“I Remember the Carrots” by Ada Limón (2015)

In “I Remember the Carrots” Limón explores the difference between being human and being a natural element. She relays the story of how, as a child, she was impatient and pulled up all of the carrots in the garden before they were fully formed. She was jealous of the field and it’s “contentment.” Now, as an adult she remembers her “bright dead things” and meditates on how hard it is to be human, always wanting something else, and even being destructive in the way humans achieve their needs. The title of her book, Bright Dead Things, comes from the way she describes the carrots in this poem.

“The Wild Divine” by Ada Limón (2015)

“The Wild Divine” gives readers insight into Limón’s spiritual beliefs around nature. In this poem she describes an encounter with a horse, in which the speaker feels that “this is what it was to be blessed – / to know a love beyond owning” [Lines 27 – 28]. It mirrors some of the beliefs of the speaker in “mowing,” including the desire to be a part of nature and to find joy in anonymity, in “disappearing” from the world and watching it invisibly, rather than taking possession of wild things.