WEBVTT - Poet Ada Limón’s Instructions on Not Giving Up

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<v Speaker 1>Dear Latino USA listener.

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<v Speaker 1>Let's go to the show.

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<v Speaker 2>Aida Limon is a poet Una Poeta. This spring, she

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<v Speaker 2>ended her tenure as the twenty fourth Poet Laureate of

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<v Speaker 2>the United States, and Aida is the very first Latina

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<v Speaker 2>to ever hold that position. Aida, is it okay if

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<v Speaker 2>I ask you to read some poems as we're going?

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<v Speaker 1>Of course?

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, this is what it comes down to, me on

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<v Speaker 3>a park bench, always writing, This is what it comes

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<v Speaker 3>down to.

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<v Speaker 2>Ada's work has been described as both tender and resounding.

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<v Speaker 2>It rejoices in the simplicity of everyday life.

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<v Speaker 3>I remember the carots. I haven't given up on trying

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<v Speaker 3>to live a good life, a really good one. When

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<v Speaker 3>I was a kid, I was excited about carrots. They're

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<v Speaker 3>spidery neon tops in the Garden's plot, and so I

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<v Speaker 3>rip them all out.

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<v Speaker 2>Ada has been praised for tackling head on the imperfections

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<v Speaker 2>of her body, the frailty of life, and the failings

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<v Speaker 2>of our governments. But even in the darkness, Ada's poetry

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<v Speaker 2>does not linger in despair, and her poems always find

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<v Speaker 2>a way back to nature, to the delightful contradictions of

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<v Speaker 2>being human.

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<v Speaker 3>I'm thirty five, and remember all that I've done wrong.

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<v Speaker 3>Yesterday I was nice, but in truth I resented the

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<v Speaker 3>contentment of the field. Why must we practice this surrender?

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<v Speaker 3>What I mean is there are days I still want

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<v Speaker 3>to kill the carrots because I can.

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<v Speaker 2>Sometimes you just want to take the carrots from futuro media.

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<v Speaker 2>It's Latino Usa. I'm Maria. You know Josa Today Ada Limot.

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<v Speaker 2>She has written seven books of poetry, and the most

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<v Speaker 2>recent one is a collection of new and selected poems

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<v Speaker 2>called Startlement. I sat down with Ada to talk about

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<v Speaker 2>how she deals with grief through her work, what the

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<v Speaker 2>art of noticing our natural surroundings is all about, and

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<v Speaker 2>the importance of never giving up. So, Ada, you are

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<v Speaker 2>the first Latina to be the Poet Laureate of the

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<v Speaker 2>United States. But you know, your background is something that's

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<v Speaker 2>really interesting. So I want to do the quick version.

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<v Speaker 2>You grew up in Sonoma, California. You are the child

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<v Speaker 2>of teachers and painters. Your mom is an artist, actually

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<v Speaker 2>did some of the artwork for your books. Your dad

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<v Speaker 2>is of Mexican descent. So yeah, were you always the

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<v Speaker 2>little girl who was like, okay, just let me be

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<v Speaker 2>on my park bench, I'm taking in the world, or

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<v Speaker 2>were you rangbunctious and then poetry came to you later.

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<v Speaker 3>I think they've always gone hand in hand. I think

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<v Speaker 3>that I am someone that very much thrives in being

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<v Speaker 3>alone and being with my own imagination, my own active imagination.

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<v Speaker 3>And yet at the same time, I think I'm also

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<v Speaker 3>a natural performer and a natural connector. So I feel

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<v Speaker 3>oftentimes after I would write something, whether it was a

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<v Speaker 3>little song or something, I would immediately want to share

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<v Speaker 3>it with my family. So I think it's both, and

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<v Speaker 3>I think I'm still both those things.

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<v Speaker 1>So life as a kid was good.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I mean I think that, like many people, you know,

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<v Speaker 3>a childhood is complex and many layered, but overall, I

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<v Speaker 3>had really a beautiful upbringing with four parents. My parents

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<v Speaker 3>split when I was seven or eight, and then my

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<v Speaker 3>stepdad came into my life, and my stepmom came into

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<v Speaker 3>my life, and both of them were really wonderful people.

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<v Speaker 3>And my stepdad's still with us. My stepmother died in

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<v Speaker 3>twenty ten.

