Thank you to Lola Rainey for taking the time and energy
to educate us.
And please visit her table on the way out.
''The Heart Wants Her Horses Back'' is the last line
of the first poem I ever read by Ada Limon called
''Downhearted''.
I'm like, Ada, I don't have much experience with horses
but the line felt like the truest expression of what
I was feeling at the time.
Terrible aching for the will to run free.
She really knows how to end a poem.
She also has an incredible grasp on craft throughout her poems
that astounds me every time I pick up one of her books.
''Downhearted'' definitely winds through the images of lifetime
movies, a heart literally laying on the floor and horses set
ablaze.
And the line breaks are breathtaking.
I return to Ada Limon's books so often
to write poems and cards to my partner.
To connect to loved ones and to find myself when I'm lost.
This is her poetic magic power.
I can give her poems to anyone I know,
those who love and read poetry, and those who don't.
And they will feel something and find something to latch on to.
That's why I'm so thrilled that we're welcoming her back here
to the Poetry Center for the Art for Justice Project.
Over the past year and a half, we've
been lucky to hear poets speaking
to the issues of mass incarceration in the United
States.
And if our goal is to use language
to illuminate these issues and create emotional resonances
to carry with us and enact change,
it makes all the sense in the world to me
that Ada Limon's poetry can be part of that effort.
I can't wait to hear her new work tonight.
Ada Limon is the author of five books of poetry,
including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics
Circle Award for Poetry and was named
one of the top five poetry books of the year
by the Washington Post.
Her fourth book, Bright Dead Things,
was named a finalist for the National Book Award,
a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award
and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
She serves on the faculty of Queens University of Charlotte
low residency MFA program and the online and summer
programs for the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center.
She also works as a freelance writer in Lexington, Kentucky.
Please welcome her.
[APPLAUSE]