WEBVTT

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Thank you to Lola Rainey for
taking the time and energy

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to educate us.

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And please visit her
table on the way out.

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''The Heart Wants Her Horses
Back'' is the last line

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of the first poem I ever
read by Ada Limon called

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''Downhearted''.

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I'm like, Ada, I don't have
much experience with horses

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but the line felt like the
truest expression of what

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I was feeling at the time.

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Terrible aching for
the will to run free.

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She really knows
how to end a poem.

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She also has an incredible grasp
on craft throughout her poems

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that astounds me every time
I pick up one of her books.

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''Downhearted'' definitely winds
through the images of lifetime

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movies, a heart literally laying
on the floor and horses set

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ablaze.

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And the line breaks
are breathtaking.

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I return to Ada
Limon's books so often

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to write poems and
cards to my partner.

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To connect to loved ones and
to find myself when I'm lost.

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This is her poetic magic power.

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I can give her poems
to anyone I know,

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those who love and read
poetry, and those who don't.

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And they will feel something and
find something to latch on to.

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That's why I'm so thrilled that
we're welcoming her back here

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to the Poetry Center for
the Art for Justice Project.

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Over the past year
and a half, we've

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been lucky to hear
poets speaking

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to the issues of mass
incarceration in the United

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States.

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And if our goal
is to use language

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to illuminate these issues and
create emotional resonances

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to carry with us
and enact change,

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it makes all the sense
in the world to me

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that Ada Limon's poetry
can be part of that effort.

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I can't wait to hear
her new work tonight.

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Ada Limon is the author
of five books of poetry,

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including The Carrying, which
won the National Book Critics

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Circle Award for
Poetry and was named

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one of the top five
poetry books of the year

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by the Washington Post.

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Her fourth book,
Bright Dead Things,

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was named a finalist for
the National Book Award,

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a finalist for the
Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award

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and a finalist for the National
Book Critics Circle Award.

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She serves on the faculty of
Queens University of Charlotte

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low residency MFA program
and the online and summer

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programs for the Provincetown
Fine Arts Work Center.

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She also works as a freelance
writer in Lexington, Kentucky.

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Please welcome her.

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[APPLAUSE]

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