Ada Limón Poems

Ada Limón is the author of five books of poetry and is a current Guggenheim Fellow. Her collection The Carrying won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, and her fourth book, published in 2015, Bright Dead Things, was a finalist for the National Book Award. She has won numerous other awards, and her work has appeared in publications like the New Yorker, Harvard Review, and others. She currently works at the Queen’s University of Charlotte Low Residency MFA program.

A New National Anthem

by Ada Limón

‘A New National Anthem’ is a prose poem expressing disapproval of the National Anthem, especially the part that was conspicuously removed.

Ada Limón is an American poet best known for her honest observations of life and its events. Her classic, ‘A New National Anthem,’ is a testimony to that. Her focusing on and drawing attention to the controversial third verse that was removed through her poem is commendable. The poem is nothing short of what is typically expected of her.

The truth is, I’ve never cared for the National

Anthem. If you think about it, it’s not a good song.

Wife

by Ada Limón

‘Wife’ by Ada Limón investigates how women are portrayed within their marriages and challenges the patriarchal mindset that women have to be submissive to their husbands.

I’m not yet comfortable with the word,

its short clean woosh that sounds like

life. At dinner last night my single girls

said in admonition, “It’s not wife-approved”

about a friend’s upcoming trip.

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