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Lucky Wreck
The poems in Lucky Wreck trace the excitement of plans and the necessary swerving detours we must take when those plans fail. Looking to shipwrecks on the television, road trips ending in traffic accidents, and homes that become sites of infestation, Ada Limón finds threads of hope amid an array of small tragedies and significant setbacks. Open, honest, and grounded, the poems in this collection seek answers to familiar questions and teach us ways to cope with the pain of many losses with earnestness and humor. Through the wrecks, these poems continue to offer assurance.
Celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of Limón’s award-winning debut, this edition includes a new introduction by the poet that reflects on the book and on how her writing practice has developed over time.
Celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of Limón’s award-winning debut, this edition includes a new introduction by the poet that reflects on the book and on how her writing practice has developed over time.
88 pages, Paperback
First published January 10, 2006
53 people are currently reading
1641 people want to read
About the author
Ada Limon
34 books2,205 followersAda Limón is the author of three books of poetry, Lucky Wreck, This Big Fake World, and Sharks in the Rivers. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from New York University. Limón has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, and was one of the judges for the 2013 National Book Award in Poetry. She works as a creative writing instructor and a freelance writer while splitting her time between Lexington, Kentucky and Sonoma, California (with a great deal of New York in between). Her new book of poems, Bright Dead Things is forthcoming from Milkweed Editions in 2015.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 146 reviews
October 18, 2021
Her first book, not as many home runs as her others, but there were enough wonderful ones (I marked eight) that it still gets five stars. One of my favorite poets.
January 27, 2023
to stare at the tree’s dark bark, to know that in order to go on,
we must accept the cage we are given
that some day we will be released,
into the unimaginable
and until then, praise the walls
and all the parts of us they manage to hold so dearly.
we must accept the cage we are given
that some day we will be released,
into the unimaginable
and until then, praise the walls
and all the parts of us they manage to hold so dearly.
Read
July 11, 2025As a publisher, what do you do when you own rights to the Poet Laureate of the DSA's first collection? Re-issue it, of course! Which is fine by me because I like Ada and first collections of now-famous poets fascinate me for the obvious reasons:
1. This is the less well-known of a famous after.
2. This has to show chinks in the armor, which can be reassuring to other poets.
3. This can be compared to more contemporary works.
4. This won a contest, so one can say, "Am I wasting $30 every time I enter a &*#@*%* contest?"
5. This is bound to be more "approachable" than poems by the author now appearing in all the august poetry-publishing magazines (the ones who reject your own work after reading first lines only).
Early Ada didn't disappoint. Her work is NOT as good as more recent collections. That said, her MOST recent work is also showing signs of sub-standard ability. This is the dreaded Matterhorn of fame. You get good and summit the mountain. You start to coast on your name and get work accepted that otherwise would have been mercifully rejected. You have to live with it.
In the Acks, Ada rightly thanks the editor at Autumn House who, 15 years ago, took a chance on her by choosing the book as contest winner. Yes, you have to be good to win a contest, but fate and taste play huge roles. The right person in the right editor's chair is EVERYthing. This woman, "the dear departed Jean Valentine," as Ada calls her, loved Ada's voice. It is quirkier than famous Ada's, for sure. Younger. Sillier. More playful. There are even eye-roller puns here and there (a negative for most readers, a positive for me).
There's a nice mix of very short and very long poems, showing early versatility and fortitude, even if they're not always the best stuff you've ever read. I appreciate this especially, having written few poems that advance beyond the safe confines of a single book page myself. Here's a shorty:
The Different Distance
There is little I can say about this distance
except that it is something I do not own.
My distance is pinker and sleeps on the floor
next to the breathing sheets. My distance is not a distance
at all but a closeness so close to close it's closer
to fear than flying.
I like the bit about distance being "pinker" and sleeping on the floor, but the all-important last line is kinda lame in an Erica Jong kind of way.
And so it goes (and went), but still. Edifying. And, to me, worthwhile.
1. This is the less well-known of a famous after.
2. This has to show chinks in the armor, which can be reassuring to other poets.
3. This can be compared to more contemporary works.
4. This won a contest, so one can say, "Am I wasting $30 every time I enter a &*#@*%* contest?"
5. This is bound to be more "approachable" than poems by the author now appearing in all the august poetry-publishing magazines (the ones who reject your own work after reading first lines only).