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<v Speaker 2>I want to talk for a moment about some of

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<v Speaker 2>the women in your life, the poems that you wrote

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<v Speaker 2>for them. Your stepmother, as you said, she died of

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<v Speaker 2>colon cancer when you were in your mid thirties. And

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<v Speaker 2>I'm just wondering about this poem Forcythia.

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<v Speaker 3>Hmmm, yeah, yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>Now I am a succulentologist hard.

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<v Speaker 1>I know a lot about succulents.

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<v Speaker 3>I love succulent, but I.

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<v Speaker 2>Don't really know anything about gardening, so can you. So

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<v Speaker 2>Forsythia is the one that blooms yellow.

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<v Speaker 3>It blooms yellow, and it's really the first color of spring,

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<v Speaker 3>so it's going to be when if you're in the

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<v Speaker 3>Northeast especially, it'll be the first bloom you see.

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<v Speaker 2>Why did you write this poem for your stepmother called Forsythia,

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<v Speaker 2>And if you could read some of it for our listeners.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, of course. I remember when I first heard the

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<v Speaker 3>word for Cythia, and that it made me think of

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<v Speaker 3>for Cynthia, my stepmother's name, with Cynthia Forsythia at the

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<v Speaker 3>cabin in Snug hollow near McSwain Branch Creek just spring.

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<v Speaker 3>All the animals are out, and my beloved and I

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<v Speaker 3>are lying in bed in soft silence. We are talking

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<v Speaker 3>about how we carry so many people with us wherever

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<v Speaker 3>we go, how even when simply living, these unearned moments

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<v Speaker 3>are a tribute to the dead. We are both expecting

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<v Speaker 3>to hear an owl as the night deepens. All afternoon,

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<v Speaker 3>from the porch, we watched as an Eastern Tohie furiously

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<v Speaker 3>build her nest in the untamed Forsythia, with its yellow

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<v Speaker 3>spilling out onto the horizon. I told him that the

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<v Speaker 3>way I remember the name for Cythia is that when

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<v Speaker 3>my stepmother Cynthia was dying that last week, she said,

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<v Speaker 3>lucidly but mysteriously, more yellow, and I thought, yes, more yellow,

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<v Speaker 3>and nodded because I agreed, of course, more yellow. And

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<v Speaker 3>so now in my head, when I see that yellow tangle,

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<v Speaker 3>I say, for Cynthia, Parcynthia, Forsythia, Forsythia, more yellow.

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<v Speaker 1>Ada.

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<v Speaker 2>You were the country's twenty fourth poet Laureate, and your

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<v Speaker 2>signature project during your tenure was a program called You

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<v Speaker 2>Are Here Poetry in Parks, and it plays poetry installations

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<v Speaker 2>in seven National parks across the country. I once served

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<v Speaker 2>on the centennial for the National Parks, so I was

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<v Speaker 2>kind of there to say like, I didn't grow up

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<v Speaker 2>going to national parks. I didn't think that that was

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<v Speaker 2>where my family should be. And there's a big effort

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<v Speaker 2>to turn that around. And I'm just wondering if you

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<v Speaker 2>can talk for a moment about very specifically the idea

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<v Speaker 2>that you wanted to have poems in the National parks.

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<v Speaker 3>I love that you brought up. You are here.

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<v Speaker 1>It was on.

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<v Speaker 3>One of the most meaningful experiences of my life working

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<v Speaker 3>with the National Parks, the Library of Congress, and the

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<v Speaker 3>idea was that we put these legacy poems in parks,

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<v Speaker 3>in National parks that covered the seven different regions of

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<v Speaker 3>the parks, and then ideally the project will some day continue.

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<v Speaker 3>And so we had poems on these picnic tables, and

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<v Speaker 3>then there was a prompt that said, what would you

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<v Speaker 3>write to the landscape around you? And so we began

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<v Speaker 3>in Cape Cod. That was our first park, was Cape

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<v Speaker 3>Cod National Seashore, and we put a poem by Mary

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<v Speaker 3>Oliver in there, which felt really important because of course

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<v Speaker 3>Mary Oliver lived in Provincetown in Cape Cod for a

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<v Speaker 3>long time, so it felt important to put a queer

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<v Speaker 3>woman in a very queer town, which was also important

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<v Speaker 3>to the project. And then we continued with Redwood's national

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<v Speaker 3>and state parks with Mount Rainier, with Cuyahoga Valley, Smoky Mountains,

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<v Speaker 3>Everglades and soorrow, and it was just an incredible project

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<v Speaker 3>to put these really beautiful legacy poems in some of

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<v Speaker 3>our most incredible landscapes around the country.

