in this particularly hard moment, divided moment, poetry can really help us reclaim our humanity. - Ada Limón

(Do you see a role that poetry can play in the fight against climate change?) Poets—incredible nature poets like Mary Oliver, Gabriela Mistral, or Audre Lorde—look deeply at the world and make us feel like we are connected. Poetry that addresses the natural world helps us repair that connection. When you are paying attention to something, it’s a way of loving something. How can we continue to hurt something that we love?

I’m a big proponent of writing outside...I used to go to the Sonoma coast as a child, and it’s a wonderful place to write. There’s a lot of creativity to be mined in the ocean landscape because it’s always moving, always churning. It tones out some of the chaos of the brain. You hear that rush and pull of the ocean, and you’re lulled into a new rhythm for poetry.

I’ve always loved birds. What bird-watching allows is to get out of yourself. The birds are not worried about news. They’re just breathing. They’re focusing on this moment. There’s a lesson to be learned from that.