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4.28 AVERAGE
4.28 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
WOW I get why she’s the poet laureate, ha. Damn!
I love that the poems were organized by season, spring through winter. I love her voice, her sensitive nature, her ability to hone in on details that pierce and prod my heart. And the grief — the grief — “You can’t sum it up” and these lines that give me chills, “I have always been too sensitive, a weeper/ from a long line of weepers./ I am the hurting kind. I keep searching for proof.” (This, of course, reminds me of the more jovial Vonnegut who once wrote “Then again, I am a monopolar depressive descended from monopolar depressives. That’s how come I write so good.”)
Favorite poems in this collection:
Drowning Creek
Blowing on the Wheel
Only the Faintest Blue
Calling Things What They Are
“I Have Wanted Clarity in Light of My Lack of Light”
Intimacy
Lover
The Hurting Kind ***my very very favorite***
Against Nostalgia
The Unspoken
The End of Poetry
I love that the poems were organized by season, spring through winter. I love her voice, her sensitive nature, her ability to hone in on details that pierce and prod my heart. And the grief — the grief — “You can’t sum it up” and these lines that give me chills, “I have always been too sensitive, a weeper/ from a long line of weepers./ I am the hurting kind. I keep searching for proof.” (This, of course, reminds me of the more jovial Vonnegut who once wrote “Then again, I am a monopolar depressive descended from monopolar depressives. That’s how come I write so good.”)
Favorite poems in this collection:
Drowning Creek
Blowing on the Wheel
Only the Faintest Blue
Calling Things What They Are
“I Have Wanted Clarity in Light of My Lack of Light”
Intimacy
Lover
The Hurting Kind ***my very very favorite***
Against Nostalgia
The Unspoken
The End of Poetry
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
This book did not wow me as much as AL's THE CARRYING, which I read a year or two (or three?) ago.
Many of the poems are autobiographical, and sometimes they seem to be directly addressing people and relatives known to the poet. On the other hand, the book largely avoids contemporary politics. Neither of these statements is a criticism, however. Both categories--political and autobiographical--are difficult to write well, and one doesn't have to eschew one to pay attention to the other.
AL engages deeply with the natural world, especially with animals. At one point, the narrator (presumably the poet on some level) quotes a lover as saying "the trouble with you Limòn is that you're all fauna and no flora," a funny remark.
I liked this book overall. There are some good poems here and some great lines.
Recommended with slight reservations.
Many of the poems are autobiographical, and sometimes they seem to be directly addressing people and relatives known to the poet. On the other hand, the book largely avoids contemporary politics. Neither of these statements is a criticism, however. Both categories--political and autobiographical--are difficult to write well, and one doesn't have to eschew one to pay attention to the other.
AL engages deeply with the natural world, especially with animals. At one point, the narrator (presumably the poet on some level) quotes a lover as saying "the trouble with you Limòn is that you're all fauna and no flora," a funny remark.
I liked this book overall. There are some good poems here and some great lines.
Recommended with slight reservations.
Forgiveness
Calling things what they are
Open water
Only the faintest blue
Hooky
Against nostalgia
Calling things what they are
Open water
Only the faintest blue
Hooky
Against nostalgia
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Ada loves to write a perfect poem
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
reflective
fast-paced
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I have carryed this small volume around for over a month, maybe truly months now. I loved it so much I had to slow my pace to a walk rather than run. Limón is the type of poet I want to be.
There are some really strong poems in this collection, although I didn't feel Limon's eye in these poems was quite as incisive as in [b:The Carrying: Poems|38402135|The Carrying Poems|Ada Limon|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1519915438l/38402135._SY75_.jpg|60057973]. Her emphasis on the loneliness of the pandemic and her aching for connection comes through as perhaps the strongest emotional through-line of the connection. There are some poems that don't work for me, leaning into some of the well-worn images and sentiments of nature poetry and the poetry of the mundane, but there are still surprises and standouts, including "Sanctuary," "Glimpse," "Stillwater Cove," "Privacy," "It's the Season I Often Mistake," and the title poem, "The Hurting Kind." A solid collection overall, if a slight departure from her past work.