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<v Speaker 2>What is it like to live a poet's life in

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<v Speaker 2>a moment like this? Like what is your emotional state

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<v Speaker 2>as a Latina poet in the year twenty twenty five?

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<v Speaker 3>I think, like most people who have a tenderness to

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<v Speaker 3>the world, a sensitivity to injustice, it feels really like

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<v Speaker 3>a very difficult time to be alive and making art.

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<v Speaker 3>And it also feels like a really important time to

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<v Speaker 3>be alive and making art. As a poet in particular,

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<v Speaker 3>I am doing a lot of protection because I think

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<v Speaker 3>I can be prone to surrendering to weeping, and I

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<v Speaker 3>don't think that that is exactly what I need to

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<v Speaker 3>be doing right now. That's part of it. I think

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<v Speaker 3>grief is part of it, and I think we're entering

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<v Speaker 3>a grief cycle that we've never really quite seen before.

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<v Speaker 3>But I also think that my courage comes from stillness

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<v Speaker 3>and from a place of deep connection to the earth

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<v Speaker 3>and a rootedness, And so I need to go to

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<v Speaker 3>places where I can feel that courage developing, which oftentimes

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<v Speaker 3>is the natural world, and remembering that we cannot be

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<v Speaker 3>unbelonged from this place that we belong to and belong with.

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<v Speaker 2>Coming up on Latino Usay, we talk about the importance

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<v Speaker 2>of paying attention to nature and about the urgent request

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<v Speaker 2>that Ada got from a scientist after she agreed to

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<v Speaker 2>write a poem for a report on climate change.

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<v Speaker 3>And she was near tears, and she said, I know

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<v Speaker 3>you have to write this poem, but do me a favor.

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<v Speaker 3>Don't make it nostalgic. There's no going backwards.

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<v Speaker 1>Stay with us.

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<v Speaker 2>Yes, they were back in twenty twenty three, Eightily One

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<v Speaker 2>was asked to write a poem for the introduction of

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<v Speaker 2>a national government report on climate change that was mandated

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<v Speaker 2>by Congress. The result was her poem Startlement, which later

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<v Speaker 2>became the title of her most recent book. Before writing

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<v Speaker 2>the poem, Ada says she met with the scientists and

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<v Speaker 2>environmentalists in charge of studying the country's changing climate.

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<v Speaker 3>I met with a lot of them in DC at

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<v Speaker 3>a location that was close to the Library of Congress.

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<v Speaker 3>And as I was talking about noticing and how I

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<v Speaker 3>think poets and scientists have so much in common, which

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<v Speaker 3>is that we begin with noticing, we begin with paying attention,

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<v Speaker 3>and we begin with questions. So I was talking about that,

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<v Speaker 3>and I gave a talk, and then as I was

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<v Speaker 3>leaving for the next obligation. As you know, when you

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<v Speaker 3>go to DC, it's like you've booked here and here,

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<v Speaker 3>you know, and this woman followed me out. She was

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<v Speaker 3>one of the scientists, and she was near tears and said,

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<v Speaker 3>I know you have to write this poem, and you

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<v Speaker 3>agreed to write this poem for the front matter of

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<v Speaker 3>the fifth National Climate Assessment. But do me a favor.

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<v Speaker 3>Don't make it nostalgic. There's no going backwards. And I

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<v Speaker 3>held that so closely and thought, Okay, you know, I

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<v Speaker 3>think that kids, they have heard their whole life. Oh

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<v Speaker 3>you should have seen this back when it was even

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<v Speaker 3>more beautiful, you know. Oh you like to go there,

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<v Speaker 3>Oh it used to be this.

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<v Speaker 1>Way, etc.

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<v Speaker 3>That can be true, but it can also feel really

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<v Speaker 3>limiting when people are trying to figure out how to

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<v Speaker 3>empower themselves to make change. So this is the poem startlement.

