Just a short post, because I have such a backlog of books to write about and a lot to do these days...
Awhile back, Pilsen Community Books posted a poem from this book, and I was so taken by it that I immediately ordered it from them. I started reading it and was absolutely blown away, and then, wonder of wonders, it turned out that Limón was doing a reading at Cornell! So I got to go and hear her read some poems, and tell stories about them, and about her family, and talk about her process, and her worldview, and it was all just so absolutely magical. What an incredible presence she is.
Of course, maybe it was also just the pleasure of being in a room with people appreciating poetry, which I haven't done in a very long time (my classes don't count, heh heh), but I do think this was an exceptionally good reading. Some credit goes to the audience, who asked really interesting questions (those fancy Cornell folk!). I was especially struck by a person who asked whether she does the line breaks in the first rush of composition, or adds them later (apparently this person had heard someone, maybe Victoria Chang? say that their first draft is one line of prose, and the line breaks come after), and another person who asked whether she composes out loud, or in writing. These are maybe very obvious questions to ask a poet, but I hadn't ever thought of them, and I was very interested in the answers (she does the line breaks in the initial composition, and she does compose out loud, fyi. In my own feeble attempts at poetry, I do line breaks immediately but am constantly playing with them and changing them, and I never compose out loud.)
It's really hard for me to explain what is so absolutely magnetic and immediately captivating about these poems. I gave my copy of the book to a dear friend so I can't even look over it and try to figure it out (though I will definitely be buying myself another copy). But really, they are incredible, and you should go buy this book right away.
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