The Library of Congress has named Ada Limón as the 24th national poet laureate. She’s the first woman of Latino heritage to serve in the role.
I would much rather have seen Lorna Dee Cervantes chosen for this public role, but these discussions are not something I am permitted to contribute to, other than in the commentary of this blog. For those who are unfamiliar with Cervantes’s writing, I would recommend taking a look at it within the context of Steve Axelrod’s excellent anthology of poetry, “POSTMODERNISMS,” from Rutgers University Press. It’s only within such a comprehensive overview that one can truly begin to appreciate the distinctive accomplishment of Cervantes and how her work refuses to accommodate itself to narratives of unforgivable trauma. Instead, she reinforces the depths of the inflicted wounds of genocide and neocolonialism. Over twenty years older than Limón, Cervantes has more than earned the honor of being our nation’s next poet laureate. I would point out that she is also capable of bringing together factions of poetry that are not always seen as sharing much common ground: https://lithub.com/lorna-dee-cervantes-on-allen-ginsberg-and-the-interplay-between-beat-and-chicano-poetry/
For additional context for Cervantes’s work, consider an anthology that came out in 1993, when Limón was still a teenager. How would Limón’s work hold up if it were retrospectively inserted into the following line-up in the revised version of NO MORE MASKS, edited by Florence Howe?
Pt. 3. Loving in the War Years / Cherrie Moraga / Lorna Dee Cervantes, 1940-. Beneath the Shadow of the Freeway 1981. Poem for the Young White Man Who Asked Me How I, an Intelligent, Well-Read Person Could Believe in the War between Races 1981 / Judy Grahn, 1940-. Ella, in a Square Apron, along Highway 80, from The Common Woman 1970. My Name is Judith 1978. Hannah, from Helen You Always Were/The Factory 1982 / Toi Derricotte, 1941-. The Feeding 1978. On the Turning Up of Unidentified Black Female Corpses 1989. Poem for My Father 1989 / Irena Klepfisz, 1941-. About My Father 1975. Perspectives on the Second World War 1975. Der mames shabosim/My Mother’s Sabbath Days 1990 / Robin Morgan, 1941-. The Invisible Woman 1970. Heirloom 1982. Damn You, Lady 1988 / Alta, 1942-. Bitter Herbs, 1969. Euch, Are You Having Your Period? 1970. First Pregnancy 1970. Penus Envy 1970. Euridice 1975. from Theme & Variations 1980 / Marilyn Hacker, 1942-. The Muses 1968. Sonnet for Iva 1976; 1980. Mother II 1985. Ballad of Ladies Lost and Found 1985. Nearly a Valediction 1990 / Janice Mirikitani, 1942-. Soul Food 1987. Breaking Tradition 1987 / Sharon Olds, 1942-. Solitary 1980. That Year 1980. The Language of the Brag 1980. Pajamas 1984. What If God 1988; 1992. The Girl 1988. First Sex 1988 / Carolyn M. Rodgers, 1942-. U Name This One 1969. Some Me of Beauty 1976. Feminism 1978 / Tess Gallagher, 1943-. Instructions to the Double 1976. On Your Own 1978. Spacious Encounter 1992. I Stop Writing the Poem 1992 / Nikki Giovanni, 1943-. Seduction 1968. Adulthood 1968. Legacies 1973
In looking at this list, I can see more than one other name that would have truly excited me to see as the recipient of this honor: Judy Grahn. Dream on, Bill. Dream on. And Ellen Bass would make a great poet laureate, too!
***********
As for the Axelrod, et al., anthology, here is some background information:
The New Anthology of American Poetry: Postmodernisms 1950-Present (Volume 3)
ISBN-10 : 0813551560
ISBN-13 : 978-0813551562
“Steven Gould Axelrod, Camille Roman, and Thomas Travisano continue the standard of excellence set in Volumes I and II of this extraordinary anthology. Volume III provides the most compelling and wide-ranging selection available of American poetry from 1950 to the present.”
Review
“A Choice magazine ‘outstanding title,’ featuring over 1800 poems, along with introductions and notes, this three-volume set offers the most compelling and wide-ranging selection from the nation’s beginnings to the present day; also available in individual volumes.” ― LitHub
About the Editors:
STEVEN GOULD AXELROD is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California, Riverside. He is the author of Robert Lowell: Life and Art and Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure of Words and coeditor of Robert Lowell: New Essays on the Poetry.
CAMILLE ROMAN is a visiting scholar at Brown University and Emeritus Professor at Washington State University, Pullman. She is the author of Elizabeth Bishop’s World War II-Cold War View and coeditor of The Women & Language Debate: A Sourcebook and a music book series.
THOMAS TRAVISANO is a Professor of English at Hartwick College. He is the author of Elizabeth Bishop: Her Artistic Development and Midcentury Quartet: Bishop, Lowell, Jarrell, Berryman and the Making of a Postmodern Aesthetic. He is the principal editor of Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence of Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell.
About Bill Mohr