U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón's You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World gathers 50 poems by a diverse group of contemporary writers such as Ilya Kaminsky, Jericho Brown, and Donika Kelly, offering readers a chance to revel in the sublime and ineffable qualities of both nature and poetry. In her foreword, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden explains, "Some of the poems included here contend with the destruction of nature, while others consider its abundance and resilience--and some do both at the same time."
In her introduction, Limón (The Hurting Kind; The Carrying) describes the collection as an act of communion, a balm for difficult times: "We are here at this moment, crucial and urgent, yes, but also full of wonder and awe at every turn." Some poems gesture at climate change, while others address it directly, as in Jason Schneiderman's "Staircase": "And oh my God, are you as exhausted/ as I am from grieving the planet? Tell me what I'm supposed to say/ about the end of the world. Tell me how not to be hysterical every time/ I see what's coming. Every time I see what's here." Where Schneiderman's poem voices fear and fatigue, Joy Harjo's "Eat" invites readers to a feast, an abundance of wild creatures like the "Hungry tree frogs clung to the screen/ Their curled tongues catch anything/ With wings driven to the light." You Are Here slices through the noise and confusion of the day, offering instead a reminder of the healing power of careful attention. --Sara Beth West, freelance reviewer and librarian