Bright dead things : poems (alkuperäinen julkaisuvuosi 2015; vuoden 2015 painos)

Love this so much. Her imagery is amazing and her metaphors are strong. She reveals so much of herself, of place, and of love. The sections on Kentucky resonate with me a lot because she is also a transplant. ( )

Although there were many aspects of this collection that I could not relate to, there were certain sections and passages that had me stop and think. It took me a whole month to finish this very short book simply because it triggered so many emotions inside of me. So yeah, I really didn't care about the horses or the owls, but there were lines that ripped my heart in two. Ada Limon had me mulling over my entire existence and it was a bit anxiety ridden and sad. But I guess that's the point of art, to make you feel, and some of these poems managed to do just that. Here are some of my favorite lines:

"If you're alone, when love is all around, we all tip our lonely hats in one un-lonely sound." Page 11

"Some might say that their love was not a love, or was not the right kind of love, but rather a sort of holding on in order to escape another trapped fate Page 59

"I imagine the insides of myself sometimes – part female, part male, part terrible dragon." Page 64

"How do you love?
Like a fist. Like a knife." Page 69

" I was there, standing in the bar's bathroom mirror, saying my name like I was somebody." Page 73

" I used to think it was like a light bulb, life, dangling in the chest, asking to be switched on." Page 99 ( )

"Every time I'm in an airport,
I think I should drastically change my life....

Then, I think of you, home with the dog, the field full
of purple pop-ups - - we're small and
flawed, but I want to be
who I am, going where
I'm going, all over again."

I checked this out from the library after reading Ellen's review of it on her thread. She gave it five stars. and so did I. It's that good. It's exquisite, actually. Thoughtful and insightful and intelligent. I like the way that Ada Limón thinks about things. This collection is divided into four sections, and each section deals with life and choices and heartbreak and hope - it's like reading her internal dialogue with her heart. The fourth section, especially, spoke to me. I just cannot recommend this highly enough. Here's one of my favorites:

Oh Please Let it be Lighting

We were crossing the headwaters of
the Susquehanna River in our new car
we didn't quite have the money for
but it was slick and silver and we named it
after the local strip club next to the car wash:
The Spearmint Rhino, and this wasn't long
after your mother said she wasn't sure
if one of your ancestors died in childbirth
or was struck by lightning, there just wasn't
anyone left to set the story straight, and we
started to feel old. And it snowed. The ice
and salt and mud on the car made it look
like how we felt on the inside. The dog
was asleep on my lap. We had seven more hours
before our bed in the bluegrass would greet us
like some southern cousin we forgot we had.
Sometimes, you have to look around
at the life you've made and sort of nod at it,
like someone moving their head up and down
to a tune they like. New York City seemed years
away and all the radio stations had unfamiliar
call letters and talked about God, the one
that starts his name with a capital and wants
you not to get so naked all the time.
Sometimes, there seems to be a halfway point
between where you've been and everywhere
else, and we were there. All the trees were dead,
and the hills looked flat like in real bad landscape
paintings in some nowhere gallery off an interstate
but still, it looked kind of pretty. Not because
of the snow, but because you somehow found
a decent song on the dial and there you were,
with your marvelous mouth, singing full-lunged,
driving full-speed into the gloomy thunderhead,
glittery and blazing and alive. And it didn't matter
what was beyond us, or what came before us,
or what town we lived in, or where the money came from,
or what new night might leave us hungry and reeling,
we were simply going forward, riotous and windswept,
and all too willing to be struck by something shining
and mad, and so furiously hot it could kill us. ( )