On July 12th, 2022, Ada Limón became the 24th Poet Laureate of America by the Librarian of Congress. She was the first ever Latina to become Poet Laureate of America. Limón has published several books of poetry, including her first collection Lucky Wreck, which was published in 2005. To celebrate the 15th anniversary of her first full-length poetry book, in 2021 Limón published a new edition of the book Lucky Wreck, with a different introduction that captures her development as a poet over the years. The introduction itself speaks of Limón’s connection with the poems in the book, representing her life and her journey.

As the reader flips the page and start reading the first poem, it’s immediately clear that each word is incredibly personal, and that Límon is offering a glimpse of her innermost thoughts and feelings. That’s how closely Limón’s poetry connects with the reader: a sense of interconnectedness that creates an indelible bond between the poet and her audience. 

In the opening poem, titled “First Lunch with Relative Stranger Mister You,” Limón introduces the section with complex desire. She also starts with the first series of problems and solutions, which is apparent all throughout the book. In this poem, the speaker struggles to express her emotions through words.

Moving deeper into the book, the reader comes across a few longer poems, which are most often divided into numbered sections. These sections describe different perspectives of time in the speaker’s life, whether it’s a time when they were in love or a time when they were grieving.

In the poem “Selecting Things for Vagueness,” there is a contradiction as Limòn writes how she knows some things for certain along with several no-phrases. As the collection moves to the next poem, “The Way Things Have Been Going Lately” there’s a shift in tone as it becomes very conversational, as if we’re getting the inside scoop on Limón’s life.

As part two of the book begins, the poems certainly don’t become any less challenging. As I tried to riddle my way through the poems, though, I realized that perhaps it was meant to be read this way, with confusion of exactly what Limón was aiming her readers to feel. In this section, I did find a poem that I especially liked: “The Unbearable.” The poem itself encapsulates the theme of death, starting with Limón expressing how her grandmother would constantly tell her death stories. However, the last line of the poem is what struck me: “Yesterday when someone was petting him, he collapsed as if the weight of the hand was too much, as if being touched, even in love, was unbearable.”

Límon’s innovation with poetic forms takes center stage in part three of Lucky Wreck, which features a series of sonnets titled “The Spider Web.” This section is where poetic formalism, poetry written in verse, with meter, and rhyme, is most apparent in all of Limón’s book. This sequence of sonnets speaks on addiction, beginning the sonnets with talking about how lonely and drowning addiction is but gradually speaking up to the point of hope.

In part four, the collection ends on a strong note, with the last poem of the book being “Thirteen Feral Cats.” I think there couldn’t have been a more perfect poem to end the book. Throughout Lucky Wreck, Limón speaks on several different topics, conveying a range of emotions and feelings. This last poem felt as if Limón was trying to express that even through a person’s problems, they must withstand the difficulties. She writes in a way that said not everything can be solved in a week, month, year, or even more—no matter the wait, what counts most is staying strong.

All in all, Lucky Wreck was a book of many emotions, feelings, and tones, but underlying in each page was the remembrance of courage. Life can get and will get hard, and Limón’s book reminds us of resilience, to keep going even through tough times.

The reissue of Lucky Wreck can be purchased from Bookshop.org.