Mowing

Limón is known for writing poems that examine human being’s relationship to the natural world. Specifically, she examines desire, the transitory nature of contentment, the fragility and power of life on Earth, and a reverence for plants and animals. Limón’s poems are often short, fitting onto one page, and use common language to transform animals and plants into metaphors for aspects of the speaker’s own personality. “Mowing” is characteristic of her themes and style. It is both self-reflective and self-mocking, examining her connection and disconnection from the natural world.

Limón acknowledges that most of her poems are autobiographical, and the speaker is very closely connected to her. “Mowing” appears in Limón’s fourth collection of poetry, which she wrote shortly after moving from Brooklyn to Kentucky to live with her husband, who raises horses. In multiple interviews Limón discusses the way her changing life circumstances informed the book. In addition to exploring her connection to a new landscape, Limón was also in the process of grieving the loss of her stepmother, who had died of cancer. Though mowing meditates on the difference between the “savage” wildness of nature and the peace of doing yard work, other poems in this collection more directly tackle heavier themes of death, feminism, race and culture, and destruction of the natural world.