylistically all over the place. Most of them really resounded in my mind and heart. They are all also very short, most a page or less. It was a lovely way to start and close my days a couple of poems at a time.
I discovered some poets whose works I will pursue and learned not to fear a poetry collection.
I discovered some poets whose works I will pursue and learned not to fear a poetry collection.
June 10, 2026
what a lovely collection of poems… some of my favorites: “to a blossoming saguaro” - eduardo corral, “unendangered moths of the mid-twentieth century” - brenda hillman, “lighthouse” - ellen bass, “there are more ways to show devotion” - hanif abdurraqib, “night shift in the home for convalescents” - carolyn forché, “staircase” - jason schneiderman.
July 2, 2024
I loved this collection by poet laureate Ada Limón who I have admired for a long time, and savored her poetry. I love how her collection comes from “the natural world,” and that to let a tree grow other trees around it are needed. That idea of poetry as a collective—a poet needs to breath with other poets.
You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World is an impressive collection of poetry by old favorites and some poets I did not know, one unpublished poem each. Just a few are: Carolyn Forche, Jericho Brown, Kazim Ali, Prageeta Sharma, Matthew Zapruder, Victoria Chang, Dorrianne Laux, Ellen Bass, Kevin Young, Camille Dungy, Erika Meitner, Patricia Smith, and even Joy Harjo.
From Ruth Awad’s poem “Reasons to Live”—
Because if you can survive
The violet night, you can survive
the next, and the fig tree will ache
with sweetness for you in the sunlight that arrives
You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World is an impressive collection of poetry by old favorites and some poets I did not know, one unpublished poem each. Just a few are: Carolyn Forche, Jericho Brown, Kazim Ali, Prageeta Sharma, Matthew Zapruder, Victoria Chang, Dorrianne Laux, Ellen Bass, Kevin Young, Camille Dungy, Erika Meitner, Patricia Smith, and even Joy Harjo.
From Ruth Awad’s poem “Reasons to Live”—
Because if you can survive
The violet night, you can survive
the next, and the fig tree will ache
with sweetness for you in the sunlight that arrives
June 18, 2024
Com passa en totes les antologies, alguns poemes agraden més que altres. Però, com a col·lecció, m'ha agradat i té sentit i m'ha fet conèixer poetes de qui no havia llegit res mai i que m'han semblat interessants.
September 17, 2026
I found it hard to connect with the majority of these poems, excepting half a dozen or so, but always grateful to read anything by Dorianne Laux and Joy Harjo.
April 26, 2024
Я всё-таки не могу воспринимать поэзию без рифмы, а тут ещё к тому же большая часть сборника - какая-то претенциозная ерунда.
July 22, 2026
I thought all of these poems were so good that I just didnt want it to end!! They have a sense of so much wonder and awe about our world and planet and they were perfect to read either in a sitting or over many sittings.
August 31, 2026
Sealey Challenge 2026: 22/31
May 8, 2024
Sometimes you just have to stop everything and read some poetry. This collection of nature poems by a wide variety of contemporary poets, is, overall, quite wonderful. The very first one, "You belong to the World" by Carrie Fountain is divine, but there are others which really shine, too. Some don't reallly speak to me,but that's to be expected, isn't it? Sometimes you just have to read some poems.
March 17, 2025
this book smells like fresh morning dew on a spring field and honey and cherry blossoms 🌼 such a lovely hug to the soul
“Now the tips of the live oaks softly brush the tips of the hackberry canopy.
I would like to believe in tenderness.”
“(…) and the rivers
will set their stones and ribbons at your door if only
you'll let the world soften you with its touching.”
“Now the tips of the live oaks softly brush the tips of the hackberry canopy.
I would like to believe in tenderness.”
“(…) and the rivers
will set their stones and ribbons at your door if only
you'll let the world soften you with its touching.”
December 26, 2025
Audio.
Poetry collection that attempts to ground you to where you are when you feel lost. ‘You are here’ is a great compilation with a variety of voices and themes.
Glad it introduced me to this poem.
—
Letters
by Ilya Kaminsky
Rain has eaten 1/4 of me
yet I believe
against all evidence
these raindrops
are my letters of recommendation
here is a man worth falling on.
Poetry collection that attempts to ground you to where you are when you feel lost. ‘You are here’ is a great compilation with a variety of voices and themes.
Glad it introduced me to this poem.
—
Letters
by Ilya Kaminsky
Rain has eaten 1/4 of me
yet I believe
against all evidence
these raindrops
are my letters of recommendation
here is a man worth falling on.
April 28, 2024
I bought this a couple of weeks ago and finally got to spend time with it today. Diverse. Intellectual. Complex. It’s even better than what I imagined it would be. I will return to it again and again!
August 11, 2024
This collection provided a helpful way to learn about contemporary American poets from a range of backgrounds since there are over 50 writers included. I also flagged six poems as ones I absolutely loved or appreciated.
