
Description
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
FINALIST FOR THE PEN/JEAN STEIN BOOK AWARD
From U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón comes The Carrying--her most powerful collection yet.
Vulnerable, tender, acute, these are serious poems, brave poems, exploring with honesty the ambiguous moment between the rapture of youth and the grace of acceptance. A daughter tends to aging parents. A woman struggles with infertility--"What if, instead of carrying / a child, I am supposed to carry grief?"--and a body seized by pain and vertigo as well as ecstasy. A nation convulses: "Every song of this country / has an unsung third stanza, something brutal." And still Limón shows us, as ever, the persistence of hunger, love, and joy, the dizzying fullness of our too-short lives. "Fine then, / I'll take it," she writes. "I'll take it all."
In Bright Dead Things, Limón showed us a heart "giant with power, heavy with blood"--"the huge beating genius machine / that thinks, no, it knows, / it's going to come in first." In her follow-up collection, that heart is on full display--even as The Carrying continues further and deeper into the bloodstream, following the hard-won truth of what it means to live in an imperfect world.
Product Details
Publisher | Milkweed Editions |
Publish Date | April 13, 2021 |
Pages | 120 |
Language | English |
Type | |
EAN/UPC | 9781571315137 |
Dimensions | 8.4 X 5.4 X 0.4 inches | 0.4 pounds |
About the Author
Reviews
"Limon's new poems in The Carrying are like a winter garden--somber, full of grief and patience, suddenly visible lines from here to there. To watch a poet in full possession of her power tending the earth with this kind of care feels like an inspiration that comes with a chastened edge: time, they remind, is all we have."--Literary Hub
"All of Limón's books have found a home on my bookshelf, each volume a heartfelt reckoning of what it is be alive. In her collections, I find a grace that demonstrates her versatility and wisdom as well as a 'surrendering.' She explains that the central question of her work is, 'How do we live in the world?' Yet she's a poet as comfortable with questions as with answers."--Guernica
"[Limón] might be the mom of Latinx poetry, and I mean that in the best way possible. . . . Limón is talented in a way that's both intimidating and inspiring, and is definitely a strong pillar of contemporary poetry."--Book Riot
"Wisely observant . . . Limón's poems personify the twinned-narrative of despair and tenacity that has become part of America's current political and social reality. Indeed, The Carrying is a spark of courage in our dark and troubled times."--PANK
"Limón's work is a reminder that you can write poetry about big ideas."--America
"Exquisite poems about love, fertility, desire, this natural world we move through, the political climate, so much more."--Roxane Gay, Goodreads
"Superb. . . . Although the subject matter is often mournful, the endurance of nature also comes to light. Even though an individual may perish, there is consistency in the life cycles of bumblebees, dandelions, and race horses--all of which are examined with gorgeous language and imagery that makes Limón's collection hard to put down, even in the moments that cause a deep, sorrowful ache."--Chicago Review of Books
"This is the kind of poetry that strikes that rare balance: deftly crafted and profound but also completely accessible. The collection is about creation, death and everything in between, with so much attention to the thrumming world that just by reading it you become more aware, more in tune with the life around you."--BookPage
"Limón is one of the country's finest poets. . . . Honest, lyrical observations on love, loneliness, life, death and all the mysteries in between. . . . She performs a near-miraculous feat in balancing razor-sharp imagery with deep ambivalence. . . . The Carrying beautifully conveys the power of poetry in an age that needs it most."--Shelf Awareness
"Limón teaches me that language can still surprise me. She shows me that the juxtaposition of words not previously joined can catch me off-guard, make me feel that shimmer of resonance, of curiosity."--Signature
"Gorgeous, thought-provoking . . . This fearless collection shows a poet that can appreciate life's surprises."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A stunning collection. . . . Limón writes movingly about finding the spectacular in the everyday. . . . A reverent, extraordinary take on the world. Don't miss this life-affirming collection."--Library Journal (starred review)
"A master of examining themes from unexpected angles, Limón rotates her topics in kaleidoscopic turns. . . . Page after page, this proves to be a startling and tender, magnificent collection."--Booklist
"Extraordinary . . . You realize that you witnessed something mesmerizing."--Foreword Reviews
"In her dazzling, precise, transformative collection, The Carrying, Ada Limón offers us meditations on mortality, womanhood, the body, and that which grows in the earth, all the while slyly positing: How we should treat each other in this precarious life? Like humans, is her answer. Like humans."--Jami Attenberg, author of The Middlesteins "It is no wonder that Ada Limon's wonderful new book, The Carrying, is full of goldfinches and strawberries and dandelions and hostas and, as she writes, 'all good things that come from the ground.' It's also no wonder that it's full of the life that death makes. And the living that dying is. For this book is a garden. And like a garden, it will nourish you. It will feed you."--Ross Gay "In her powerful new collection, Ada Limón asks: 'What if, instead of carrying // a child, I am supposed to carry grief?' And later: 'isn't there still something singing?' To which I say: yes. In these poems, joy and longing and grief sing with a music that--regardless of what I am burdened or blessed to carry--makes me want to live passionately and fully in the difficult world. The Carrying is a gift."--Natasha TretheweyEarn by promoting books