Letras Latinas, Part 1: A Conversation with Ada Limón

Listen in on an oral history conversation with 24th Poet Laureate of the United States Ada Limón, interviewed by Laura Villareal, Letras Latinas Associate, as part of the Letras Latinas Oral History Project. Discover Limón’s journey from her artistic beginnings as a child connecting to nature and the poets who inspire her to her first job as a professional writer at GQ Magazine and what it’s like now to be a poet collaborating with the National Park Service.

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Transcript

Laura Villareal 0:06

My name is Laura Villareal. I'm here with U. S. poet laureate Ada Limon, who I have the honor of interviewing today for the Letras Latinas Oral History Project. This is our first oral history project with you, so I think we should begin at the beginning. For the purpose of documentation, please tell us where you were born and grew up.

Ada Limon 0:24

Yeah, it's such a pleasure to be here. I'm so excited to be doing this and to be part of this. my name is Ada Limon and I was born in Sonoma, California and grew up in Sonoma, California and Glen Ellyn, California.

Laura Villareal 0:39

Where does your story begin as a writer? What made you want to become a poet?

Ada Limon 0:44

I love this question and there's many ways to untangle it from my life, I think that for me, It began, with a different kind of listening. Sometimes we talk about looking when it comes to poets, but for me, it was a different kind of listening. I could hear a voice underneath the voice that was me. I didn't know what that was and I wanted to pay more attention to it. there was a place across the street from where I was raised. I moved in when I was six months old. And there was a Creek called the Calabasas Creek. it was a little path to get to it. It wasn't like your big Texas, beautiful rivers. It was very small, more of a small California Creek. there was this, silence there that I felt really interested in and curious about. it felt like a world that existed outside of time Every time I think about where my poems start, it's there. That's where I feel like they begin. I don't know why, but that's maybe where I first heard the voice underneath the voice of the whole world. that was the beginning. I don't know how old I was. Probably,

Laura Villareal 1:59

Correct me if I'm wrong, but your mother's an artist? My mother's a painter. Did that have any influence?

Ada Limon 2:04

absolutely. I think, it was the value and care that my family had. With the making of art and having that as a model, knowing that it was important to make something, that it was valued to make something, that you could spend your whole day making a thing. And I had the beautiful reality of growing up with someone who did that.

Laura Villareal 2:31

Yeah.

Ada Limon 2:31

I was very lucky.

Laura Villareal 2:32

Yeah.

Ada Limon 2:33

lot of permission granted.

Laura Villareal 2:36

That's incredible. I first came to your work in grad school. We were just talking about Ringo Porto Gonzalez and I was in our class. It's called Writers at Newark, and we're reading your book, Sharks in the Rivers. It felt like an awakening to me. I came straight from undergrad to the MFA program, and I hadn't experienced work like yours. It was influential for me. As a young Latina writer, it cleared the way for me to make space for my own writing in the world and how I wanted to see it. I wonder what poets have been foundational to your work and in what ways have they influenced the writing?

Ada Limon 3:10

thank you for saying that. That means a lot to me. Sharks in the Rivers was a very important book to me. I love Rigoberto Cantalas. So happy to have him here in our hearts. when I was first in, undergraduate that's when I started studying poetry, I remember finding the poems from Elizabeth Bishop, Anne Sexton, Lucille Clifton, and feeling this is something I want to make. I'm interested in how to make this. And then on a personal note, I still remember the, one of the only books, I'm not someone who stands in line for, to get a book signed. I don't know why. I just never have been, I think. There's a level where I'm like, Oh, I don't want to bother the person or whatever. but I did get my book signed by Francisco X Arlocon, for his book, the one with the snakes on it, the snake stories, I think it's called snakes. I always think about his kindness and the way that he not only showed me so much generosity on a one on one level, but that book for me was a really important, pivotal book. I bought myself when I was 15 at the bookstore that I worked for. I cherish it. I still have the copy at home with his signature.

Laura Villareal 4:27

Oh, that's incredible. I know that he's been influential for a lot of people. You worked at a bookstore when you were 15?

Ada Limon 4:32

I worked at a bookstore, an independent bookstore that is still there. readers books in Sonoma and, I walked across the street cause it was across the street from the apartment I was raised in, once my parents split. I said, I live right there and I'll never be late. I worked there on and off from 15 to 21. Have you read there? I have. Every book that comes out I do a launch there. It's where I do my hometown. launches.