December 3, 2024
Contained approximately 2 poems I enjoyed, also contains one of the worst poems I’ve ever read. All around not impressive or memorable
April 8, 2026
We were a month ahead of National Poetry month (April) because we read this for our March book group at our library. I love compilations!! You are bound to find something that hits a nerve for you and/or that you enjoy. Certainly, there were weighty topics in here since our poor natural world is in such a precarious state. I really liked the setup of this book because on alternate pages there were bios of the authors of the poems. Learning about these well-versed (pun intended) people was inspirational and uplifting. They are in our midst taking care of our souls if we choose to read their art.
April 4, 2026
the thing about anthologies is they have a lot of poems that are hit or miss and that was the case with this! i love the idea behind this collection and i was excited that it was curated by ada limón but i was hoping for more evocative nature imagery — a lot of these poems didn’t grip me in the way that nature poetry by ada limón or mary oliver does but there were definitely still some very beautiful poems and it was cool to see such a wide range of poets represented… a nice read at the park on a sunny day <3
December 8, 2024
3/5
50 poems with a sprinkle of the cover art as page filler.
I don't know what I expected, but I didn't get it? This is a beautiful idea, a call to nature and life outside, but the poems didn't capture what I believed Ada Limón to have said in her introduction and explanation of this collection. Honestly, by the end, I forgot I was reading a book of "Poetry in the Natural World" as it was just... poetry.
I enjoyed 10 poems out of the 50 in this collection.
"Eat" by Joy Harjo
"A Woman with a Bird" by Victoria Chang
"An Inn for the Coven" by Gabrielle Calvocoressi
"We Love in the Only Ways We Can" by Carl Phillips
"There Are More Ways to Show Devotion" by Hanif Abdurraqib
"Night Shift in the Home For Convalescents" by Carolyn Forché
"To Think of Italy while Climbing the Saunders-Monticello Trail" by Kiki Petrosino
"Heliophilia" by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
"To Little Black Girls, Risking Flower" by Patricia Smith,
"Aia i hea ka wai o Laihaina?" by Brandy Nālani McDougall, Dana Naone Hall, and No'u Revilla
"Aia i hea ka wai o Laihaina?" was my favourite of the whole collection.
I enjoyed the poet bios, I didn't really like the awkward cover art being used as a page filler because sometimes it was really disjointed and random and it's just not my style in the least, but I understand their format reasonings. Overall, all the poets are clearly good and distinguished in many ways, but it wasn't for me. I found some poets that I will try to read more of, and I suppose that's the true aim of these types of collections, right?
Thankful for my local library for carrying this book! Check your local library for copies!
50 poems with a sprinkle of the cover art as page filler.
I don't know what I expected, but I didn't get it? This is a beautiful idea, a call to nature and life outside, but the poems didn't capture what I believed Ada Limón to have said in her introduction and explanation of this collection. Honestly, by the end, I forgot I was reading a book of "Poetry in the Natural World" as it was just... poetry.
I enjoyed 10 poems out of the 50 in this collection.
"Eat" by Joy Harjo
"A Woman with a Bird" by Victoria Chang
"An Inn for the Coven" by Gabrielle Calvocoressi
"We Love in the Only Ways We Can" by Carl Phillips
"There Are More Ways to Show Devotion" by Hanif Abdurraqib
"Night Shift in the Home For Convalescents" by Carolyn Forché
"To Think of Italy while Climbing the Saunders-Monticello Trail" by Kiki Petrosino
"Heliophilia" by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
"To Little Black Girls, Risking Flower" by Patricia Smith,
"Aia i hea ka wai o Laihaina?" by Brandy Nālani McDougall, Dana Naone Hall, and No'u Revilla
"Aia i hea ka wai o Laihaina?" was my favourite of the whole collection.
I enjoyed the poet bios, I didn't really like the awkward cover art being used as a page filler because sometimes it was really disjointed and random and it's just not my style in the least, but I understand their format reasonings. Overall, all the poets are clearly good and distinguished in many ways, but it wasn't for me. I found some poets that I will try to read more of, and I suppose that's the true aim of these types of collections, right?
Thankful for my local library for carrying this book! Check your local library for copies!
September 27, 2026
The weed is the nemesis of human endeavor. H. Miller
August 15, 2025
A collection of unique poems about different relationships to nature: immediate five stars from me. Intro was amazing. I’m a new poetry reader so several of the selected poems went totally over my head oops. But I loved “I am learning to find the horizons of peace” (Prageeta Sharma), “Remembering a honeymoon hike near drakes bay” (Camille Dungy) and “Staircase” (Jason Schneiderman).
March 23, 2025
The voices are various. I found the collection less interesting as poetry of the natural world than as a pointer toward poets whose works I may enjoy.
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