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<v Speaker 3>It is a forgotten pleasure, the pleasure of the unexpected

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<v Speaker 3>blue bellied lizard skittering off his sun spot rock, the

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<v Speaker 3>flicker of an unknown bird by the bus stop. To think,

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<v Speaker 3>perhaps we are not distinguishable and therefore no loneliness can

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<v Speaker 3>exist here, species to species in the same blue air, smoke,

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<v Speaker 3>wing flutter, buzzing, a car horn, coming, so many unknown languages,

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<v Speaker 3>To think we have only honored this strange human tongue.

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<v Speaker 3>If you sit by the river side, you see a

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<v Speaker 3>culmination of all things upstream. We know now we were

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<v Speaker 3>never at the circle's center. Instead, all around us, something

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<v Speaker 3>is living or trying to live. The world says, what

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<v Speaker 3>we are becoming. We are becoming together. The world says

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<v Speaker 3>one type of dream has ended and another has just begun.

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<v Speaker 3>The world says, once we were separate, and now we

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<v Speaker 3>must move in unison.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that was beautiful, thank you. That's the thing about

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<v Speaker 2>poetry is actually I think the best response is to

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<v Speaker 2>not have a.

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<v Speaker 1>Response, right, Yeah, to feel it, to feel it.

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<v Speaker 2>My friend sandresis Netto's what she says is almost to anything,

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<v Speaker 2>having a problem, having nightmares, having writer's block, having insecurities,

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<v Speaker 2>sanded as like, go read some poetry. Yeah, it doesn't

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<v Speaker 2>come naturally to me to just pick up a book

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<v Speaker 2>of poems, because I feel like it's almost too emotionally

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<v Speaker 2>demanding and if you actually sit down with a novel.

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<v Speaker 3>In some ways, I think that one of the things

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<v Speaker 3>when people do go to poetry, I will say this,

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<v Speaker 3>give yourself permission to not understand it. Give yourself permission

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<v Speaker 3>simply to feel it. Give yourself permission for the mind

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<v Speaker 3>to wander and to go into your own internal world

0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:14.160
<v Speaker 3>and to see what is revealed to you there. And

0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:18.360
<v Speaker 3>it may not be what's on the page, But reading

0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:20.600
<v Speaker 3>poetry is a way of reading yourself.

0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:27.440
<v Speaker 2>Can you talk about how nature has the power, especially

0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:30.800
<v Speaker 2>in moments like these that are so confusing because people

0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:32.720
<v Speaker 2>are a little bit like, oh, stop with the nature,

0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:36.720
<v Speaker 2>stop with the birds. Okay, like stop, what's your argument

0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:40.720
<v Speaker 2>to say, no, we can't stop? And in fact, you

0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:44.280
<v Speaker 2>should take it a step further. You should consider yourself

0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:47.640
<v Speaker 2>a poet in nature, even if you've never written a

0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:48.800
<v Speaker 2>line of poetry in your life.

0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:51.880
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, Yeah, that's a beautiful way of putting it. I

0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:56.040
<v Speaker 3>think that, you know, the art of noticing and paying

0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:59.720
<v Speaker 3>attention is really important. And it doesn't matter if you

0:16:59.800 --> 0:17:03.200
<v Speaker 3>are or in the middle of Brooklyn, which has incredible

0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:08.639
<v Speaker 3>parks as we know, same with Manhattan, and so it

0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:12.320
<v Speaker 3>doesn't really matter where you are. Nature is all around us.

0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:17.320
<v Speaker 3>Nature is us. We are nature. And I think that

0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:22.000
<v Speaker 3>when people start to notice what is around them, whether

0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:26.320
<v Speaker 3>it's clouds in the sky between the buildings or their

0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:30.920
<v Speaker 3>local watershed. Right we put on the tap and we think, oh,

0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:34.720
<v Speaker 3>that's water. What if you started to think about what

0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:37.639
<v Speaker 3>watershed you were a part of, where does it come from?

0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:39.960
<v Speaker 3>And then you start to think about, oh, well, when

0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:43.760
<v Speaker 3>the rains come, all of that trash that I see

0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:46.119
<v Speaker 3>on the side of the road goes into the creek

0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:50.280
<v Speaker 3>and then goes into the San Pablo Bay, you know,

0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:52.000
<v Speaker 3>and you start to think, oh, you know, I'm going

0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:52.640
<v Speaker 3>to stop.

0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:53.000
<v Speaker 1>And pick it up.

