Ada Limón, the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, will give a reading and talk at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center Jan. 16 as part of the Merwin Conservancy’s Green Room series. Courtesy photo

Traveling 1.8 billion miles to reach Jupiter’s Europa moon by 2030, NASA’s Europa Clipper Spacecraft carries an array of scientific instruments and a poem composed on Maui by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón.

Commissioned by NASA, Limón’s “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa” describes the connections between Earth and Jupiter’s moon.

The handwritten poem is engraved on a metal plate inside the spacecraft, along with the signatures of more that two million people etched onto a microchip, who responded to NASA’s “Message In A Bottle” campaign.

“Arching under the night sky inky

(from: “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa”)

“NASA contacted me and they explained the mission of the Europa Clipper,” Limón explained. “It was going to Europa, and scientists and researchers believed that this icy moon had all the ingredients for life, and they asked me if I would write a poem that would be on the spacecraft. I’m someone who really has always loved stars and space and then I freaked out, of course, because I had to write the poem.”

The poem was composed on Maui when she was staying at the home of W. S. Merwin in Peahi. While there she planted a palm, which she named Europa.

“I had this invitation to the Merwin Conservancy and my goal was to sit and write,” she continued. “So the poem was composed in Maui, sitting alone with a pen and a notebook on Merwin’s lanai, and writing while these geckos swayed on palm leaves and thinking about what it is to be a creature of this planet.”

In conjunction with the poem, she published the “In Praise of Mystery” children’s book, with illustrations by renowned artist Peter Sís.

“I think about it as a children’s book, but also just a picture book because the illustrations are so extraordinary that it feels like it’s for all ages,” she said. “He really brought together the unifying theme of the poem, which is that it’s a poem, as much as it’s going into space, it’s really a poem for us, those of us on this Earth.”

The 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, Limón will give a reading and talk at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center on Jan. 16 as part of the Merwin Conservancy’s Green Room series.

“This reading really feels like a return, a return to some beautiful beginnings,” she said.

The recipient of a MacArthur Genius Fellowship, Limón was named one of TIME magazine’s Woman of the Year in 2024. Praised by The Guardian as a poet of ecstatic revelation, she is the author of six poetry books, including “This Big Fake World: A Story in Verse,” “Lucky Wreck, and “Sharks in the Rivers.”

“She has a gift of noticing the sublime and placing these moments of heightened attention next to other, more ‘lowly,’ components of life,” wrote author Theresa C. Dintino. “With her poetry she affirms the sacred and the profane not only sitting beside each other but deeply intertwined and often confused. Every moment matters and every matter has its moment.”

Besides the NASA project, in 2024 also Limón collaborated with the National Park Service, initiating the “You Are Here: Poetry in the Parks” project, bringing poetry to national parks to help connects us to the natural world. It features historic American poems selected by Limón installed on picnic tables in seven national parks. She visited each park in the summer and fall to unveil the new installations, beginning with the Cape Cod National Seashore in June.

“It has been a really amazing project,” she said. “One of the biggest takeaways for me was that not only do we need more attention and ways of talking about our Earth and the natural world, but we also need to really recognize the people that are helping to steward the planet. The last park that we’re doing the poetry installation in is at the end of this month in Everglades in Florida. And I’m a little sad that it’s going to be the last park. My hope is that the partnerships will continue and there’ll be more poems and more parks.”

Maybe Haleakalā?

“That’s one of my hopes,” she said.

As a Poet Laureate, her role has been to help expand the readership for poetry. “I really took that to heart because I really believe that if we all read a poem a day, we would be better off. I think that poetry is a way of paying attention to the world. And when you pay attention to something, you’re a better steward of it, whether that’s a human being, or a plant or a tree or a creek bed. We live in a world that’s really chaotic and really all about what’s next and the agenda of the day, and poetry slows you down in a way that reminds you that there’s a purpose to this life.”

Asked what she loves most about being a poet, she said, “It makes me pay attention to the world. It makes me deeply look at what it is to be alive and to experience this life. And it settles in on singular moments as opposed to the always what’s next or the big picture. But it really allows you to experience the singular, exquisite moments of life and sometimes painful moments of life. And being a poet has allowed me to not take for granted what it is to have time on this planet. Writing poetry is very similar to meditation in that it gives you breath. It gives you an awareness of being alive and it settles you into that present moment. It allows you to really experience the power of the present.”

Along with NASA and the National Park Service, the power of Limón’s poetry has also been employed by the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Released near the close of 2023, the USGCRP published the Fifth National Climate Assessment report. It featured Limón’s poem “Startlement,” which closes with:

“The world says, Once we were separate,

and now we must move in unison.”

Limón will give a reading and talk at the MACC at 7 p.m. Jan. 16 as part of the Merwin Conservancy’s Green Room series. Hawai’i State Poet Laureate Brandy Nālani McDougall will open the Green Room event with a reading of “Aia i hea ka wai o Lahaina,” a poem she wrote collaboratively with Dana Naone Hall and No’u Revilla and which is highlighted in Limón’s signature project as Poet Laureate “You Are Here.”

Tickets are $25 and $10 for students. Tickets are on sale now at MauiArts.org.