Course:The Carrying by Ada Limón
| CRWR 501P 003 |
|---|
 |
| Advanced Writing of Poetry |
|
| Important Course Pages |
| Categories |
The Carrying is Ada Limon's 5th collection of poetry, published in 2018. The collection's main concern is stated in the line below:
“What if, instead of carrying / a child, I am supposed to carry grief?”
It is a confessional, lyrical collection of all the things Limon carries with her from the weight of infertility, society, the cosmos, nature, grief etc. Many of these themes are interwoven. The Carrying is a "powerful example of how to carry the things that define us without being broken by them." — Washington Post.
July. Year 2023. I perused the poetry section at Indigo and flipped through collection after collection, nothing really catching my fancy. I spotted Limón's collection The Carrying. It had a big sticker on the front that read "National Book Critics Circle Award Winner" and "Poet Laureate of the United States". It thought to myself, "Well, it's got so many words and stickers on the front this must be decent." I bought it without looking inside.
What captivated me with this collection were both the themes but also the long sentences and language. The words seemed to roll and cascade over one another, lists separated by commas, thoughts separated by quick breaths. There was a reflective tone to the poems that really captivated me. Both of the above have been adapted into my writing. My sentences are longer, more complex now and are usually paired with shorter, declarative ones. I've taken the way Limon often expands on descriptions in the middle of her sentences and adapted it into my own writing.
This collection also has a special place in my timeline. It's representative of many moments. When I bought it, I had just started dating somebody new. I was falling in love.
I was waiting for the bus to arrive so I could travel the hour it took to get to their place, my nose in The Carrying, soaking up each line. A young woman came up to the bus stop and after a moment she asked me what I was reading. I said it was poetry. She said she loved poetry. I handed her the book to read. After she finished reading one of the poems she took a photo of the cover, smiled, and said she'd buy a copy. I don't know if she ever did but there is something about Limón's work that leaves you wanting more. There's always more questions than answers in The Carrying which is why I will keep coming back to it, even after my apprenticeship within the context of this class.
This will be the collection I keep coming back to. It will always remind me of summer, of picking it on a whim, of the feeling of falling in love and of strangers connecting over a book of poetry.
Categories
Add categories here