a nest of trying

The Carrying by Ada Limón (Poetry)

This is my second time reading this collection and it won’t be my last.  My favorite poem is The Vulture & the Body, which is close to the beginning and exemplifies the many reasons I loved this collection.  Limón is comfortable sharing her numerous and strange connections and invites us into the many rooms and their connecting hallways her profound and winding thoughts make.  It’s a little like a maze, but the reader always finds themselves right back at the beginning of the thought by the end of the poem, and additionally, returned to their own world feeling heavy with contemplation.

The poems have more recurring themes than I have space or time to write.  But I most appreciate how she portrays the marriage of life and death. They’re not separate, and the cycle is constantly blurred and in motion.  Not an easy thing to convey!  It’s not a book you read straight through in a few sittings. But because the poems speak to one another and the book reads like it has a loose narrative, you can’t just read a poem and walk away for several days.  Dear future self – when rereading this, don’t read this too fast, but don’t walk away for too long!  

Favorite poems/lines: 

The Vulture & The Body: 

“What if, instead of carrying

a child, I am supposed to carry grief?”

Dead Stars:

“I am a hearth of spiders these days: a nest of trying.”

Of Roots & Roamers:

“Have you ever noticed how the trees

change from state to state? Not all

at once, of course, more like a weaver 

gradually weaving in another color…” 

A New National Anthem:

“And what of the stanzas we never sing…”

Maybe I’ll Be Another Kind of Mother:

“I’ll stare at the tree and the ice will have melted, so

it’s only the original tree again, green branches giving way

to other green branches, everything coming back to life.”