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A NAME

When Eve walked among
the animals and named them—
nightingale, red-shouldered hawk,
fiddler crab, fallow deer—
I wonder if she ever wanted
them to speak back, looked into
their wide wonderful eyes and
whispered, Name me, name me.

Thank you, Ada.

I‘d seen Limón‘s poetry books in stores for a while and finally picked one up. I loved the many subjects she touches on, showing heart and pieces of herself in each of her poems.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#poetry

A collection of poetry examine life, death, infertility, and our relationship with the world.

I always forget how much I love poetry until I pick up a collection. Limon has such a way of taking the ordinary, the day to day, and making it extraordinary and worthy of wonder. I remember reading The Raincoat years ago & just feeling overwhelmed. I definitely need to add more Limon and more poetry to my TBR. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

"Look, we are not unspectacular things. We've come this far, survived this much. What would happen if we decided to survive more? To love harder?"

📖 10-9-22 || Resilient | Life-Affirming | Exquisite
I try to read one book of poetry a month and this is my most recent selection. I especially love listening to books of poetry read by the author. This author is our current US Poet Laureate. Loved it!

I went to Open Books, Poetry-Emporium today and found this gem. I couldn‘t put it down❤️

This was really good. I'm behind on posting. And I'm not sure audio is my favorite format for poetry. Because I'm already forgetting details. Like I didn't spend enough time absorbing it.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

"I don‘t know how to hold this truth, / so I kill it, pin its terrible wings down / in case, later, no one believes me."
-"Killing Methods"

I really enjoyed this book of poetry. I'm excited to go to her reading in KC next week!

This week on #ChannelOpenPod I‘m re-sharing my 2018 conversation with poet Ada Limón, in which we discuss her book THE CARRYING, the power of naming, and artistic pilgrimages.

Listen and subscribe via Apple Podcasts (apple.co/35g0dFa) or in your favorite podcast app, or visit keepthechannelopen.com for full episodes, transcripts, and show notes!

I don‘t know why I love Ada Limon so much. Her work is amazing yes, but I think I relate to her poetry because it makes sense. Sometimes with poetry, the prose is long and winding thar I can get lost. Is it a poem or just long non-linear prose. With Ada, it‘s short and concise and full of feeling without taking you somewhere you don‘t want to go. check it out.

She is always amazing.

I... just don‘t get it. Poetry is so not my thing that I don‘t even feel I can fairly rate my reading experience. #marchmadnesschallenge

Current poetry read.

Beautiful ❤️
I‘ve been working on incorporating more poetry into my reading. This was a great addition. A revealing look into the poet‘s heart, rent open, vulnerable, tender, touching.
#marchmadness @JenP

#poemsbeforephones Just finished up this wonderful collection. Many of the poems here deal with the body and the number of ways it can be an impediment in our lives - illness, infertility, beauty standards we fail to meet, etc. Many also dealt with caring for others - parents, friends, etc. A warm and honest collection about every day living. 4⭐️ I‘ll be taking a hiatus on #poemsbeforephones for a few days until Feb. 1.

#poemsbeforephones Many of the poems in this collection are about struggles with the body, whether real physical struggles or psychological struggles with expected norms. This is a good example of a physical struggle with illness.

#poemsbeforephones Got a very late start today, but I loved this one too much not to post.

#poemsbeforephones I read 13 poems this morning, and while I didn‘t love any of them, this one struck me as more hopeful. A number of the poems I read this morning related to the most recent presidential election in the US and the treatment of immigrants.

#poemsbeforephones Ada Limon has dealt with issues with her spine all her life. Here she recounts a day when she was suffering with a lot of pain and dizziness and saw a woman dressed as Wonder Woman walking along the Mississippi River. I hope we can all find these simple moments of encouragement for dealing with our issues, whatever they may be, as we go throughout our day.

#poemsbeforephones Good advice this morning—don‘t be the mouse.

#poemsbeforephones I started another collection this morning, but it wasn‘t what I wanted to read right now. This poem, however, settled me on this collection instead. It‘s about how her mother cares for her as a child. I especially love the end:
“My god, I thought, my whole life I‘ve been under her raincoat thinking it was somehow a marvel that I never got wet.”
💕💕

These lines from Ada Limon's poem "The Raincoat" really got me this morning.

Limon delivers another strong collection as she contemplates marriage, infertility, and pregnancy, the role of love and bringing children into an often cruel world. Her poems encompass a wide range of feeling, riding from despair to joy in a few lines. Highly recommended.

All the world is moving, even sand from one shore to another / is being shuttled. I live my life half afraid, and half shouting / at the trains when they thunder by. This letter to you is both.

I feel so fortunate to have read this book. The poems here are so vital, showing both vulnerability and strength, and deeply honest through and through. So many of these poems are heavy with the ways the world and life will weigh on us, whether it's loss, racism or misogyny, or the ways our lives might not turn out the way we've dreamed. But there's a core of resiliency, too, and Limón shows us the reasons to keep carrying on, and shows us how.

Feeling a bit under the weather so it‘s flannel pants and a lovely poetry ARC for me.