Laura Villareal 4:56

Besides California, you lived in New York for a while. Early in your career you worked for Condé Nast, Magazines like Martha Stewart Living, Travel and Leisure, and GQ. What was the experience like? Did working at magazines teach you anything that's helped you in your life as a poet?

Ada Limon 5:11

I think it's important to think about the ways that artists make a living. there's A level of privilege that's assumed where we aren't, supposed to talk about it. it's actually really important to talk about the way that we support ourselves. not everybody, wants to teach and not everybody can teach cause there's not a lot of teaching positions out there in the world. And, so I remember after graduate school really trying to, figure out what my pathway forward was that I could, stay in New York City to make my rent, not go too far into debt. graduate school put me there anyway. I was lucky enough to get a temp job. my first temp job was at GQ magazine. slowly, but surely I worked my way around magazines and event production until I landed in different places. Condé Nast was a home for quite a few of them, from my first temp job right out of graduate school, I was eventually the, copy director. At GQ magazine. the last full time job I had there was, creative services director for travel and leisure magazine. I think one of the things that I liked about doing it and I liked about the experience, was not only there were some great people that worked there, and good teams, it was lucky to be in that creative field. So you're working with designers that people who care about language and photos and all of those things. That's exciting that there is still this, idea of making, crafting something that matters, not just creating content, which I feel like we can lead towards more towards now. But, I think that it allowed me in some ways to have some sort of basic security so that I could write whatever poems I wanted to write. And that was really important. It felt like, I had a separate life, a separate career, and then I could really support myself as an artist and allow myself whatever freedom I wanted to have. those two worlds felt very separate to me, but equally valuable. it wasn't until 2010 when, my stepmother passed away in February and I gave my notice in, August and left in September. my stepmother died of colon cancer at 52. even though I was in my early thirties, I thought, none of us know how long we have on this planet. None of us know what kind of time we have left. So what do you want to devote yourself to? How do you want to spend your time? And even though I love New York city and I loved the team that I worked with, I knew more than anything that I wanted to be a full time artist. I didn't know exactly what that looked like and what it would entail, but I moved out of New York City in 2010 back to Sonoma for six months, almost for a year and really, did my best to devote myself to the creative life.

Laura Villareal 8:03

you went back home for six months. Did you go anywhere after that?

Ada Limon 8:06

my now husband, then partner, was moving to Kentucky and he really wanted me to come with him that's how we ended up in Kentucky. Kentucky became a beautiful space for me to write I still had to freelance for all the magazines I worked for, but I had more time to write. Kentucky is where I wrote, my book, Bright Dead Things, which came out in 2015. on the day of its release, it was nominated for the long list of the National Book Award.

Laura Villareal 8:34

Oh, wow.

Ada Limon 8:35

And so that was a very pivotal moment in my creative life that shifted really quite a bit. of the way I thought about what was going to happen next. Because I had no idea. no one knows what's going to happen next. That's the most beautiful thing about life. We never know.

Laura Villareal 8:50

Yeah, I remember it coming out and it was like a big event. everybody was excited because you had Books before that. So I want to talk about those a little bit. as I was reading through your books I couldn't get my hands on your chapbooks, but I read all the others and I feel like there's a clear trajectory where your writing shifts into what we know is distinctly Ada Limon poems I'd say they're marked by a strong voice and a clear radar for delight in the everyday Your first two books lucky wreck and this big fake world are outliers As you were writing them, can you remember what some of your attentions were? I found it interesting that this big fake world is a story in verse. Did you, or have you ever wanted to become a novelist?

Ada Limon 9:34

Yeah. that's lovely. I love this big fake world. it's a novel in verse or a story in verse. I still remember writing it and where I was. at the time. Like many writers, I felt so sick of myself. I had a moment where I thought, if I put the I in a poem one more time, I just don't want to do it. you can see the shift. In Lucky Wreck, moments where I do shift into the third person. She enters the world a ready, set, go girl. She comes with a list of things she cannot see. And then when I was writing Lucky Wreck, I mean writing this big fake world, it felt so nice to inhabit other people's worlds. And, it features, The lady at the hardware store and the man in the gray suit, the man in the gray suit, shifts his life and falls in love with the lady at the hardware store. And there's a love affair between them. I just needed to imagine a different kind of world for a while. And it was nice to inhabit that in my mind. I have written three novels. I don't share them with anyone because to me they were projects or experiments, efforts. I love doing them, but I could see where they could go further but I didn't have as much interest in bringing them to the next level. I think it taught me a great deal about, storytelling, about the imagination. And I think sometimes as writers. we give the imagination over to the prose writers and we forget that poets get to have the imagination too, I think the novels really helped ignite and remind me about the incredible power of the mind. and how far we can travel in our own imagination.

