QUOTES

 Instead of my standard "QUOTES" feature, today I'm going to quote someone and something special.  This Fall, Ada Limón will be named the United States 'Poet Laureate'.  She will be appointed by the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden.  I'm guessing you heard of neither of these ladies.  The Poet Laureate is a one-year appointment paying $35,000 plus $5,000 travel expenses.  No one said you could get rich writing poetry (until after you die).  Miss Limón is 46 years old and lives in Louisville, Ky.  She will be the 24th person to hold that position.  She has published at least four books of poems.  I've selected one at random to give you a taste of her work.  Go out and buy one of her books so I don't get charged with using her work without permission.  Notice that this may not be the type of poetry to which you are accustomed (I assume most of my readers have not gotten beyond the "Rose are Red" level). Check out the use of words and the morality that shocks you in the end.

The Year of the Goldfinches

There were two that hung and hovered

by the mud puddle and the musk thistle.

Flitting from one splintered fence post

to another, bathing in the rainwater's glint

like it was a mirror to some other universe

where things were more acceptable, easier

than the place I lived.  I'd watch for them:

the bright peacocking male, the low-watt

female, on each morning walk, days spent

digging for some sort of elusive answer

to the question my curving figure made.

Later, I learned that they were a symbol

of resurrection.  Of course they were,

my two yellow-winged twins feasting

on thorns and liking it.

Ada Limón