U.S. poet laureate Ada Limón celebrates nature, family and human connection in The Hurting Kind
Limón's sixth collection, The Hurting Kind, is shortlisted for the $130,000 Griffin Poetry Prize
Ada Limón has been described as "a poet of ecstatic revelation." She brings an observant eye and sense of wonder to all her work – from her first book, 2006's Lucky Wreck, to her acclaimed 2018 collection, The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry.
Limón's sixth collection, The Hurting Kind, is shortlisted for the $130,000 Griffin Poetry Prize. The winner will be announced in Toronto on June 7, 2023. It features poems that she describes as "offerings" to her ancestors and the world around her. The Griffin jury remarked on the book's "clarity of vision and depth of emotion… at once plainspoken and fiercely lyrical."
Of Mexican ancestry, Limón was born in Sonoma, California, in 1976. She recently became the first U.S. poet laureate to be appointed to a two-year second term. She spoke to Eleanor Wachtel from Lexington, Kentucky.
Looking deeply
"Sometimes what happens to me is that I don't realize I'm rushing until I realize I've missed a whole morning or a whole walk. That's when I realize, 'Oh, I've been pushing through and pushing through to what's next and what's coming.' I really need to have those moments where I stop and I look at something.
"This morning, I looked out on my back porch, and past the crabapple tree was a little baby bunny. It was so cute and it had these big ears that were too big for its body. I got to watch it for a while and I thought, 'See, if I hadn't been paying attention, I wouldn't have noticed that it was there.'
Sometimes what happens to me is that I don't realize I'm rushing until I realize I've missed a whole morning or a whole walk.- Ada Limón
"Sometimes it's not about forcing it as much as it's asking myself, 'Oh, what have I missed? Or were you paying attention?' A lot of times the answer is, 'Oh, no, you kept your head down and you were being diligent, you were trying to accomplish the tasks that were laid before you."
"Sometimes I have to remind myself that living — and living fully — requires more than that. It requires an expansiveness and an equanimity and some space around everything. That's something I very much work on, not only in my work and my poems, but in my life as a human."
Artistic upbringing
"I think being raised by a visual artist has a lot of benefits, especially for someone who then goes on to work in languages. She had this incredible way of watching and looking at the world that felt like she could see its edges, and I was someone who felt like I couldn't see the edges.
"For me, everything had an emotional, almost prismatic weight. For her, she could see the clear lines of how something worked, how it was made, and its functionality. Because she's a painter, I get to be able to see not only how she witnesses the world, but then how different it is from the way that I see the world. I learned a lot from her way of looking and I hope that I can sometimes take something from that in and move it into my own work.
Every time I go home, I feel like I get healed in some ways. The landscape was as much a part of my growing up as my siblings and my parents.- Ada Limón
"I'm from a small town in Northern California called Sonoma, and I also was raised in Glen Ellen — they're about 15 minutes apart. When my parents separated, my father and stepmother lived in Glen Ellen and my mom and stepdad lived in Sonoma. It's known for its very famous wines, and Glen Ellen is a little smaller, but it also has a lot of different beautiful, vineyards.
"I was raised in this valley that's actually called the Valley of the Moon. It was a special place that I am still deeply connected to. In fact, every time I go home, I feel like I get healed in some ways. The landscape was as much a part of my growing up as my siblings and my parents.
In the presence of animals
"One of the things that I think about is that we often don't realize how many animals are around us at all times, whether it's the ants on the kitchen table or the bunnies in the backyard or the fox that comes and goes. The witnessing of those animals helps me to remember that I am an animal. That gives me a sense of being connected to something larger. That gives me a more holistic view of my relationship to the world.
"Even when I was young, I loved the smaller worlds within the the larger human world, whether it was those sort of odd little things or if they were the butterfly or the mockingbird or the hawk or the whale. All of those things made me feel more alive every time I was able to be in their presence, and they still do.
One of the things that I think about is that we often don't realize how many animals are around us at all times, whether it's the ants on the kitchen table or the bunnies in the backyard or the fox that comes and goes. - Ada Limón
"I'm not sure if I can explain with any kind of lucidity what that connection is. All I know is it's true and it does make me feel as if I am living more fully when I'm in their presence."
Through a poet's eyes
"I do think that artists in general have an openness and a need to receive the world. They need to listen to the world in order to write toward the world. They also have to feel as if there is something of value in their speaking back to the world. I am very aware when I'm speaking to poets or other artists. I want to talk about caretaking — how we take care of ourselves in the process of working on poems, especially poems that might deal with difficult subjects, and also caretaking ourselves when it comes to balancing making a living and making a life.
I do think that artists in general have an openness and a need to receive the world. They need to listen to the world in order to write toward the world.- Ada Limón
"That's very important because we are tender-hearted, and sometimes that can make that sense of overwhelm more traumatic. I always feel like it's important to practice caretaking and talking about caretaking. What it is to make sure that that you keep writing poems forever and that you feel good doing so? That's just as important as making the one brilliant thing."
The difficulty being optimistic
"Optimism can be difficult. Positivity can be difficult. When I think about loving the planet, that's not hard for me to do. Worrying about the planet is also not hard for me to do.
Optimism can be difficult. Positivity can be difficult.- Ada Limón
"We're at a moment of crisis, so to be able to speak not only toward exploration, but to speak toward what we have here, what we can witness here, what is left for us to wonder at. And also to caretake; I think that's just as important."
Ada Limón's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