Early Ada didn't disappoint. Her work is NOT as good as more recent collections. That said, her MOST recent work is also showing signs of sub-standard ability. This is the dreaded Matterhorn of fame. You get good and summit the mountain. You start to coast on your name and get work accepted that otherwise would have been mercifully rejected. You have to live with it.
In the Acks, Ada rightly thanks the editor at Autumn House who, 15 years ago, took a chance on her by choosing the book as contest winner. Yes, you have to be good to win a contest, but fate and taste play huge roles. The right person in the right editor's chair is EVERYthing. This woman, "the dear departed Jean Valentine," as Ada calls her, loved Ada's voice. It is quirkier than famous Ada's, for sure. Younger. Sillier. More playful. There are even eye-roller puns here and there (a negative for most readers, a positive for me).
There's a nice mix of very short and very long poems, showing early versatility and fortitude, even if they're not always the best stuff you've ever read. I appreciate this especially, having written few poems that advance beyond the safe confines of a single book page myself. Here's a shorty:
The Different Distance
There is little I can say about this distance
except that it is something I do not own.
My distance is pinker and sleeps on the floor
next to the breathing sheets. My distance is not a distance
at all but a closeness so close to close it's closer
to fear than flying.
I like the bit about distance being "pinker" and sleeping on the floor, but the all-important last line is kinda lame in an Erica Jong kind of way.
And so it goes (and went), but still. Edifying. And, to me, worthwhile.
January 13, 2019
... She wants to go on
being an animal, not something that represents
something else, but the original object, the
thing before it is named, the fish before she
knew it was a fish, when it was just another
lost thing, individual and shadowy, working
its way toward its own end.
being an animal, not something that represents
something else, but the original object, the
thing before it is named, the fish before she
knew it was a fish, when it was just another
lost thing, individual and shadowy, working
its way toward its own end.
June 11, 2025
Ada Limon is my favorite poet, she's everything to me! So good to finally read the only collection of hers I haven't gotten to yet; not my very favorite but so many lines in here that really show what she's capable of. Some really wonderful poems in here. Poet Laureate of my heart forever.
June 11, 2023
"I get attached to rocks"
February 22, 2021
I love Ada Limon's poetry, and this collection, a newer collection than the one I own is absolutely amazing. Her poetry inspires me to write and experiment. Her images are surprising, her language stuns me. Sometimes I can't believe she finds ways to connect such seemingly disconnected ideas or images. I'll copy a poem to help me remember. I may need to own my own copy of this book.
13
This morning when I opened the screed door,
the cats were standing on a wooden ladder next to the house,
one for each rung,
at first glance they were after nothing, scrambling for oblivion,
until I saw the bee, lazing its circles about them near the roof.
When the door slammed, the turned as if to say,
"This is why we've come here, for this moment,
to chase anything that might get away."
As if we were put here to remember our own ending,
to wander out into the streets,
(their own brutal oblivion)
to stare at the tree's dark bark, to know that in order to go on,
we must accept the cage we are given
that someday we will be released,
into the unimaginable
and until then, praise the walls
and all the parts of us they manage to hold so dearly.
13
This morning when I opened the screed door,
the cats were standing on a wooden ladder next to the house,
one for each rung,
at first glance they were after nothing, scrambling for oblivion,
until I saw the bee, lazing its circles about them near the roof.
When the door slammed, the turned as if to say,
"This is why we've come here, for this moment,
to chase anything that might get away."
As if we were put here to remember our own ending,
to wander out into the streets,
(their own brutal oblivion)
to stare at the tree's dark bark, to know that in order to go on,
we must accept the cage we are given
that someday we will be released,
into the unimaginable
and until then, praise the walls
and all the parts of us they manage to hold so dearly.
September 27, 2022
Lucky Wreck: Poems was moving and accessible. The poems cover both mundane and abstract concepts deftly -- weaving the two together in a way that felt akin to how I experience these things in my own life.
"I thought, how the human body is asked to / cage things as large as the ocean, / fantastic and moving but also / those dark things too." from 'Thirteen Feral Cats'
August 6, 2022
I usually enjoy having a poem or two really jump out at me, but I did not encounter that here. The longer poems seem to need editing. I found them meandering and I lost track as to what was to be illuminated. The short ones, which are mostly observations, actually demonstrate her poetic strengths and are more enjoyable.
