KQED's Forum Poet Ada Limón’s New Collection 'Startlement' Centers Wonder and Connection
Sep 29, 2025
Ada Limón, a renowned poet and former U.S. Poet Laureate, dives deep into her new poetry collection, Startlement. She explores the intricate relationship between nature and humanity, voicing her desire to create a unique connection through art. Limón discusses her process of integrating old poems into a cohesive narrative, her reflections on mortality, and how her Latinx heritage influences her work. She also emphasizes the importance of curiosity amid despair, and the role of poetry in advocating for environmental awareness.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Curating A Single Poetic Arc
- Ada Limón arranged old and new poems to form a single arc that reads like one long poem.
- She wanted the collection to show both artistic change and the maker's life.
Echoes From Early Poems
- In her early poem The Echo Sounder she lists vivid childhood images and animal names as a way to map a self.
- The poem mixes wonder, mortality, and the child's conviction of talking to God.
Mortality As Poetic Thread
- Limón sees a persistent theme: tenderness to the mortal self and language's failure.
- That concern for mortality threads her early work into later poems.
