Ada Limón

"in this particularly hard moment, divided moment, poetry can really help us reclaim our humanity."

"The intention I have around building a project is to see if I can do something that helps us not only reconnect with our humanity but helps us repair our relationship with the natural world. I think so often we forget that our relationship to the Earth is reciprocal. And I think we've not only felt very disconnected from one another, from our communities, but also from the planet, and that's how harm is done. And so I think that I would really love to figure out how, you know, through poetry we might be able to repair that relationship with the Earth, with nature."

"(Do you see a role that poetry can play in the fight against climate change?) Poets—incredible nature poets like Mary Oliver, Gabriela Mistral, or Audre Lorde—look deeply at the world and make us feel like we are connected. Poetry that addresses the natural world helps us repair that connection. When you are paying attention to something, it’s a way of loving something. How can we continue to hurt something that we love?"

"I’m a big proponent of writing outside...I used to go to the Sonoma coast as a child, and it’s a wonderful place to write. There’s a lot of creativity to be mined in the ocean landscape because it’s always moving, always churning. It tones out some of the chaos of the brain. You hear that rush and pull of the ocean, and you’re lulled into a new rhythm for poetry."

"I’ve always loved birds. What bird-watching allows is to get out of yourself. The birds are not worried about news. They’re just breathing. They’re focusing on this moment. There’s a lesson to be learned from that."