Ada Limón and the Birds of Kentucky

BirdNote^®

Ada Limón and the Birds of Kentucky

Written by Mark Bramhill

Mark Bramhill: This is BirdNote.

For National Poetry Month, we feature contemporary writers exploring their relationship with birds. And there is certainly no shortage of poems featuring birds. But that didn’t scare the poet Ada Limón to write about them – the opposite.

Ada Limón: I don’t think bird poems are enough. And, when I found myself like, oh no, am I writing so much poetry about birds? I was just thinking, no, maybe I mean, I still have to lean on it. Maybe we need to have a poem about the bird. The rebellious sister inside me is like, no, I mean, you just take it. You will get another feeder. You take the suet and we’ll see what happens. Birds in every way.

Mark Bramhill: Ada’s beloved birds have been around since she was a child, and throughout her life they have brought tremendous comfort. When she moved to Kentucky for her husband’s job, she had a hard time adjusting to her new home.

Ada Limón: One of the ways for me to get to know any place and connect and make me feel grounded and, you know, it’s like I’m not just swimming in the universe, I don’t know where I am, um, is to name birds and plants and those full. And I’m kind of doing that work and kind of, you know, just naming what kind of tree it is, what_you know, that and this.

Mark Bramhill: And in her research into local plants and animals, Ada looked at the Kentucky state bird – this is the Northern Cardinal – and the idea of ​​a state bird resonated with her, and inspired this poem:

Bird State

Confession: I don’t want to live here,
not belonging to goldenrod, wild onion,
or the dropseed, not high waist and the barrel-
aged brown corn water, not what million-
dollar racehorses, or the severely wounded
round hay bales. Not even with old cigars
weigh station where we live, with its heavy metal
safe doors framed in our brick bedroom
like the mouth of a strange animal yawning
for us to suck, every night, Like. wind. I refused,
this new land. But, love, I will accept this:
whatever your state, I will be the bird of that state,
the loud, obviously vague of the song that people teach
when they wonder where you went.

[Northern Cardinal song, ML 325699101, 0:26-0:29]

Ada Limón: I always thought I was the state bird poet, the songwriter, right. So I thought while he was working and he was working on his business, my business was making music and singing and so that’s where that poem came from.

Mark Bramhill: In the twelve years since moving to Kentucky, Ada has loved the place. And “State Bird” is far from the only poem-or even a bird poem-of him that helped process big changes or difficult decisions. Like his poem, “Sparrow, What Do You Say?”

Ada Limón: I wrote this poem when my husband and I were trying to have a child and were probably thinking of stopping fertility treatment. Um, and so I was kind of at this moment in my life, where I was like, well, maybe it’s time to release this idea. And what does that feel like? And so this kind of poem discusses the duality of different possible futures.

Sparrow, What Did You Say?

A whole day without speaking,
rain, then the sun, then it rains again,
some plants in the ground, newbie
leaves hidden in the black ground, and I think
I’m good at it, alone
in the world, the observation of things
growing up, it’s older than me, he
comfortable shoes and no time
for the dishes, he who spends
a time trying to figure out that bird
with a three-note descending call
is just a sparrow. What should I do
do the child here? Teach him
plant, watch him like I do
the lettuce leaves, tender, put
his palms on the ground, split him
black hair like planting a seed? Or so
I will selfishly ask today
back, a whole day not tied to the test
to find out what bird is calling
to me and why.

The thought that it was a sparrow was just hilarious to me because I kept feeling like, “what does that sound like?” and it is only a sparrow. not that a sparrow should be just a sparrow, but, you know. And that’s kind of, wow, I probably spent an hour doing this and that’s not something you can do if you have a baby. perhaps, if you have one child at all. I do not know. I am happy to have no children and this was the right decision for us. But I think that poem, you know, is, I have neglected in some ways, that idea of ​​probably having a child in my life and also the idea of ​​touching on what it’s like to be a childless person and to have a kind of freedom as an actor to play in the world. And I think it was an afternoon where, of course, I thought the work I was doing was trying to get to know a bird, but the work I was doing was deeply deciding whether or not I wanted to be a mother.

Mark Bramhill: Ada Limón is the author of six books of poetry. And he’s a fellow podcaster, hosting a critically-acclaimed poetry podcast, The Slowdown, where he shares poetry every weekday. If you want to know more about Ada and her poems, check out the links on our website, BirdNote.org. You will also find more beautiful poems about birds there. For BirdNote, I’m Mark Bramhill.

Ada Limón: Oh. And I’ll tell you another story, You know, poetry books don’t make a ton of money. You know, if, if someone asks you about why we got into poetry, um, we’re not doing it for money. Um, but I sold The Carrying not for a ton of money, but more than the book I sold. When I got my car – it was used, of course – but I bought my car with this money and I was like my God, my poetry allowed me to buy this used car. And I’m so excited about it. And when I got to the Kentucky DMV to pick up my license plate, they had the option of one with the cardinal marked and that would give money to support the birds. So of course I took the cardinal and took my car home and – we always name our cars – And my wife said, what would you name your car? And I said, I think my car is called State Bird. And so my car has a cardinal and its name is State Bird.

###

Senior Producer: John Kessler
Content Director: Allison Wilson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Northern Cardinal ML325699101 recorded by E. Wells, and White-throated Sparrow ML 136579 recorded by S. O’Brien.
The BirdNote theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2022 BirdNote April 2022
Narrator: Mark Bramhill

ID# poem-01-2022-04-05 poem-01