" Ada Limón is a poet who associate . " This was how Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden introducedthe twenty-fourth poet laureateof the United States .
From my perspective as apoet and writing instructor , " a poet who tie " is a arrant encapsulation of who the poet laureate should be — and why I see Limón as so well suited for the role .
This designation has consistently been filled by some of the most storied and long-lived poet of their generation — Elizabeth Bishop , William Carlos Williams , Gwendolyn Brooks and many others . harmonize to Limón , it was reading a Bishop verse form , " One Art , " at age 15 that jumping - started her own passion forpoetry .
What Is a Poet Laureate?
The government agency of the U.S. poet laureate is a relatively late one . PhilanthropistArcher M. Huntingtonendowed the position in 1937 as the " Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress . " The official title of " Consultant in Poetry " remains , but " Poet Laureate , " the name most Americans connect with the function , was added by an Act of Congress in 1985 .
Over time , the location has changed from one primarily counsel the Library of Congress about their poesy collections to a more public - face role . The most influential U.S. poets laureate have usually had a special stake or project : Maxine Kuminchampioned the work of adult female poets . Billy Collins'“Poetry 180 " undertaking brought a poem a 24-hour interval to classrooms throughout the school year . AndRobert Pinskyhelped work up an archive of Americans reading their preferred poems .
Theterms of the laureateshipare short , just one twelvemonth , though some often stay for two terminus . The most recent U.S. poet laureate — and the first Native American to take the part — Joy Harjo , suffice for three , from 2019 until passing the baton to Limón in July 2022 .
Who Is Ada Limon?
Limón is the first fair sex of Mexican ancestry to be named poet laureate of the U.S. Few womanhood have filled the office , and few women of color still .
Limón has grappled with the expectations that predominantly clean literary spaces have put on her in poems like " The Contract Says : We ’d wish the Conversation to be Bilingual . " She has alsojoked about her experienceas a poet of color online . Rather than resign herself to being pigeonhole , however , Limón views personal identity — and poesy — as an boulevard to greater possibility .
" I ’m very interested in what it is to have identity be a door , a spot where we can open up to unlike possibilities , " Limón says , about her new appointment . " I did n’t sign up for anything limited when I choose poetry . I signed up for something that is about trying on some level to rein the unsayable . "
While this will be Limón ’s first walk through the door as the poet laureate , she has already followed in the footsteps ofTracy K. Smith , who was poet laureate from 2017 to 2019 . During her tenure , Smith kicked off a weekday poetry podcast and radio show anticipate " The Slowdown . " It was revived in September 2021 with Limón as host . She describes the experience of hosting the show as " a substantial natural endowment and opportunity to spread poems . " In each episode , Limón apportion a brief reflection drawn from her life , then interpret a new poem she has selected for the day , opt from a salmagundi of poet .
Withleisure meter shrinkingand the pandemic furtherblurring the boundary between work and menage , a podcast that rarely hits the five - minute gull may be as much fourth dimension as many Americans can spare for literature . These episode serve poetry experience approachable , something that can slip into the fissures of a busy mean solar day .
The podcast can also serve as a run tour of contemporary poetry , helmed by the attuned and paying attention Limón . " I call up being able to do a day-by-day podcast has been really lovely because there ’s so much chance to share really different elan of verse , " Limón says . offer listeners a all-embracing compass of verse form , she explains , can help connect with different audience .
A 21st-century Poet Laureate
Part of poetry ’s appeal is its brevity . Limón ’s verse form run to be shortsighted enough to be suit to the silver screen shot , the share . It ’s a21st century style that verse circulates , a way the great unwashed can feel connected to the word and to each other .
Social mediais oft the place where the great unwashed meet poems . And poetry is something people can turn to when their own wrangle give out . In 2016 , Maggie Smith ’s poem " Good Bones " went viral after thePulse nightclub pullulate . Ukranian - born poet Ilya Kaminsky ’s poem " We Lived blithely During the War , " published in 2019 , went viral earlier in 2022 as the world turned its eye to thewar - ravaged nation .
Social medium posts and digestible podcast episode take in even those whose attention feels fragmented to pause . When the world seems overwhelming , a poem can freshen like a sip of cold water , offering a meaningful moment in a hectic man .
Limón revalue the part societal medium has played for poetry .
" [ F]or the most part , the way of life we encounter poetry is one singular verse form at a time , " she says . " And so being capable to post something on Facebook , on Instagram , on Twitter , or any other societal media platform , there is this awesome encounter that you could have where you ’re flipping through , and it ’s like — someone ’s nipper , this lovely heyday , there ’s a horseshoe ad — and then you come to this verse form and you ’re suddenly bowl over by an Audre Lorde poem from 1978 . " She acknowledges the ways societal media can feel toxic , but Limón believes that beauty and connection also have a spot . " I think that ’s a top executive we really necessitate to rein , " she say .
For me , it comes as no surprise that Limón ’s own poemsoftencirculateonline . Her brilliant piece of work and public persona bid an openhearted invitation into what oral communication can do to connect the great unwashed — to the raw world , to one another and to themselves .
At Home in a Poetic Landscape
Across Limón ’s six book of poems , an check representative emerges . Even her titles make the proofreader sit up and pay aid . Her poem " How to Triumph Like a Girl " get " I like the madam horses best " — a shady and engross first line that draws the reviewer in with surprising diction and a conversational pure tone . Her work is jubilant and deeply feel , in touch with the emotions and experience that make us human .
Limón is n’t wide thought of as a nature poet , but she frequently writesnaturepoemsof thebuilt environment , live by backyard trees , weeds in the garden and neighbourhood fauna . " We live within nature … even in urban options , in the minuscule pocket commons that are in between freeways , " Limón says . " To live in that community and to live in that interconnection , I hope , will serve us see our lives as reciprocal with nature … [ T]hat to me is as crucial as any poem that you could save . "
For Ada Limón , poesy offers a reminder of the nuance of terminology in an epoch of indignation .
Limón is a poet situated in a particularly American geography , first of California and now of Kentucky , establish her work in the succulent details of alived - inlandscape . Her poems " The Hurting form " and " A New National Anthem " draw on her perspective as an American proud of her blended background signal . These particularities , rather than making her work less welcoming , offer a grain of experience that many living in this mingled nation can bear on to and see themselves in .
Speaking of take on on the mantle of U.S. poet laureate , Limón says , " I ’m really concerned in what it looks like to have America in the room . And I think the human face of America is often someone who is many things . "
Amy Cannonis an associate professor of writing at the USC Dornsife College of Letters , Arts and Sciences .
This article is republish fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons licence . you’re able to line up theoriginal articlehere .
