Poetry event to offer invitation for inspiration

Since childhood, US Poet Laureate Ada Limón has seen poetry and nature as interwoven threads, combining to create layers of meaning and metaphor that imbue her life with wonder, hope, and curiosity. Her signature project as US poet laureate, “You Are Here,” aims to open that door for countless others across the country. Limón invites people in the Great Smokies region to join her at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 20, for an event at Oconaluftee Visitor Center in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

“I want to make poetry as welcoming as possible,” she said. “I want to make it as accessible as possible. I’ve never believed that poetry belongs only in universities or only in educational settings. I don’t believe in gatekeeping in any kind of way.”

“Poetry in Parks,” which comprises half of Limón’s “You Are Here” initiative, seeks to throw the gates wide open. Great Smoky Mountains National Park was chosen as one of seven national parks to receive a poetry installation and visit from Limón. Each installation features a poem that was painstakingly selected to reflect the landscape and character of the place as well as an invitation for visitors to write some lines of their own. “What would you write in response to the landscape around you?” it asks, also offering the hashtag #youareherepoetry for visitors to share their work.

On June 20, Limón will unveil an oversized, wheelchair-accessible picnic table inscribed with Lucille Clifton’s poem “the earth is a living thing.” Clifton has been “incredibly influential” to Limón’s own work, and the poem, whose first lines read, “is a black shambling bear/ruffling its wild back and tossing/mountains into the sea” not only features one of the Smokies’ most beloved animals but also conveys the sense of fullness, roundness, and interconnectedness that is palpable throughout America’s most-visited national park, Limón said.

After the unveiling, which will feature formal remarks in English also translated into Spanish and American Sign Language, Limón will hold a book signing. Visitors are invited to bring a picnic lunch and stay around to participate in an assortment of hands-on, family-friendly activities from noon to 2 p.m. Participants will receive a passport book to take around to tables hosted by various park partners and conservation nonprofits, each offering a different hands-on activity and encouragement to write a poem about the experience. Those who complete the prompts will receive a prize.

“We want people to be living poetry this day,” said Chief of Resource Education Stephanie Kyriazis. “I think it will be an inspirational day for all.”

Afterward, the picnic table will be relocated to the Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center at Purchase Knob.

“Hundreds of students every year are going to sit at that picnic table and be inspired by the poem,” Kyriazis said.

This is the fifth stop on Limón’s “Poetry in Parks” tour. She has already visited Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts, Mount Rainier National Park in Washington, Redwood National and State Parks in California, and Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. This fall, she will visit Everglades National Park in Florida and Saguaro National Park in Arizona.

“Poetry in Parks” is the first-ever partnership between the National Park Service, Library of Congress, Poetry Society of America, and a US poet laureate. It comprises half of the “You Are Here” project, the other half being an anthology of original poems by 50 contemporary American poets.

“Ada Limón’s signature project will help us connect more personally to America’s greatest parks as well as show how the poets of our time capture the natural world in their own lives,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden.

Ada Limón is the 24th US poet laureate and has served since July 2022. Her term concludes April 2025. Born in Sonoma, California, in 1976, she is the author of six poetry collections, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry in 2018.