some poetry counterprogramming for u today

A little counterprogramming to all the hot takes, digital media news, and general news cycle: If you’re the type who, after doing one too many tours of duty with Shakespeare-obsessed high school lit teachers, are deeply suspicious about consuming poetry on a casual level, let Ada Limón’s newish book The Carrying be your gateway drug back in.

We first came across her work on the NYC subway (she’s the Eve poem writer!) and then on Twitter via this tweet/poem screenshot, and ever since, we’ve been slowly working our way through her new book slowly and luxuriantly (for more examples, “The Leash” is a great example of her dreamy, run-on style that ends with a perfectly mortal tang).

And for more context, we like this Guernica interview from last summer, where Limón talks about women poets who’ve inspired her, the necessity to “build in my own time” within her busy sched, and her beautiful backyard garden. Basically, we’re saying that you should let it and her poetry in general be the piping hot beef vegetable stew for your psyche today.

Like Deez Links? Forward to more good counterprogramming.