Startlement New and selected poems

In a retrospective spanning two decades, former U.S. poet laureate Limón (The Hurting Kind) captures the mind and soul with exquisite linguistic mastery and vision that will compel readers to earmark every other sentence. Limón raises the standards for elegy, needling the heart with surgical, diaphanous, and cathartic reverie. She exemplifies the fortitude and compassion of her grandfather, who "carried that snake to the cactus,/ where all sharp things could stay safe" and delights in the casual morbidity of her grandmother, who tells her "of all the traffic accidents/ as if she was reading a menu to me out loud." The poet harnesses perseverance through perspective ("A friend says the best way to love the world is to think of leaving"), as well as transcendentalism ("She thinks she can almost hear it,/ the snow falling, deliberate proof/ that even the sky wants to return and return/ to this shattering world"). Limón's voice is humble despite its nearly omniscient acuity, weaving her experience into the greater human condition. With its devastating wit, magnetic power, and arresting ingenuity, this volume is one of a kind. (Sept.)

This latest book from U.S. Poet Laureate Limón (The Hurting Kind) presents selections from her previous volumes alongside new poems. It is a well-edited grouping of work that serves as an introduction for those unfamiliar with Limón's writing and, for her fans, an access point for earlier poems from out-of-print books. Limón's poetry often rests on keenly observed elements of nature and the connections between animals, plants, and human thought and behavior. Because the poems span 20 years, it is possible to identify characters and themes that Limón revisits again and again, providing a view of how the poet has wrestled over time with grief, aging, and memory. While many of the poems are intensely personal, focusing on family relationships and inner struggles, Limón's ability to connect the individual to the universal is fully displayed here. The more recent poems show this to impressive effect, particularly the closing poem, 2023's "In Praise of Mystery," which was inscribed on a NASA space probe to be sent to one of Jupiter's moons. VERDICT An essential choice for any collection of modern American poetry, suitable for a broad audience.--Rebecca Brody