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Poetry in the Parks
Ada Limón’s poetry installations at national parks connect people and nature.
© Domenico Convertini
For her signature project You Are Here, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón sought to connect people and nature through poetry. In addition to curating a book of poems by the same name, Limón also partnered with Shauna Potocky and others at the National Park Service to design poetry installations at seven sites across the country.
BirdNote®
Poetry in the Parks
Written by Mark Bramhill
Mark Bramhill: This is BirdNote.
Shauna Potocky, education strategist for the National Park Service, has always loved poetry, and even writes poems herself. And a few years ago, she got a phone call she was pretty excited about.
Shauna Potocky: Well it's always exciting when you get a call from the Library of Congress and the U. S. Poet Laureate is interested in partnering with you on their signature project… which has only happened to me once in my career.
Mark Bramhill: With her project You Are Here, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón seeks to connect people and nature through poetry. Though, as she explained at the dedication event for Saguaro National Park, her original concept started a bit more out there:
Ada Limón: I thought, let's do something with poetry in the natural world. Let's get a plane and put poems on natural seed packets and then drop the poems out of the sky and reseed land that's been harmed. And the Library of Congress was like, hmmm. [Laughter] Let's think about another way… And then I thought, let's put a poem in every single national park. And they were like, okay, we like where you're going… [Laughter]
Mark Bramhill: One part of the project is an anthology of nature poetry…
Shauna Potocky: … and one part is poetry installations in National Parks. There were seven sites selected across the service, and the poetry installations are customized picnic tables that feature a selected poem connected to place with a prompt that encourages visitors to think about their own connection to the landscape by asking them the question: What would you write in response to the landscape around you?
Ada Limón: And I want this to be a prompt for all of us to remember that our relationship with the natural world is a reciprocal one. We are meant to receive, but we are also meant to steward. Remember that you can also speak back and be in relationship to this place in particular. So, thank you so much for being here.
Mark Bramhill: For Saguaro National Park, Ada chose Cloud Song by Tohono Oʼodham poet Ofelia Zepeda. The poem is both in English and in Ofelia’s native Oʼodham language. Surrounded by cacti well over a century old, in the heat of an Arizona December, Ada closed the event with a reading of the poem:
Na:nko Ma:s Cewagĭ / Cloud Song
by Ofelia Zepeda
Ce:daghim 'o 'ab wu:ṣañhim.
To:tahim 'o 'ab wu:ṣañhim.
Cuckuhim 'o 'ab him.
Wepeghim 'o 'abai him.
Greenly they emerge.
In colors of blue they emerge.
Whitely they emerge.
In colors of black they are coming
Reddening, they are right here.
Mark Bramhill: You can hear more poetry about nature, our feathered friends, and public lands — including some by Ada Limón — at our website, BirdNote.org. I’m Mark Bramhill. Happy National Poetry Month.
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Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Ariana Remmel
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2025 BirdNote April 2025
Narrator: Mark Bramhill
ID# poetry-05-2025-04-22 poetry-05
