In 2022 Ada Limón was appointed as the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate of the United States, by Dr. Carla Hayden of the Library of Congress. In 2025 Limón delivered this moving address at the end of her tenure. Against Breaking is the perfect thing to read (should I call it a book?) if you are wondering what poetry has to do with your life or what value it even holds for society today. People often tell me they don't read much poetry and don't know where or how to start doing so. This would be a perfect place to start because Limón lays out so articulately the power of poetry.
Limón delivered this speech in April of 2025, three weeks later Dr. Hayden was unceremoniously removed from her post at the Library of Congress, evidence of how our nation is changing in dangerous ways. It is heartbreaking what this administration is doing to our Constitution and also to the arts, health sciences, etc. In the conclusion of her forward Limón says she wishes we could have all been together in the big room that April night. And by reading this book, to a degree, we are. "I hope you feel invited in the room, the large room we all must create together, the room where we all must work hard to save what matters."
Just imagine for a moment life without the arts. That is certainly something we must all fight against. Limón began her speech with this, "When clarity is hard to come by, when language morphed into a tool for confusion, I put my faith in poetry." She goes on to say that she thinks it is possible poetry saves lives. In her role as the Poet Laureate she encountered many people hungry for poetry, language, and connection and many others who experience poetry as a lifeline. She gave the example of one grandfather she met who started memorizing poetry after he lost his son to war. He memorized poems so he could keep them in his mind while he waited in lines. It kept his mind busy so it didn't go to all the dark, grieving places. I wish I were better at memorizing poems, even lines from poems, so I would have them at the ready when I need them like Limón does. "When I am stuck in the middle of something difficult, some immovable obstacle in front of me, I conjure up the line from Jean Valentine's poem "Door in the Mountain." I stare out a window, or at the challenge in my mind and say her last lines: "Door in the mountain / let me in."
This, Limón says, is the secret power of poetry: little engines of sound urging us on, telling us we aren't alone. Poetry might even move the collective. "Perhaps, in dire and dangerous times like these, all poetry can do is remind us where courage comes from." Who doesn't need a little nudge to keep going, to to be braver?
This last week, since the midterm elections, many people have shared their joy in the collective moment of beating back to cruelty and oppression wrought on us by this Administration. Many have celebrated by sharing song and lyrics (poems set to music) the memorialize the moment. (Here is an example from the Hamilton song.)
The book is only 56 pages long. It will probably take you less than an hour to read but the impact on you my last a lifetime. Find a copy at your public library. Read it. Thank me later!
"If you need to be reminded of what makes us human, tender, brave, flawed, and worthy of love, then you need poetry!"
