You Are Here: Poetry in Parks at Great Smoky

A portion of the picnic tabletop panel featuring a poem selected by the 24th U.S. Poet Laureate.

NPS

Quick Facts

Location:

Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center (reservation only)

Significance:

Art installation by 24th U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón

This picnic table at Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center (accessible by reservation only) is an art installation by the 24th U.S. Poet Laureate, Ada Limón. Limón selected Lucille Clifton's poem "the earth is a living thing" for this poetry installation as part of her signature project "You Are Here: Poetry in Parks." The project includes additional installations at six other national parks.
 

the earth is a living thing

By Lucille Clifton

is a black shambling bear
ruffling its wild back and tossing
mountains into the sea

is a black hawk circling
the burying ground circling the bones
picked clean and discarded

is a fish black blind in the belly of water
is a diamond blind in the black belly of coal

is a black and living thing
is a favorite child
of the universe
feel her rolling her hand
in its kinky hair
feel her brushing it clean

^{Lucille Clifton, “the earth is a living thing” from The Book of Light. Copyright © 1993 by Lucille Clifton. Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Copper Canyon Press, coppercanyonpress.org.}

What Would You Write in Response to the Landscape Around You?

You Are Here, the signature project of the 24th U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, invites you to explore the relationship between language and the natural world through the words of poets and your own imagination.

Use #YouAreHerePoetry to share your thoughts!