February 15, 2025
Though lacking the polish and finesse of her later works, this collection is beautiful. Limón's remarkable perspective, her inimitable voice, shine through even some of the rougher constructions. (I hesitate to say any of her work is "rough"—it's only made to look so when juxtaposed with the total perfection so typical of her current poems.)
Her words reverberate; if you close your eyes and repeat them, you feel them ripple out from your lips, their power immediate and palpable. I'm in awe.
Her words reverberate; if you close your eyes and repeat them, you feel them ripple out from your lips, their power immediate and palpable. I'm in awe.
October 19, 2022
Despite being in a reading slump when I picked up this book, I found that I carried it with me everywhere. I've quickly become a fan of Ada Limon, and in a lot of ways this is the poetry that resonates with me on a different level. The prose is beautiful and it's one of the first times that I find myself really taking my time with a collection of poetry and sitting with the individual poems.
January 19, 2019
“And it’s okay that you weren’t here to see it, I’m going to tell you // all about it. Even if you never ask, I will.”
June 25, 2021
Holding on hope, fumbling in the world of adulthood, making meaning out of loneliness (and death), and grappling with the cold and esoteric condition of loneliness. This is brilliant.
March 8, 2023
oh ada we're really in it now
March 1, 2025
checks out that she's the poet laureate
I totally get her desire to disappear
I totally get her desire to disappear
August 10, 2022
she is convinced that she can talk
to god and she asks him a question.
she does not get an answer, so
she makes one up.
-
she decides god is no good, but he must exist,
he must exist so she can hold him accountable.
(the echo sounder)
to manage to miss things is an improbable act, to refer to people
as things proves that i miss more of myself than others.
(farmer's almanac)
right now even my dog is dying,
yesterday when someone was petting him,
he collapsed as if the weight of the hand was too much,
as if being touched, even in love, was unbearable.
(the unbearable)
but we could drown in a glass of water, you and i,
lying in this knee-deep pool of self-pity
with no intention of getting out or getting dry.
(the spider web)
is it bad to want to commit
because one is so tired?
(little commitment)
what does it mean to be your own new world?
i can barely stand
alone in the shower sometimes.
-
i want many hands, hands that have come and gone,
hands that no longer exist except in cutting short a life line.
i would like to say i just want one hand—to name it my own.
-
but the moon cannot
be replaced by a bruisable thing.
and i’m told, some spaces cannot be filled
but only altered or cut away.
(thirteen feral cats)
to god and she asks him a question.
she does not get an answer, so
she makes one up.
-
she decides god is no good, but he must exist,
he must exist so she can hold him accountable.
(the echo sounder)
to manage to miss things is an improbable act, to refer to people
as things proves that i miss more of myself than others.
(farmer's almanac)
right now even my dog is dying,
yesterday when someone was petting him,
he collapsed as if the weight of the hand was too much,
as if being touched, even in love, was unbearable.
(the unbearable)
but we could drown in a glass of water, you and i,
lying in this knee-deep pool of self-pity
with no intention of getting out or getting dry.
(the spider web)
is it bad to want to commit
because one is so tired?
(little commitment)
what does it mean to be your own new world?
i can barely stand
alone in the shower sometimes.
-
i want many hands, hands that have come and gone,
hands that no longer exist except in cutting short a life line.
i would like to say i just want one hand—to name it my own.
-
but the moon cannot
be replaced by a bruisable thing.
and i’m told, some spaces cannot be filled
but only altered or cut away.
(thirteen feral cats)
December 6, 2022
wanna keep coming back to this one.
some of my favorite excerpts:
“this darkness is not the scary one, it’s the one before the sun comes up, the one you can still breathe in.”
“she decided god is no good, but he must exist, he must exist so she can hold him accountable.”
“Little Commitment
is it bad to want to commit because one is so tired? the child so overwhelmed that when the bell rings she stays in from recess, just to be very quiet and draw a clown on her desk.”
“it happens quietly, not often, but in certain clearer nights, two boats coming up over the waves:
look, we say, our arms waving at one about, we’re alive, look at our dumb luck!”
some of my favorite excerpts:
“this darkness is not the scary one, it’s the one before the sun comes up, the one you can still breathe in.”
“she decided god is no good, but he must exist, he must exist so she can hold him accountable.”
“Little Commitment
is it bad to want to commit because one is so tired? the child so overwhelmed that when the bell rings she stays in from recess, just to be very quiet and draw a clown on her desk.”
“it happens quietly, not often, but in certain clearer nights, two boats coming up over the waves:
look, we say, our arms waving at one about, we’re alive, look at our dumb luck!”
