To become familiar with the work of Ada Limón as a starting point I chose a poem where there was some rapport. Ada Limón created this poem based on personal experience reflecting back later in life.

The Raincoat

When the doctor suggested surgery
and a brace for all my youngest years,
my parents scrambled to take me
to massage therapy, deep tissue work,
osteopathy, and soon my crooked spine 
unspooled a bit, I could breathe again,
and move more in a body unclouded
by pain. My mom would tell me to sing
songs to her the whole forty-five-minute
drive to Middle Two Rock Road and forty-
five minutes back from physical therapy.
She’d say that even my voice sounded unfettered
by my spine afterward. So I sang and sang,
because I thought she liked it. I never
asked her what she gave up to drive me,
or how her day was before this chore. Today,
at her age, I was driving myself home from yet
another spine appointment, singing along
to some maudlin but solid song on the radio,
and I saw a mom take her raincoat off
and give it to her young daughter when
a storm took over the afternoon. My god,
I thought, my whole life I’ve been under her
raincoat thinking it was somehow a marvel
that I never got wet.

Ada Limón (1976 -

Copyright Credit: ALimón, "The Raincoat " from The Carrying.  Copyright © 2018 by Ada Limon.  Reprinted by permission of Milkweed Editions.
Source: The Carrying (Milkweed Editions, 2018)

The title, when a specific object is chosen like the raincoat; this must have significance in relation to the poem. In this poem it was in relation to the way the coat was being used as she watched a mother take care of a child. A moment observed in daily life has prompted thought to a personal connection. And this connection is elaborated in Ada Limón’s reflection on her own childhood with her mother to form the basis of the poem.

The text down to the full stop in line 8 gives details of the corrective course for a crooked spine. A condition known as scoliosis which involved continual travel over her childhood years which gradually eased the pain and assisted breathing.

The next lines to the full stop in line 12 detail the 45 minute travel journey with her mother to attend the medical sessions. Her mother asks her to sing while they travel and she responds. It is not necessary to know that the location is Middle Two Rock Road which happens to be in California but this gives actuality to her own personal life as a child.

In the next sentence her mother declares that her singing is unfettered; independent of her spine condition. AL thought she was doing this purely to satisfy her mother. She never thought of any inquiry to the sacrifice her mother was making all the time in facilitating the journeys. Her mother may very well have suggested the singing to detract from the scoliosis and show what she could achieve independent of her daughter’s chronic medical burden.

Then years later Ada Limón is doing the exact same thing at her Mother’s age; driving back from another medical appointment on her spine. At the same time doing as she did before as a child; singing away. The sight of a mother in the rain who uses her own raincoat to protect her daughter from a storm prompts thoughts on the sacrifice her mother made in taking her to medical sessions. And for the first time she thinks of the cost to her mother in giving her such support. She then extends this lack of recognition to her whole life – my whole life I’ve been under her raincoat giving; for all that her mother has done to support her through the years.

A poem created by giving personal thought on observing the the day-to-day life in the street. It shows how something quite simple can act as a trigger in creating a poem. And as a child we are often quite oblivious to the cost of the support given by parents. Later in life that support is often reciprocated as our parents age. Whether there is a balancing act is another matter.

Ada Limón is the current poet laureate in the United States. Ada Limón details on Wikipedia