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.”

“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”

“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.”

“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.”

“A gorgeous collection that captures the bittersweetness of being alive on this planet today. Each poem is a prayer, an elegy, a celebration of the world and our place in it.”

“A beautiful cross between a Mary Oliver chapbook, and the kindness poetry anthologies edited by James Crews. There are famous names here but also new ones I was happy to discover, all beautifully evoking specific and unique spots in nature for reflection. The introduction by Limón is poetry itself. A perfect poetry collection to have at hand as we move into the growing season.”

“Ada Limón has an accomplished ear, and in this collection of nature poetry, she gathers poets who know all the ways poetry is for everyone–a collection that is at once a conversation and a chorus and a call to stay in love with and care about the planet. The title comes from the phrase on maps that orient us to our surroundings, so we know where we are and where we can go, and which perfectly encapsulates Limón’s vision for this work. If you like poetry and just being outside, pick up this volume.”

“I loved this sparkling, invigorating curated collection edited by Ada Limón, our 24th Poet Laureate of the U.S. It is an homage to the natural world and all it can mean to we humans who have been graced to live within it. The poems selected for inclusion are appropriate for reading by experienced poetry lovers as well as by those who are just beginning to learn to appreciate the art of poetics. Surely you are one of these readers.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“You Are Here will have you rethinking how you encounter nature in your everyday existence. The 50 poems gathered together to create this volume invite readers to experience ‘nature’ as each author encounters it in the landscape around them.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“The collection is both achingly beautiful and terrifyingly urgent. From a humorous take on getting drenched in a rainstorm to a beloved tree on its last day of existence to a woman processing the bleak reality of the world her grandchildren will inherit, these poems encouraged a heightened noticing in me and (bonus!) introduced me to the work of many new-to-me poets I’m eager to explore.”