You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World

by Ada Limon

Do I also prefer outrage to action? Is it as simple as anger being easier than grief? And oh my God, are you as exhausted as I am from grieving the planet?

these mountains have given us so much & we will not even give ourselves to each other

For me, the sun has always been easy to love, as easy as it is to love whatever small light bees bestow on fallen leaves—easy to love the light they give just before they crawl into a honey-hungry sleep, just before the first fall of snow.

The house sparrow flies to the ground To get the seed that has fallen from the feeder. In doing so, it flies through a bit of spiderweb Which works as something like a phone call To the spider, who then answers with a hello, Careful and very quiet, but nobody is there. This happens a lot to spiders. It makes them grumble about the neighbors

Because if you can survive the violet night, you can survive the next, and the fig tree will ache with sweetness for you in sunlight that arrives