Laura Villareal 11:18

Oh, I love that. you talked about the secret poems that you write. I think it's important that poets remember that you can just write things for yourself. Can you put three novels just for yourself just to understand imagination? And I think that's very clear in your work. I'm thinking of Downhearted and poems like that. With Lucky Wreck and This Big Fake World, they were published relatively close together. Were you writing them simultaneously or was one manuscript done and you were shopping it around? how did that work?

Ada Limon 11:49

I think Lucky Wreck was done before This Big Fake World. what happened I was sending them out at the same time and I was entering contests. Both of those books were contest winners and that's how they got published. I still remember, getting the phone call, from Autumn House about Lucky Wreck and I was over the moon I thought, this is amazing. It was chosen by Jean Valentine, who I had never worked with at NYU, but who was at NYU while I was there. and then it was only six months later, so Lucky Wreck hadn't even come out, that I got a phone call about This Big Fake World. I remember having the fear because, many of these contests that we enter as new writers, whatever age we are, as we send out new books, many of them are first book contests. Yeah. So I was a little scared. when the woman called me from Pearl Editions to accept this big fake world, I said, I just want you to know that I already have a first book that's coming out. and she said, nope, this can be a second book. It's just a prize. Lucky Wreck came out in March of, 2006. And, This Big Fake World came out like five months afterwards. Oh, that's incredible.

Laura Villareal 13:04

how did it feel to have two books in the world that close together?

Ada Limon 13:08

I put together a tiny tour for myself and included readings at my parents house and, things like that. I went to AWP in Austin and, did a reading at UT Austin. people invited me places and I put it together, but of course I paid for it myself and tried to figure out how to put together this little trip. when This Big Fake World came out, I didn't have any more time off that I could take from the magazine world. And I also just didn't have the funds to put myself on a little tour. So the only thing I regret is that it was so beautiful to have them both out, but I still think that I didn't give as much light as I wish I could have to This Big Fake World. And that was just because, I was, a woman working in Brooklyn and, making a living, but with no excess income whatsoever. and that, that was a little hard was that it was, I still feel like, Oh, that book deserves a little more light.

Laura Villareal 14:04

Yeah. that's a

Ada Limon 14:05

reality for all writers.

Laura Villareal 14:06

new poets.

Ada Limon 14:07

important to talk about, we just don't talk about it enough. I feel like there's a strange embarrassment around money and I think it's really important that artists talk about it. I think it's really important that artists of color talk about it. it helps people recognize that they're not alone. for whatever reason.

Laura Villareal 14:22

Yeah.

Ada Limon 14:22

that's okay. and that they're not alone.

Laura Villareal 14:25

I love that. as I mentioned earlier, your work is distinct. Your poems are voice driven, unfolding deliberately, paced narratives, and building on extended metaphor. Often they have a quick turn of revelation at the end. I think for most writers, there's a moment where they recognize what makes their work truly theirs. Was there a certain poem where you realized you had hit your stride or perhaps a moment where you felt like you understood what major poems truly yours?

Ada Limon 14:49

thank you for all the praise and that beautiful question, I think, I don't know if there was a specific moment as much as a recognition that poems could be talking to other people. and that on the other end. There didn't always have to be another poet. There could also be a person that had never read a poem, or maybe read prose, maybe they were just people that love novels or they read the short stories or whatever it was. and I thought, what about if I wrote poems for not just poets? And that was a shift. And I think that when I look at my work now, Even though I'm still writing, like, all my first readers are writers, all my first readers are poets, my main editor is my stepfather, and he was a short story writer for years, he doesn't write prose much at all anymore, but he just has a really keen eye, and he has a big heart, and I have always really admired the way that he looked at my poems. he didn't graduate from college, he's You know, not someone that, he's extremely educated, but all in a way that he did on his own. Yeah. And, I think being raised in a community where everyone found art at their own pace, allowed me to open myself up to the opportunities of writing for not just a contained community, not just for people with MFAs and college degrees, but for everyone that shift is really evident in the book, Bright Dead Things.

