You Are Here #writeout
Last Thursday evening, I was in the audience at the Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress to hear Ada Limón, the Poet Laureate of the United States, launch her signature project You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World.
Situated alongside the new Mary Oliver collection at the Library of Congress was an auditorium filled with anticipation as we waited for the event to begin. Limón’s project is not just a collection of poems or a book tour to National Parks. Instead, her project is an invitation to notice yourself in the natural world and write to the landscape around you. In her introduction she writes “I hope you will consider making your own version of a ‘You Are Here’ poem to grow alongside ours” and during the launch she reiterated this invitation to “make a nature poem of your own.”
The event did not disappoint; not only did Ada Limón share her excitement, and a bit of her process of putting together her new Anthology, she also brought together a group of Mary Oliver Memorial Fund Emerging Poets who contributed to it: Molly McCully Brown, Jake Skeets, Analicia Sotelo, and Paul Tran. As colleagues, and probably now even friends, the group of poets sat next to each other and one by one read their own poem, then chose another poem from the volume to read, and then finished with a reading of something by Mary Oliver.
After the reading a conversation between the poets unfolded; what is poetry? What is nature? Limón commented that this is a conversation that is essential to get started — a “way of opening and bringing out tenderness” — but not a conversation that she expects will ever end. She described her Anthology as a kind of forest, a collection of living things, where the poems live alongside each other and speak to each other and are always in conversation.
She encouraged all writers to connect with their surroundings. She invited everyone to share, if they were comfortable, via #youareherepoetry but, if not, “bury what you write in the backyard” she said and laughed acknowledging the many times what she writes doesn’t make it past the boundaries of her own home and garden. The most important thing to do, she reminds us, is the writing itself because of the way it helps foster a reciprocal relationship with the world. Through writing about nature we remind ourselves, and each other, that we are not alone.
After the event, I stood in line for a signature. As I stood there, I decided instead of having the book signed to me, I would ask her to sign it for all the teachers — including those in the classroom but also parents and all the educators who work in Parks, Libraries, and other public spaces — who support young people in taking the time to #writeout. So to all you teachers out there, this Anthology is for you:
