Available for the first time in paperback， The Carrying--winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award--is Ada Lim�n's most powerful collection yet。

Vulnerable， tender， acute， these are serious poems， brave poems， exploring with honesty the ambiguous moment between the rapture of youth and the grace of acceptance。 A daughter tends to aging parents。 A woman struggles with infertility--"What if， instead of carrying / a child， I am supposed to carry grief？"--and a body seized by pain and vertigo as well as ecstasy。 A nation convulses: "Every song of this country / has an unsung third stanza， something brutal。" And still Lim�n shows us， as ever， the persistence of hunger， love， and joy， the dizzying fullness of our too-short lives。 "Fine then， / I'll take it，" she writes。 "I'll take it all。"

In Bright Dead Things， Lim�n showed us a heart "giant with power， heavy with blood"--"the huge beating genius machine / that thinks， no， it knows， / it's going to come in first。" In her follow-up collection， that heart is on full display--even as The Carrying continues further and deeper into the bloodstream， following the hard-won truth of what it means to live in an imperfect world。