0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:58.240
<v Speaker 3>So noticing is a way of paying attention, and paying

0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:01.560
<v Speaker 3>attention is a way of loving. And I think there's

0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:03.879
<v Speaker 3>two things that happen once we start paying attention to

0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:07.280
<v Speaker 3>the natural world. One is that we want to save it.

0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.280
<v Speaker 3>The other that we want to change it, and we

0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:12.119
<v Speaker 3>want to make it better.

0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:27.359
<v Speaker 2>We'll be right back not by yes, hey we're back Ada.

0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:31.000
<v Speaker 2>You know, we've talked a lot about how you move

0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:35.359
<v Speaker 2>in this world kind of in a highly emotional, sensitized

0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:40.320
<v Speaker 2>way nature. Obviously we have to go out birding at

0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:43.720
<v Speaker 2>some point, you know. But then you also you make

0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:47.560
<v Speaker 2>it very very personal, right, And so I couldn't wrap

0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:51.080
<v Speaker 2>up without talking about the fact that you have written

0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:56.800
<v Speaker 2>a lot about your body, like Frida Carlo, you know,

0:18:56.880 --> 0:19:00.280
<v Speaker 2>thinking a lot about her body, her pain. You home,

0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:04.120
<v Speaker 2>the vulture and the body. Also included in this latest collection,

0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:09.040
<v Speaker 2>you write about coming to terms with infertility. You write,

0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:13.520
<v Speaker 2>what if instead of carrying a child, I'm supposed to

0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:14.280
<v Speaker 2>carry grief?

0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:20.080
<v Speaker 3>You know, for me, as someone who wasn't able to

0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:25.560
<v Speaker 3>have a child, I have really thought of it as

0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:30.879
<v Speaker 3>a different way of opening to the world that maybe

0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:35.600
<v Speaker 3>I'm mother in different ways, right, that maybe I am

0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:38.760
<v Speaker 3>supposed to hold things in different ways. I have a

0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:43.359
<v Speaker 3>different relationship with my body because it's only ever been mine.

0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:47.879
<v Speaker 3>I'm a daughter in different ways because I'm just my

0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:52.919
<v Speaker 3>mother's daughter. I'm not the mother of her grandchildren, and

0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:58.920
<v Speaker 3>so we have the original relationship, which is mother and daughter,

0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.760
<v Speaker 3>and that's very fascinating. So I think of the ways

0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:08.560
<v Speaker 3>in which one door closing opens other doors, and I

0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:11.879
<v Speaker 3>think about that a lot. I think about the ways

0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:15.800
<v Speaker 3>we are called to this moment, the ways in which

0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:19.360
<v Speaker 3>you want to go through doors that open. I think

0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:23.040
<v Speaker 3>that people sometimes get overwhelmed by how do we respond,

0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:25.680
<v Speaker 3>how do we do things? And there is a lot,

0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:27.359
<v Speaker 3>there is a lot that we need to respond to.

0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:32.200
<v Speaker 3>There's a lot we need to activate our innermost warriors

0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:36.639
<v Speaker 3>for right. And at the same time, you're not going

0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:39.720
<v Speaker 3>to do that from a depleted place. You need to

0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:45.360
<v Speaker 3>feel full, you need to feel brave and courageous and complete.

0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:49.960
<v Speaker 3>I think poetry allows me to feel that way.

0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:53.639
<v Speaker 2>It seems like you kind of enjoy being the poet

0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:58.080
<v Speaker 2>professor who's like, but you too, you too can do this.

0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:03.679
<v Speaker 3>Yeah. The work of a poet is always alone. In

0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:07.240
<v Speaker 3>many ways, we write alone. We're alone in our rooms,

0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:09.480
<v Speaker 3>or we're on the park bench, or we're by the

0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:14.200
<v Speaker 3>creek and we're writing and we're making. But it's also

0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:18.639
<v Speaker 3>in tandem with everyone who's ever written, and with every

0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:25.520
<v Speaker 3>breath that has ever been made, and it's with every

0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:31.000
<v Speaker 3>poet that ever existed. It's with my grandfather Francisco Carlos Lemon,

0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:34.960
<v Speaker 3>you know, from San Juan de los Lagos in Mexico.

0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:40.760
<v Speaker 3>It's with everybody who has made something, and so even

0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:45.359
<v Speaker 3>though it can feel like this isolating act of making

0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:49.959
<v Speaker 3>some small thing that may not matter, it is in

0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:54.560
<v Speaker 3>a collective spirit of everyone who's ever tried to sing

0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:57.119
<v Speaker 3>back to the world and thought it might mean something.

