This past June, Ada Limón became the first Latina to become poet laureate of the United States. Speaking to The New York Times about her new role, she said that poetry “has the possibility to show us rage, to connect with our fear, to celebrate joy, to make room for the whole spectrum of human emotions. Great poetry is the place where we come to get the strength to heal, to become whole again and to then recommit to the world.”

Today on the blog, we are celebrating great poetry from Limón and other Hispanic/Latinx poets in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Click on the link below each excerpt for the full poem. We hope you enjoy, and let us know your favorite poem on Facebook or Twitter!

"I like the lady horses best,/ how they make it all look easy,/ like running 40 miles per hour/ is as fun as taking a nap, or grass." From "How to Triumph Like a Girl" by Ada Limón.

"Hold me in your hands/ remove my skin/ peel away my color/ find that I am tender/ soft and sweet." From "Un Mango Grows in Kansas" by Huascar Medina.

"she is only fluent in one language of gestures/ i do not explain i feel sad for her/ limited understanding of greetings & maybe/ this is why my acknowledgements are so long;" from "Ode to the Head Nod" by Elizabeth Acevedo.

"A George Washington quarter was a cuarta. Two cuartas bought us una soda from a vending machine. We asked abuelito for a cuarta to play the video game console. No, he said, una peseta." From "Spanglish As Experienced by a Native Speaker" by John Olivares Espinoza.

"It was dusk for kilometers and bats in the lavender sky,/ like spiders when a fly is caught, began to appear./ And there, not the promised land, but barbwire and barbwire/ with nothing growing under it." From "Saguaros" by Javier Zamora.