"The Leash" by Ada Limón is a free-verse poem discussing how to resist despair, through the scene of the speaker walking her dog. The poem consists of one long stanza of thirty-three lines, with no consistent form of rhyme or meter. Limón blends dark images including gun violence and environmental crisis with saving her dog from running into the street, including direct appeals to the "Reader" to stay alive.
Limón wrote this poem for the Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day series, where it was published on New Year's Day 2016. It was later included in her acclaimed fifth book The Carrying (2018). The Pushcart Prizes: Best of the Small Presses, one of the highest honors a single poem can win, was awarded to Limón for "The Leash" in 2018.
Ada Limón grew up in California. She is of Mexican-American descent, and lives in Lexington, Kentucky as a full-time poet. In 2022 she became the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States.