December 27, 2022
"if i meet you again, let's make inappropriate sounds all over town and by inappropriate i mean the sounds of our names."
i loved this even more than i expected to !! better than bright dead things and the carrying imo.
and this opening line: "shadows black my moon-white legs" i am ALWAYS itching for a line that reminds me of love set you going like a fat gold watch ... and there one was !! a treat ❤️ thank you ada limon america's beloved poet
i loved this even more than i expected to !! better than bright dead things and the carrying imo.
and this opening line: "shadows black my moon-white legs" i am ALWAYS itching for a line that reminds me of love set you going like a fat gold watch ... and there one was !! a treat ❤️ thank you ada limon america's beloved poet
January 30, 2025
"My fist is like a kiss."
I looove Ada Limón. Lucky Wreck was her first book, and while it's undeniably very good, I don't think it quite reaches the brilliance of her newer stuff. One of my favorite parts was the introduction she added 15 years after the release, it brought tears to my eyes. This collection does a great job at capturing the chaotic nature of life while still holding onto moments of tenderness.
I looove Ada Limón. Lucky Wreck was her first book, and while it's undeniably very good, I don't think it quite reaches the brilliance of her newer stuff. One of my favorite parts was the introduction she added 15 years after the release, it brought tears to my eyes. This collection does a great job at capturing the chaotic nature of life while still holding onto moments of tenderness.
July 2, 2021
El primer poemari d'Ada Limón, en una reedició commemorativa pel 15è aniversari de la seva publicació.
Es nota que és el seu primer poemari, és més irregular. Alguns poemes, els més curts, li falten tot el que ha guanyat amb els anys. Però a mesura que vas entrant vas trobant elements constants de la seva poesia: els records, la naturalesa, la narració... Alguns poemes una meravella.
Es nota que és el seu primer poemari, és més irregular. Alguns poemes, els més curts, li falten tot el que ha guanyat amb els anys. Però a mesura que vas entrant vas trobant elements constants de la seva poesia: els records, la naturalesa, la narració... Alguns poemes una meravella.
June 3, 2024
3.5
MY LAST ADA LIMON I BELIEVE 🥲🥲😿 and its her first ever collection !! 😭❤️🩹 thought this was impressively cohesive and just like spiderwebs was vv intricately connected w callbacks n such 33 i know its not objectively as well-crafted as her later works buttt this is still outstanding lol . it also still gives me the same distinct feeling ! love ms limon sm mwah !
MY LAST ADA LIMON I BELIEVE 🥲🥲😿 and its her first ever collection !! 😭❤️🩹 thought this was impressively cohesive and just like spiderwebs was vv intricately connected w callbacks n such 33 i know its not objectively as well-crafted as her later works buttt this is still outstanding lol . it also still gives me the same distinct feeling ! love ms limon sm mwah !
November 5, 2023
Reading this felt like coming home <3 <3 it was endearing to read some of Ada Limón’s older work. I’m working on translating one of her more recent books, and it’s so interesting to be able to see her growth as a poet. I love her dearly.
January 13, 2022
It was fascinating to read the re-issue (with an intro by the author) of this highly acclaimed poet's debut collection.
April 21, 2023
Her way of weaving words is ♥️♥️♥️♥️
July 8, 2023
A book that takes delight in being a hot mess. Pretty unhinged. I loved it.
September 19, 2023
excellent! going to try to read all her collections!! 👼🏻
May 22, 2024
“As if we were put here to remember our own ending,
to wander out into the streets,
(their own brutal oblivion)
to stare at the tree's dark bark, to know that in order to go on,
we must accept the cage we are given
that someday we will be released,
into the unimaginable
and until then, praise the walls
and all the parts of us they manage to hold so dearly.”
to wander out into the streets,
(their own brutal oblivion)
to stare at the tree's dark bark, to know that in order to go on,
we must accept the cage we are given
that someday we will be released,
into the unimaginable
and until then, praise the walls
and all the parts of us they manage to hold so dearly.”
Read
November 15, 2024"and its okay that you weren't here to see it, im going to tell you / all about it. even if you never ask, i will"
November 16, 2024
i’m very unsettled on this book. i think it just doesn’t quite compare with her more recent collections, but that’s a high standard to hold these poems to (especially since she wrote them over a decade ago).
January 1, 2025
I will read anything she writes.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 146 reviews