Laura Villareal 16:33

who are some of your first readers who, I know, we don't write alone. who are the people that help support you and are in community with you?

Ada Limon 16:39

Community is so important. And it can feel sometimes like we are writing alone, which is hilarious. Because We're not. And we're in conversation. Every poem's in conversation with whatever we just read. Every, poem's in conversation with the beautiful conversation we had at lunch today. all of these things with our life, with our bodies, with what ails us, with what fuels us. poems will be different depending on whether or not we're hydrated or rested, for me, my first readers are my stepfather, Brady, and then my mother, but then, a group of poets, primarily from my graduate school days at NYU, Jennifer L. Knox, Jason Schneiderman, Natalie Diaz, not from graduate school, but from later on in the poetry world, Adam Clay, and, yeah, there's so many, but, being able to have friends that you can send poems to and that will immediately get back and encourage you, even if they give you like a little, oh, I would fix this or this, that's fine, but as long as they're like, keep going, And you'd be surprised, I'm on book six, seventh will be coming and we still need all the encouragement we can get. There's no part of me that ever. doesn't need to hear, keep going.

Laura Villareal 17:54

how did you identify them as readers for your work? I know sometimes Young writers are trying to find the right folks to read their work and engage with it and help.

Ada Limon 18:02

Yeah

Laura Villareal 18:03

Is there a thing

Ada Limon 18:04

you're like, with jennifer knox and jason schneiderman both from graduate school There was a particular way that they write really differently. And so they were never trying to make me do what they do. and I feel like that was a part of all of our relationships. Jason is incredibly, intellectual, philosophical Jen's work is, really muscular, and super, it's funny, but it's got a dangerous edge to it, and I think mine is much more heart centered. And there's not a part of us that we don't ever say, Oh, you should be doing this because that's what I do. Instead, they know me well enough and trust me that, Oh, this is what I think you want to be doing. Or this is what I think this intention is. And so I think that was part of why we've all stuck together. as a group of readers for each other is that we trust the other person to not be rewriting our poems in their own voice because our voices are so distinctly different. but kindness above all, people also getting back to you, there's a times where you send poems out and they don't respond and you think, Oh, okay, probably not the person I'll be exchanging poems with. Yeah. so that's a big part of it. And yeah, kindness and encouragement.

Laura Villareal 19:22

earlier I talked to Carmen and she mentioned, I was asking how she gets her authors to create the innovative and just wildly spectacular pieces that they do. And it's that encouragement, Oh, I recognize that you're doing this and then helping them amplify it, which sounds like they're doing for you.

Ada Limon 19:43

Yeah. absolutely. And I feel like there's also a level now. Because we've worked together for so long, since we were in graduate school, that they can also say, Oh, you've done this before. they can say, Oh, maybe it's a beautiful sister poem to this poem. Or they can say, this is essentially this other poem that you wrote. Yeah. And that's really important too, to build those relationships so you have that kind of longevity with those people.

Laura Villareal 20:10

Yeah. Yeah. Were you guys in workshops together? We were. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, do

Ada Limon 20:15

you remember

Laura Villareal 20:15

who were some of your workshop leaders?

Ada Limon 20:17

my first workshop Was Phil Levine.

Laura Villareal 20:20

Oh, wow.

Ada Limon 20:22

it was incredible.

Laura Villareal 20:23

Another person who's had an influence on

Ada Limon 20:26

many writers. that workshop was everything to me. he was very tough, but taught me what to fight for, what to hold on to. he often, he was always alone in his office hours. I feel like everyone was scared of him. I would go to his office hours, like every day. And just hang out with him and, just chat with him because he was just, and he read, he'd read anything you offer, that was a really amazing experience. And then right after that, it was Sharon Olds. So I went from this sort of very tough, person with a hard sense of the poem, and then, and then Sharon, who, another great mind, both of them incredibly intelligent. but she is very, interested in creating a safe and tender environment for the writer. Whereas Phil was doing a much more, tough love, workshop. That's a nice balance though. I think it was really important for me to have them both the very first year.

Laura Villareal 21:20

I feel like it probably helped you hone your sensibilities about, how to edit and self edit.

