Instructions on Not Giving Up

Limón (b. 1976) is a Contemporary poet; Contemporary poetry, a very loose categorization, generally includes poetry written since the early- to mid-20th century (some scholars see the span of Contemporary poetry as beginning from the Second World War). It therefore largely bears features that carry over from the preceding, Modernist literary period. These features principally include a free-verse style (meaning irregular meter and rhyme), but the poetry also tends to feature realistic settings.

Limón writes in free verse and embraces both the natural and urban, the lyric and the narrative, the short, small poem and those of long lines and literary allusions. She does not seem to ever be married to one form and opposes easy classification. She does continually employ detailed, vivid imagery in each poem and is most often autobiographical in stance. In several poems throughout her seven collections, she admires and explores the binary nature of the human experience. The title of her fifth collection, Bright Dead Things, reflects her poetry’s characteristic duality. Limón studied with two great American poets, Sharon Olds and Philip Levine, while she was at New York University as a graduate student, calling them her “mami and my papi” (See: Further Reading & Resources). In this same interview, she also told Suzannah Windsor about these poets’ contrasting natures, perhaps setting up her own artistic responses. Levine was “hard and tough and incredibly good at making [Limón] work hard,” while Olds was “kind and caring and supportive and yet, without me even realizing it, she helped me with my endings like no one else.” Olds is known for her autobiographical rawness, which is also evident in Limón’s work, while Levine’s mastery of narrative poetry is echoed by Limón’s careful dedication to characterization and setting. Limón is often grouped with her friend Natalie Diaz but also bears comparison to other Contemporary poets, like Ross Gay and Aimee Nezhukumatathil, who use nature to delineate emotion.