August 22, 2025
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
The 24th U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón wrote a poem that has stuck with me for years. I replay this poem in my mind sometimes, like an earworm. It’s ironic, then, that the poem itself contains the phrase: “I don’t know what it/ was that made me press replay and/ replay.” In “The Mountain Lion,” Limón describes a mountain lion effortlessly leaping over a large fence. She writes, “I don’t think I’ve/ ever made anything look so easy. Never/looked behind me and grinned or/ grimaced because nothing could stop/ me.”
The poem’s visual representation itself mimics a fence or border or boundary. It appears to be a brick wall composed of words. Limón expresses her own surprise at the obsession with the video feed, with watching a lion leap effortlessly. To us, the human observer, the lion leaps with grace, ease, and power.
Again, it’s ironic (or impressive), that this poem causes me (the reader) to also replay an image that I have never seen. I can imagine it, though, and the imagination itself hits replay. I wanted to better understand what it is that makes me think of this poem again and again.
So, in the spirit of inquiry-based learning, I’ve placed some of my questions about this poem below. This blog also coincides with the start of a new semester. Perhaps it can serve as a welcome back to academics, an entry for those on a traditional school calendar. Feel free to borrow from this post for your classrooms, or to read the poem with students. A pause with poetry is always worth our time.
To read the full poem, visit: https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2021-2-summer/poem/mountain-lion
- 1] The narrator says the camera makes the lion’s eyes an “unholy green.” I can visualize the reflective lenses of a cat, but what is meant by “unholy”?
- 2] The narrator mentions “man-made borders”. Why must the cat leap over this fence? What fences do you feel are in your life?
- 3] Why is a camera set up over this fence? In what way(s) is the readers also a viewer?
- 4] The narrator assumes that the lion glances over its shoulder, possibly in annoyance. This stands out because it is an incomplete sentence. How do incomplete sentences function in poems and do they function differently than in prose?
- 5] Why do you think the narrator mentions her own obsessive curiosity? Why do you think the narrator presses replay?
- 6] How much of this poem is based on an actual fact, and how much of it is based on the imagination?
- 7] Why does the narrator mention fear?
- 8] What poetic devices might the poet be using (such as alliteration, form, rhyme, etc.)? What effect do these devices have on your reading of the poem?
- 9] Does this poem offer advice? Or simply recount a dream?
- 10] The line: “I don’t know what it/ was that made me press replay and/ replay” falls near the center of the poem. How does this impact the poem? Is this purposeful, why or why not? Define play so that we might better understand what it means to hit replay. Is the narrator replaying an image in her mind, or actually replaying a video on a device?
Thank you for reading along with me! I hope you write your own questions about this wonderful poem!
Photo credit: Shutterstock/ Jim Cumming