Ada Limon 21:26

Yeah. And there were times where I could hear Phil's voice in my head, right? And there were times where I could hear Sharon's voice in my head. And it was like, oh, these are both really important people to have.

Laura Villareal 21:38

as I move forward as a writer. Do you still feel as you're writing, do you hear them at all? Or how do you just You know what? I don't think I hear them

Ada Limon 21:44

sometimes when I edit my poems, I can imagine, I think they're still there. they're more faint whispers now, but they're definitely still there. the biggest thing that I have to, I think about who I was in my 20s in that graduate program so much of what you do as a young poet is mimic. now I almost can't hear them, but it's not because they're not there, it's because I don't want to borrow from their beautiful oeuvre of work, they are who they are and I don't want to, have too much influence because as a 20 year old, I was like, Oh, I will. I will figure out how to make these poems by really trying to mimic what they did. I'm very interested in continuing to listen to the voice underneath the voice that's my own.

Laura Villareal 22:36

Do you feel like you continue to surprise yourself by what that voice tells you as you're writing?

Ada Limon 22:43

Yeah. It changes all the time. it shifts all the time. sometimes it's doing more grief work than I expect. And sometimes it's highly irreverent. a little more rebellious than I expect. but I think, yeah, it is always surprising me. I started meditating in earnest in 2007 so much of what they teach you when you're learning to meditate. is this presence in the body and this idea of being able to notice your own thoughts. it's not really emptying the mind because that's very difficult to do. but there's moments of stillness that exist. And I have found that my meditation practice. going on, almost 20 years has really helped me continue to hear that voice because I've been able to continually figure out moments of stillness. And find stillness in even the abundant chaos that is life. I didn't know that my meditation practice would be so important to my poetry work. But I'm really glad that I have them both.

Laura Villareal 24:00

Yeah. I think that's important. And it definitely shows in your work. you mentioned The Quiett and I thought immediately of The Quiett Machine.

Ada Limon 24:08

Yeah.

Laura Villareal 24:09

you mentioned that you're on book seven. I have a question about that. you've been steadily publishing a book every three to four years since the first two. what are you working on currently? And when's the next one coming out?

Ada Limon 24:20

know.

Laura Villareal 24:21

I don't know yet.

Ada Limon 24:22

Yeah, there's a lot of great projects that I'm excited about. the next poetry book will come out, in, 2025, And that's going to be a new and selected. Oh, yeah. Which I'm really excited about. I'm also scared about there's something to be in your late forties that you're like, wait, this is too soon for a new and selected, but book seven is about the time they ask that of you. so I'm putting that together. there's a lot of new work in that new and selected as well a lot of the work coming together in one place, which is exciting. in this October, my poem that is engraved on the spacecraft. Is, being illustrated by the incredible Czech illustrator, Peter Cis, and it's being turned into a children's book. And so that'll come out in October, of year. and so those are the things that I'm working on now. And then there's a children's book, That's coming out in January of 2025, which is the poem, And To The Fox, from The Hurting Kind. two children's books in the work, and then The New and Selected, and then after that, I think that I have already started.

Laura Villareal 25:35

A new book of poems, book eight. Oh my gosh. That's a lot of things to be working on. A lot of things. And

Ada Limon 25:42

I'm,

Laura Villareal 25:42

different from what you've done so far.

Ada Limon 25:44

Yeah. Yeah. no, when I, and of course just this week or last week we launched the anthology. You are here, which is, 50 different contemporary, poems from, folks that are speaking back to the natural world. And. That's been a really amazing project too. and that's my first anthology that I've ever done. So it feels like there's a lot of new things in the, in, in the works, which I'm excited about, but poetry is my home. Yeah. and, and writing my own poetry is still my focus and my joy. So it'll continue. I think my goal is to be like, a really beautiful 100 year old. sitting on the porch, feeding my birds and writing poem.

Laura Villareal 26:31

Oh, I love that. Just like Merwin. Yes. Uh, how have you been thinking about the new and selected? How are you, what kinds of things are on your mind as you're choosing poems from the past? Yeah. Are you thinking about?

Ada Limon 26:43

It's very interesting. It's very interesting to me because, I have favorites, but then I also know. what other people's favorites are. Like now I've been doing this long enough, 20 some years where now I have students who say, Oh, this was the, they're graduating from their graduate programs, but they say, Oh, I read this poem of yours in high school, or whatever it was. And so now I have this sort of Oh, wow, of course. Yes. It's been 14 years since that book or since this or since that. And so I think that the way that I'm hoping to think about it is a celebration of, the first half. Oh, I love that. it's the sort of celebration of the first half with, with the, implication that we are just getting started.

