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I kind of hate it.” Or, “Oh you wait tables? I didn’t know that was something people did.” I say it can be invigorating because, on some level, we have to evaluate what we do and why we do it almost daily.

Ada Limon

I’m always telling my students that the weirdest thing is the truth. I mean, the fact that we get up in the morning and put on clothes is weird.
ADA LIMON

Fact Mean Morning Student Telling Truth Weirdest
Language can also be play and music and beauty and desire and grief and rage and truth without always having to be message-driven or purely functional.
ADA LIMON

Beauty Grief Language Mean Moving Music Rage
I can only hear the frame saying, Walk through.
ADA LIMON

Bird Bonfire Door Dream Frame Ghost Man Night Saying Through
We have to explain ourselves to people all the time. We have to say, “Yes, I am a unicorn, believe in me.”
ADA LIMON

Believe Explain Funny Old Ourselves Poet Position
The more I am aware of my mortality the better person I am and the better I am at choosing a life that is aware of its beauty.
ADA LIMON

Aware Constantly Doubt Fascination Mean Mind More Mortality Play Realizing Role Talk
All night I dreamt of bonfires and burn piles and ghosts of men, and spirits behind those birds of flame. I cannot tell anymore when a door opens or closes,
ADA LIMON

Bird Bonfire Door Dream Ghost Man Night
I think, as poets, we are in the odd position of constantly defending our art form. Which is funny and also sort of invigorating, too. No one really says, “Oh you’re a lawyer? I’ve never understood the law. In fact,
ADA LIMON

Art Believe Funny Hate Old Poet Position
There’s so much rage in the world now and I’m finding poems to be the place where I want to stay. I rage and rage and then write a poem and return to breathing.
ADA LIMON

Finding Place Poem Rage World Writing
I’m always talking about how the poems I am most obsessed with are like people: complex and unknowable and with a huge capacity for many different emotions.
ADA LIMON

Complex Different Emotion Obsessed People Talking
It’s not that I want to be, but it’s a fascination of the mind and it plays a role in why I want to live my life a certain way.
ADA LIMON

Constantly Doubt Fascination Mean Mind Play Realizing Role Talk
You know how we are when a new book of poems is at last coming together – all frenzy, distraction, and bounty? It’s as if I’ve turned into summer itself.
ADA LIMON

Attention Book Currently Intent New Place Reading Write Writing
One of the reasons I’ve felt so connected to poetry throughout the years is because it’s the only art form that has breath built into it. And I need that breath now. I need that breath so much. So, yes, it is a refuge for me. Absolutely.
ADA LIMON

Answer Art Connected Place Question Reason Refuge
The longed-for return of the bees. Unaffected and inherently hopeful, Callihan’s work is as merciful as it is moving.
ADA LIMON

Bees Hopeful Longed Return Unaffected
I have been writing. Even when I intend not to write, I find myself writing. I’m currently in a place where I should be putting together the fifth book, but then more poems are coming. It’s exciting and somewhat daunting.
ADA LIMON

Book Currently Intent Place Summer Write Writing
Sometimes the quiet observer, sometimes the kid in the center of the messed-up carnival, these poems are the fireflies you’ve missed all winter
ADA LIMON

Deep Firefly Graceful Messed Observer Poem Precise Quiet Suoer
Poems have always been a place for questions for me. Not answers. And I have a lot of questions these days.
ADA LIMON

Answer Art Place Question Reason Refuge

I kind of hate it.” Or, “Oh you wait tables? I didn’t know that was something people did.” I say it can be invigorating because, on some level, we have to evaluate what we do and why we do it almost daily.

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I kind of hate it.” Or, “Oh you wait tables? I didn’t know that was something people did.” I say it can be invigorating because, on some level, we have to evaluate what we do and why we do it almost daily.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Ada Limon Quotes