At the close of her term as the 24th U.S. Poet Laureate, Ada Limón (The Hurting Kind; You Are Here) delivered a final lecture at the Library of Congress on April 17, 2025. Published in book form (and dedicated to former Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, "who is the best of us"), Against Breaking: On the Power of Poetry is an invocation and invitation. Limón calls on poets such as Lucille Clifton and Mary Oliver and William Butler Yeats as she attempts to "do at least one thing: make a case for poetry." Though the book is slight, the effort is weighty, and Limón does well more than just one thing.
Time and again, Limón asks questions of herself and of humanity such as, "Aren't we all walking around with some unsaid pain, or some uncelebrated wonder?" She argues that "poetry is powerful in part because it exists in the questions and holds no answers. It's the opposite of a polemic, or a prescription; instead, it's an interrogation of the world and one's place within it." Trusting that power, she notes the necessity of poetry: "We need a secular sacred language, something that is galvanizing without certainty," and "if you need to be reminded of what makes us human, tender, brave, flawed, and worthy of love, then you need poetry." To be read in the sunshine of a single afternoon and again whenever that reminder is needed, Against Breaking is an argument in favor of the good and beautiful found in poetry. --Sara Beth West, freelance reviewer and librarian