{"id":2575,"date":"2023-05-21T10:17:21","date_gmt":"2023-05-21T14:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/poet-laureate-ada-limons-stunning-love-poem-to-life-the-marginalian\/"},"modified":"2023-05-21T10:17:21","modified_gmt":"2023-05-21T14:17:21","slug":"poet-laureate-ada-limons-stunning-love-poem-to-life-the-marginalian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/poet-laureate-ada-limons-stunning-love-poem-to-life-the-marginalian\/","title":{"rendered":"Poet Laureate Ada Lim\u00f3n\u2019s Stunning Love Poem to Life \u2013 The Marginalian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/hop.clickbank.net\/?affiliate=infohatch&amp;vendor=J1R2C\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10614 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png\" alt=\"Profit Gen\" width=\"400\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png 400w, https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px-300x163.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"320\" height=\"495\" class=\"cover with-border alignright size-medium jetpack-lazy-image\" alt=\"Dead Stars: Poet Laureate Ada Lim\u00f3n\u2019s Stunning Love Poem to Life\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/thecarrying_adalimon.jpg?w=825&amp;ssl=1 825w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/thecarrying_adalimon.jpg?resize=320%2C495&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/thecarrying_adalimon.jpg?resize=600%2C927&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/thecarrying_adalimon.jpg?resize=240%2C371&amp;ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/thecarrying_adalimon.jpg?resize=768%2C1187&amp;ssl=1 768w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/thecarrying_adalimon.jpg?fit=320%2C495&amp;ssl=1&amp;is-pending-load=1\"\/><\/p>\n<p>We know that the atoms composing our bodies and our brains <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2023\/03\/14\/the-transcendent-brain-alan-lightman\/\">can be traced back to particular stars<\/a> that died long ago in some faraway corner of the cosmos. We know <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2022\/01\/10\/alan-lightman-death\/\">what will happen to our own atoms when we ourselves die<\/a>. Still, something in us quivers with incomprehension at the notion that every single one of our capacities \u2014 love and mathematics, the bomb and the <em>Benedictus<\/em> \u2014 is the churn of discarded stardust. And yet it is precisely this fact that renders us miraculous \u2014 creatures of matter, capable of seeing beauty, capable of making meaning. This is our inheritance. This is the bright star of resurrection lighting up our exquisite aliveness. <\/p>\n<p>U.S Poet Laureate <strong>Ada Lim\u00f3n<\/strong> channels this cosmic destiny of ours in her splendid poem \u201cDead Stars,\u201d found in her collection <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Carrying-Poems-Ada-Lim\u00f3n\/dp\/1571315136\/?tag=braipick-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>The Carrying<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/worldcat.org\/title\/1020295214\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>public library<\/em><\/a>) and read here by the poet herself during her altogether wonderful <a href=\"https:\/\/literary-arts.org\/archive\/ada-limon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lecture<\/a> at Portland\u2019s <em>Literary Arts<\/em>, to which I have added the requisite benediction of Bach.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"&quot;Dead Stars&quot; by Ada Lim\u00f3n by brainpicker\" width=\"680\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?visual=true&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F1517823748&amp;show_artwork=true&amp;maxheight=1000&amp;maxwidth=680\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>DEAD STARS<\/strong><br \/><em>by Ada Lim\u00f3n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Out here, there\u2019s a bowing even the trees are doing.<br \/>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Winter\u2019s icy hand at the back of all of us.<br \/>Black bark, slick yellow leaves, a kind of stillness that feels<br \/>so mute it\u2019s almost in another year.<\/p>\n<p>I am a hearth of spiders these days: a nest of trying.<\/p>\n<p>We point out the stars that make Orion as we take out<br \/>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the trash, the rolling containers a song of suburban thunder.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s almost romantic as we adjust the waxy blue<br \/>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0recycling bin until you say, <em>Man, we should really learn<br \/>some new constellations.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>And it\u2019s true. We keep forgetting about Antlia, Centaurus,<br \/>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Draco, Lacerta, Hydra, Lyra, Lynx.<\/p>\n<p>But mostly we\u2019re forgetting we\u2019re dead stars too, my mouth is full<br \/>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0of dust and I wish to reclaim the rising \u2014<\/p>\n<p>to lean in the spotlight of streetlight with you, toward<br \/>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0what\u2019s larger within us, toward how we were born.<\/p>\n<p>Look, we are not unspectacular things.<br \/>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We\u2019ve come this far, survived this much. What<\/p>\n<p>would happen if we decided to survive more? To love harder?<\/p>\n<p>What if we stood up with our synapses and flesh and said, <em>No<\/em>.<br \/>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<em>No<\/em>, to the rising tides.<\/p>\n<p>Stood for the many mute mouths of the sea, of the land?<\/p>\n<p>What would happen if we used our bodies to bargain<\/p>\n<p>for the safety of others, for earth,<br \/>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0if we declared a clean night, if we stopped being terrified,<\/p>\n<p>if we launched our demands into the sky, made ourselves so big<br \/>people could point to us with the arrows they make in their minds,<\/p>\n<p>rolling their trash bins out, after all of this is over?\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Complement with the uncommon astronomer-poet Rebecca Elson\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2020\/04\/10\/antidotes-to-fear-of-death-rebecca-elson\/\">\u201cAntidotes to Fear of Death\u201d<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2022\/02\/24\/dark-matter\/\">\u201cLet There Always Be Light (Searching for Dark Matter),\u201d<\/a> then revisit the poetic physicist Brian Greene\u2019s Rilke-lensed reflection on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2020\/12\/25\/brian-greene-rilke\/\">how our creaturely limitations give life meaning<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hop.clickbank.net\/?affiliate=infohatch&amp;vendor=J1R2C\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10614 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png\" alt=\"Profit Gen\" width=\"400\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png 400w, https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px-300x163.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We know that the atoms composing our bodies and our brains can be traced back to particular stars that died long ago in some faraway [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-purpose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}