Ada Limón is the Next Poet Laureate

CREADORXSBy 2023-04-11T12:31:06-04:00July 28th, 2022|
  • Pictured: The cover of Limón's latest book, The Hurting Kind.

On July 12, 2022, Ada Limón was named the next U.S. poet laureate, making her the first Latina to hold this prestigious role. Speaking to the New York Times, Limón shared her desire to use her platform and linguistic skill to harbor a space for unfiltered feeling and emotion. Only through emotional openness, Limón claims, is the path towards joy. 

 

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This nomination comes shortly after the publication of her sixth book, The Hurting Kind. In that collection, she explores interconnectedness, death, and solitude. In one poem, “Invasive,” one cannot help but be struck by the orality and sensuality of her verse, her lines littered with many stunning series of alliteration and strings of plosives.

The poem is best read out loud. When spoken, her words vibrate through your body, filling you with these emphatic pulses, as if the poem were leaving the page and invading you, gripping you with the physical intimacy of sound. 

Invasive

What’s the thin break 

inescapable, a sudden thud 

on the porch, a phone 

vibrating with panic on the nightstand? 

Bury the broken thinking

in the backyard with the herbs. One

last time, I attempt to snuff out 

the fig buttercup, the lesser celandine, 

invasive and spreading down 

the drainage ditch I call a creek 

for a minor pleasure. I can 

do nothing. I take the soil in 

my clean fingers and to say 

I weep is untrue, weep is too 

musical a word. I heave

into the soil. You cannot die. 

I just came to this life 

again, alive in my silent way. 

Last night I dreamt I could 

only save one person by saying

their name and the exact 

time and date. I chose you. 

I am trying to kill the fig buttercup 

the way I’m supposed to according 

to the government website, 

but right now there’s a bee on it.

Yellow on yellow, two things 

radiating life. I need them both

to go on living.