Ada Limón reads at the 2015 National Book Awards Finalists Reading

Ada Limón, Bright Dead Things (Milkweed Editions)
Sponsored by the National Book Foundation and the Creative Writing MFA Program.
On the eve of the 2015 National Book Awards ceremony, The New School hosts a reading with the finalists in the categories of Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction, and Young People’s Literature.

[@sonampalmo3578]

RARELY do I find a poet whose poems are ALL home runs. What a joy to read poems that cover the whole gamut of emotion. I'm loving her and haunting Amazon for al her books.

[@renzossosa]

I went from almost crying to laughing with no in between. I like her.

[@codydraco]

This blew my f*cking mind. Incredible poet! 😮

[@BUKCOLLECTOR]

Very much enjoyed your true to life poems.
I’m also a poet a but specialize in Japanese forms: haiku, tanka, haibun, kyoka, senryu. I hope you don’t mind me sharing a tanka and a haiku-the haiku a tribute poem to Bashō’s frog with commentary by the late Jane Reichold who also considered my poem among her top 10 haiku of all time. What an honor.
Here’s the Bashō poem and commentary:
Bashō’s frog. . .
four hundred years
of ripples
At first the idea of picking only 10 of my favorite haiku seemed a rather daunting task. How could I review all the haiku I have read in my life and decide that there were only 10 that were outstanding? Then realized I was already getting a steady stream of excellent haiku day by day through the AHA
forum.
The puns and write-offs based on Basho's most famous haiku are so
numerous I would have said that nothing new could be said with this
method, but here Al Fogel proved me wrong. Perhaps part of my delight in this haiku lies in the fact that I agree with him. Here he is saying one thing
about realism-ripples are on a pond after a frog jumps in, but because it refers back to Basho and his famous haiku, he is also saying something about the haiku and authors who have followed him. We, and our work, are just ripples while Basho holds the honor of inventing the idea of "the
sound of a frog leaping is the sound of water".
As haiku spreads around the world, making ripples in more and larger ponds, its ripples are wider-including us all. But his last word reminds us all that we are only ripples and our lives are that ephemeral. It will be the frogs that will remain.
~~
My tanka/kyoka:
returning home
from a Jackson Pollock
exhibition
I smear my face with paint
and turn into art
~~
-All love in isolation
from Miami Beach,
Florida,
Al

[@romaninini]

Beautiful poetry ♥

[@jaimecazares2499]

ADA LIMON TE FELICITO ME CIENTO ORGUYOSAMENTE DE QUE UNA MUJER CON RAICES MEXICANA SALGA A RELUCIR EN LAS REDES SOCIALES TE FELICITO UNA VEZ MAS DIOS TE BENDIGA EN EL NOMBRE DE JESUS BENDICIONES