Book Review: The Hurting Kind

 

The Hurting Kind is Ada Limón's latest collection of poetry and to say it's timely would almost be a cliché at this point.

In the poem, "Not the Saddest Thing in the World", she writes

"Once it has been witnessed/and buried, I go about my day, which isn't/ordinary, exactly, because nothing is ordinary/now even when it is ordinary. Now something's/breaking always on the skyline"

The pandemic that is still gripping most of the world runs as an undercurrent throughout nearly every poem in the book. As does war and pain. It's a weary, a knowing weary, collection of poems. But there is hope in the weariness. In another poem: 

"I trust the world to come back./Return like a word, long forgotten and maligned"

The title poem, which is six parts, hits like a well timed shock to the system. The book builds to it and the line "I am the hurting kind. I keep searching for proof" is so beautifully put.

A worthy and deserved addition to anyone's bookshelves and an even more amazing book from the author!