WKU News

On February 27^th, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón came to WKU on behalf of the PCAL Cultural Enhancement Series to do a reading of her poetry. She read 10 poems from her books The Carrying and The Hurting Kind. Following the reading, she conducted a Q&A with the audience, and then she held a meet-and-greet and book signing in the Academic Commons.

Earlier on the day of her visit, Limón led a poetry workshop in Cherry Hall in which she explored the process behind her own poetry. As part of the workshop, she gave a prompt and then worked through it with the class. When it came to advice, Limón stressed the importance of letting the poetry speak for itself. And when something is too heavy, to still write the poem, just keep it close until the time feels right to let it out for others to read.

“Poems are a mystery. They are a mystery even to those who are writing them,” said Limón.

When asked about where she gets her inspiration, Limón claimed sound as one of her biggest muses. At her reading, Limón read her poem “Dead Stars,” which she explained began with the sound of hearing everyone in the neighborhood rolling their trash out at the same time, a sound “like thunder.”

“Something they don’t tell you when you become a poet is that you have a favorite sound. You’ll have favorite words, but they are made up of your favorite sounds,” said Limón.

Limón told the audience how she loves to write outdoors when the natural world surrounds her and grounds her. She specifically enjoys writing in her own backyard, even as that environment has changed. Originally from California, Limón moved to Lexington, Kentucky around a decade ago and has fallen in love with the atmosphere, saying she feels “lucky” to be able to write in Kentucky. The flora and fauna of the area are a big inspiration for both her poems and her position as Poet Laureate.

“One of the things I wanted to bring to this position was to represent Kentucky in the best light and best way I know possible,” said Limón.

She does just that in her work. Before reading her poem “What I Didn’t Know Before” she mentioned how interviewers will often ask her about the repeated use of horses as a metaphor in her poems. Her response is that there is no metaphor, the horse is exactly what it said, a horse, and there is beauty in that. She said she often goes back to the land when she has trouble loving a place, saying she can always love the land.

As the reading came to an end, Limón left audience members with a simple reminder: “All poetry is supposed to do is remind us that we feel. That’s it. It doesn’t have to have a mission.”