0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:02.560
<v Speaker 1>Okay, give us your instructions are not giving up.

0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:10.920
<v Speaker 3>Here's a poem. Instructions are not giving up. More than

0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:14.680
<v Speaker 3>the fusha funnels breaking out of the crab apple tree,

0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:20.080
<v Speaker 3>more than the neighbor's almost obscene display of cherry limbs

0:22:20.200 --> 0:22:24.399
<v Speaker 3>shoving their cotton candy colored blossom to the slate sky

0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:29.280
<v Speaker 3>of spring rains. It's the greening of the trees that

0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:36.639
<v Speaker 3>really gets to me. When all the shock of white

0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:41.600
<v Speaker 3>and taffy, the world's bobbles and trinkets, leave the pavement

0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:48.480
<v Speaker 3>strewn with the confetti of aftermath, the leaves come, patient, plodding,

0:22:49.240 --> 0:22:53.600
<v Speaker 3>a green skin growing over whatever winter did to us,

0:22:54.240 --> 0:22:59.080
<v Speaker 3>a return to the strange idea of continuous living despite

0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:03.560
<v Speaker 3>the mess of us, the hurt, the empty fine. Then

0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:08.000
<v Speaker 3>I'll take it. The tree seems to say a new

0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:12.359
<v Speaker 3>slick leaf unfurling like a fist to an open poem.

0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:14.600
<v Speaker 3>I'll take it all.

0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:27.480
<v Speaker 2>We are so happy that you Aida Lemon are a

0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:30.840
<v Speaker 2>poet in the world. Thank you so much, Ada, Thank

0:23:30.880 --> 0:23:33.000
<v Speaker 2>you for all of your words, and thank you for

0:23:33.040 --> 0:23:34.080
<v Speaker 2>sitting and speaking with me.

0:23:36.200 --> 0:23:40.199
<v Speaker 3>Thank you so much. You remain an always inspiration to me.

0:23:40.800 --> 0:23:43.320
<v Speaker 3>So thank you for all of your work and everything

0:23:43.320 --> 0:23:44.640
<v Speaker 3>you do for all of us.

0:23:48.080 --> 0:23:50.720
<v Speaker 2>Aida Lemon is the twenty fourth Poet Laureate of the

0:23:50.800 --> 0:23:55.119
<v Speaker 2>United States. Her latest book is called Startlement, New and

0:23:55.160 --> 0:24:04.199
<v Speaker 2>Selected Poems. This episode was produced by Rebecca Ibarra. It

0:24:04.320 --> 0:24:07.320
<v Speaker 2>was edited by Benni Lei Ramirez. It was mixed by

0:24:07.359 --> 0:24:12.159
<v Speaker 2>Gabriella Ayats. Fernanda Echavari is our managing editor. The Latino

0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:17.399
<v Speaker 2>USA team also includes Roxan Na Guire, Julia Caruso, Renaldo Leanos, Junior,

0:24:17.560 --> 0:24:23.360
<v Speaker 2>Stefanie lebou Luis, Luna Flodi mar Marquez, Julieta Martinelli, Monica Moreles, Garcia,

0:24:23.480 --> 0:24:27.760
<v Speaker 2>j j Carubin, Annelo Reyes, Adriana Rodriguez, and Nancy Truquillo.

0:24:28.119 --> 0:24:30.240
<v Speaker 2>Penni le and I are executive producers.

0:24:30.520 --> 0:24:31.040
<v Speaker 1>I'm your host.

0:24:31.080 --> 0:24:34.520
<v Speaker 2>Barriero Josa Latino USA is part of Iheart's My Kuntura

0:24:34.600 --> 0:24:38.240
<v Speaker 2>podcast network. Executive producers at iHeart are Leo Gomez and

0:24:38.400 --> 0:24:41.879
<v Speaker 2>Arlene Santana. Dear listener, join us again on our next episode.

0:24:41.920 --> 0:24:43.760
<v Speaker 2>In the meantime, I'll see you on all of our

0:24:43.800 --> 0:24:47.560
<v Speaker 2>social media and honestly, right now is the moment to

0:24:47.600 --> 0:24:47.920
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