The Carrying
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry
Published on 7. February 2019
128 pages
978-1-4721-5454-5 (ISBN)
Description
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR POETRY 2019
Ada Limon is a poet of ecstatic revelation . . . a book of deep wisdom and urgent vulnerability' Tracy K. Smith, Guardian
'Vulnerable, tender, acute . . . The Carrying is a gift' Natasha Trethewey, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former US Poet Laureate
'Exquisite poems' Roxane Gay
From National Book Critics Circle Award Winner Ada Limon comes The Carrying - her most powerful collection yet.
Vulnerable, tender, acute, these are serious poems, brave poems, exploring with honesty the ambiguous moment between the rapture of youth and the grace of acceptance. A daughter tends to aging parents. A woman struggles with infertility - 'What if, instead of carrying / a child, I am supposed to carry grief?' - and a body seized by pain and vertigo as well as ecstasy. A nation convulses: 'Every song of this country / has an unsung third stanza, something brutal.' And still Limon shows us, as ever, the persistence of hunger, love, and joy, the dizzying fullness of our too-short lives. 'Fine then, / I'll take it,' she writes. 'I'll take it all.'
The Carrying leads us deeper towards the hard-won truth of what it means to live in an imperfect world.
Ada Limon is a poet of ecstatic revelation . . . a book of deep wisdom and urgent vulnerability' Tracy K. Smith, Guardian
'Vulnerable, tender, acute . . . The Carrying is a gift' Natasha Trethewey, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former US Poet Laureate
'Exquisite poems' Roxane Gay
From National Book Critics Circle Award Winner Ada Limon comes The Carrying - her most powerful collection yet.
Vulnerable, tender, acute, these are serious poems, brave poems, exploring with honesty the ambiguous moment between the rapture of youth and the grace of acceptance. A daughter tends to aging parents. A woman struggles with infertility - 'What if, instead of carrying / a child, I am supposed to carry grief?' - and a body seized by pain and vertigo as well as ecstasy. A nation convulses: 'Every song of this country / has an unsung third stanza, something brutal.' And still Limon shows us, as ever, the persistence of hunger, love, and joy, the dizzying fullness of our too-short lives. 'Fine then, / I'll take it,' she writes. 'I'll take it all.'
The Carrying leads us deeper towards the hard-won truth of what it means to live in an imperfect world.
Reviews / Votes
I was ambushed by her power to move - several poems brought a lump to my throat. She never hides behind words but reveals herself through them . . . It describes an effortful time that makes these apparently effortless, quick-release poems all the more merciful and beautiful. There is nothing self-indulgent here but there is humorous self-assertion . . . Part of the pleasure of reading Limon is the way she transports you to a Kentucky punctuated by the noise of trains, the presence of horses, the planting of seeds. This is as-the-crow files poetry - it goes straight to the heart. * The Guardian *More details
Edition
Digital original
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Little, Brown Book Group
Edition type
Digital original
File size
0,36 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-4721-5454-5 (9781472154545)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
02/2019
Corsair
€14.00
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
Ada Limon is the author of four books of poetry, including Bright Dead Things, which was named a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kingsley Tufts Award. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times and American Poetry Review, among others. She lives in both Kentucky and California.
