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4.28 AVERAGE
4.28 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
Another random pick.
I really enjoyed Limon's writing full of flora and fauna.
Her poetry was sometimes like punch in the gut, sometimes like a gentle caress.
I will pick up more of her work in the future.
I really enjoyed Limon's writing full of flora and fauna.
Her poetry was sometimes like punch in the gut, sometimes like a gentle caress.
I will pick up more of her work in the future.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
i know that this is a subtle, linguistic-paradoxical way of actually saying words, but i truly have no words to describe my love for this collection. Ada Limón gets me every time. these poems are simple, heartbreakingly real, and brutally gentle.
i started reading Limón's poetry because, other than hers being a name i heard many times in poetry classes and from friends, i overheard a conversation in a bookstore between strangers where one person said, "Oh my goodness, I love Ada Limón!" their friend said, "Who's that?" and the first speaker replied after a moment's thought, "I would describe her poetry as a soft place to land."
much like the coworker when i was in high school that recommended i read Howl by Allen Ginsberg (side note: i was much too young to have read that poem at 14, i've never been happier to have waited to read something lol), i have never forgotten that interaction.
she's one of those poets, and just authors in general, where i finish the book and hold it to my chest and just stare into the middle distance for a bit.
i would honestly read her to-do lists if she ever published them.
"to be swallowed by being seen. a dream. to be made whole by being not a witness, but witnessed."
"i want them to go on kissing, without fear. i want to watch them and not feel so abandoned by hands. come home. everything is begging you."
"could you refuse me if i asked you to point again at the horizon, to tell me something was worth waiting for?"
"why can't i just love the flower for being a flower? how many flowers have i yanked to puppet as if it was easy for the world to make flowers?"
"i do not want to kill that longing woman in me. i love her, and i want her to go on longing until it drives her mad..."
"yawping in the blank space where our joy once lived"
"what a pleasure to say, 'you are magnificent'...it makes me want to give all my loves the adjectives they deserve"
"before, the only thing i was interested in was love, how it grips you, how it terrifies you, how it annihilates and resuscitates you. i didn't know then that it wasn't even love that i was interested in, but my own suffering. i thought suffering kept things interesting. how funny that i called it love ad the whole time it was pain."
"that night, i heard more about that fish and that eye than anything else...i keep thinking how something saw you, something was bearing witness to you out there in the ocean where you were no one's mother, and no one's wife, but you in your original skin; right before you died, you were beheld, and today in my kitchen with you now ten years gone, i am so happy for you."
"to make untuned music even death cannot deny"
"staring at the tree for a long time now, i am reminded of the righteousness i had before the scorch of time. i miss who i was. i miss who we all were, before we were this: half-alive to the brightening sky, half-dead already. i place my hand on the unscarred bark that is cool and unsullied, and because i cannot apologize to the tree, to my own self i say, 'i'm sorry, i'm sorry i've been so reckless with your life."
"I want to honor a man who wants to hold a wild thing, only for a second, long enough to admire it fully, and then wants to watch it safely return to its life, bends to be sure the grass closes up behind it.”
"it's selfish, i know, but i want to be a fixer now. show me how you did it all those years, took something that needed repair and repaired it."
"...enough of can you see me, can you hear me, enough I am human, enough I am alone and I am desperate, enough of the animal saving me, enough of the high water, enough sorrow, enough of the air and its ease, I am asking you to touch me."
i started reading Limón's poetry because, other than hers being a name i heard many times in poetry classes and from friends, i overheard a conversation in a bookstore between strangers where one person said, "Oh my goodness, I love Ada Limón!" their friend said, "Who's that?" and the first speaker replied after a moment's thought, "I would describe her poetry as a soft place to land."
much like the coworker when i was in high school that recommended i read Howl by Allen Ginsberg (side note: i was much too young to have read that poem at 14, i've never been happier to have waited to read something lol), i have never forgotten that interaction.
she's one of those poets, and just authors in general, where i finish the book and hold it to my chest and just stare into the middle distance for a bit.
i would honestly read her to-do lists if she ever published them.
"to be swallowed by being seen. a dream. to be made whole by being not a witness, but witnessed."
"i want them to go on kissing, without fear. i want to watch them and not feel so abandoned by hands. come home. everything is begging you."
"could you refuse me if i asked you to point again at the horizon, to tell me something was worth waiting for?"
"why can't i just love the flower for being a flower? how many flowers have i yanked to puppet as if it was easy for the world to make flowers?"
"i do not want to kill that longing woman in me. i love her, and i want her to go on longing until it drives her mad..."
"yawping in the blank space where our joy once lived"
"what a pleasure to say, 'you are magnificent'...it makes me want to give all my loves the adjectives they deserve"
"before, the only thing i was interested in was love, how it grips you, how it terrifies you, how it annihilates and resuscitates you. i didn't know then that it wasn't even love that i was interested in, but my own suffering. i thought suffering kept things interesting. how funny that i called it love ad the whole time it was pain."
"that night, i heard more about that fish and that eye than anything else...i keep thinking how something saw you, something was bearing witness to you out there in the ocean where you were no one's mother, and no one's wife, but you in your original skin; right before you died, you were beheld, and today in my kitchen with you now ten years gone, i am so happy for you."
"to make untuned music even death cannot deny"
"staring at the tree for a long time now, i am reminded of the righteousness i had before the scorch of time. i miss who i was. i miss who we all were, before we were this: half-alive to the brightening sky, half-dead already. i place my hand on the unscarred bark that is cool and unsullied, and because i cannot apologize to the tree, to my own self i say, 'i'm sorry, i'm sorry i've been so reckless with your life."
"I want to honor a man who wants to hold a wild thing, only for a second, long enough to admire it fully, and then wants to watch it safely return to its life, bends to be sure the grass closes up behind it.”
"it's selfish, i know, but i want to be a fixer now. show me how you did it all those years, took something that needed repair and repaired it."
"...enough of can you see me, can you hear me, enough I am human, enough I am alone and I am desperate, enough of the animal saving me, enough of the high water, enough sorrow, enough of the air and its ease, I am asking you to touch me."
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
She reminds me a lot of Mary Oliver and I love it!!
Ada Limon, our newest Poet Laureate, continues to put forward personal, powerful, moving poetry that delves deeply into the human condition - love, loss, pain, regret. She just keeps getting better. Highly recommended.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
reflective
medium-paced
“How funny that I called it love and the whole time it was pain.”
Every time I read a collection of poetry by Ada Limón, I feel like I can breathe again, or maybe just breathe easier. The Hurting Kind is no exception. So many of her poems offer aspects of nature as a starting point and they draw up images that immerse me to the point that I feel there too— in open space, somewhere quiet, with time enough to appreciate and marvel life itself. The poems are not simple or soft, but they do make you feel held.
Every time I read a collection of poetry by Ada Limón, I feel like I can breathe again, or maybe just breathe easier. The Hurting Kind is no exception. So many of her poems offer aspects of nature as a starting point and they draw up images that immerse me to the point that I feel there too— in open space, somewhere quiet, with time enough to appreciate and marvel life itself. The poems are not simple or soft, but they do make you feel held.
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced