Point of View

In general, a poem’s speaker should not automatically be equated with the poet. However, the epistolary context of “Sometimes I Think My Body Leaves a Shape in the Air” suggests that the first-person speaker closely represents Limón herself at a specific time and place in her life. She addresses fellow poet Natalie Diaz in the second person. In addition, Limón widens the poetic scope to include references to the magician Harry Houdini and the poet Robert Creeley. In this way, the speaker engages in conversation with others as she considers the corporeal limits of her own existence. The relationship between tangible realities and intangible possibilities largely guides the questions posed in the poem.

The speaker vividly evokes physical experiences before engaging in metaphysical reasoning. For example, she states, “My hands were slick with the water I was born next to, / And there...