Laura Villareal 27:32

Yeah. that's probably the best way to approach it. and so the new poems that you're writing, are they in conversation with some of the old ones or are they their own kind of thing and part of the eighth book?

Ada Limon 27:48

That's a great question. I feel like there are, there are poems that are in conversation. Yeah. cause I don't think they're, it's one life. Yeah. So how can they not be in conversation sometimes, right? but there's also, the poem that is going on the spacecraft to the Europa Clipper, that will launch in October. That poem will be in there, right? Because it's an occasional poem that came out of that. There's a poem called Startlement, which I wrote for the National Climate Assessment, for the front matter of the National Climate Assessment. and that home will be in there. So there'll be some sort of more, if you think of it, more public facing poems. Yeah. And, but I want that to be balanced with some really private poems. the big thing for me, because I actually do have quite a bit of work, is not putting too many new poems in there. because I want it to be, many, but then I also want to make sure that, I start to think about the next book and what that will look like and what poems need to go in that one.

Laura Villareal 28:51

Yeah. I think we should probably talk about, the elephant in the room. You're the first Latina to be the Poet Laureate. How has your tenure as the Poet Laureate felt and what's been your favorite project so far in the role?

Ada Limon 29:04

Yeah. Well, Yeah, being the first of anything is always a double edged sword. It is. because it's of course an honor and there's a beautiful gift to it and you want to fill it with all of the joy and light and, power that you can. Yeah. but then there's another level in which you think, how is this possible? How has this not happened before? And then there's another level where there's a pressure. Yeah. Yeah. Because you feel like you want to, anything that I do, I also want to do in an excellent way. And yet it's very easy to think, Oh, now I'm not only representing my, representing myself, every Latina in the world. So I have to slough that off sometimes because it's very easy for me to be hard on myself and to be like, Oh, let me think of the ways I'm failing. I think, I really, I have been reframing a lot of that in my mind, and to think about just what a joyous opportunity this has been. I think, I was really overwhelmed in the beginning. Just to give context is that, so today is, April 10th, right? I've already now served two terms, my first term beginning in September of 2022. And I think in September of 2022, I could just barely catch my breath. Yeah. it was overwhelming. It was beautiful. But I immediately did events at the White House. I immediately, it was just like, bam. And I think now there's a little more, okay, now I know what we're doing. I know what this, I know what the role requires, and I know what I wanna do within it. Yeah. And so it's been a really remarkable experience too. you start out of breath and now I'm getting to a place of oh I know how to breathe. Just had to remind myself a little bit. and the big thing that, there's so many things, so many exciting things we've done so far, and the collaboration with NASA for, the poem on the spacecraft has been huge and wonderful, and working with the NASA team has been amazing, and then, Now, this week, we just launched the You Are Here Poetry in the Natural World project. And there's one element of it, which is a, anthology of 50 original nature poems by contemporary poets writing today. And this book is just incredible. It's published by Milkweed Editions in partnership with the Library of Congress. And it's hardcover and gorgeous and urgent and strange and, full of joy and praise and also grief and rage and It's just really one of the, honors of my lifetime to put it together because the poems are just so exquisite. and then the second part of that is that they, I'm working with the Poetry Society of America, along with the National Park Service, to, put seven different poems in seven different national parks. around the United States and that project will continue, but we will, I will go and visit them, all of them, and unveil these poetry installations, which are basically oversized picnic tables that people can sit around. And, the parks that are included are Cape Cod, National Seashore, The Everglades, Smoky Mountains, Cuyahoga Valley, then Redwoods, Mount Rainier, Saguaro, and is that it? I think that's it. And, it's just been incredible to work with these partners and making this happen because it feels like I'm all for the unexpected. and surprising interaction with poetry. I don't know if that's happened for you, if I'm on the bus or I've been many times in New York City where I'm like, Oh, and I read a poem by Tracy K. Smith. And I still remember exactly where I was standing when I first read that poem. there's so many different kind of experiences that we have with poetry, but it's often the ones that are surprising or unexpected that stick with you for a long time or shift you. And so I'm very excited about to see what happens with these poems in these parks and how people interact with them. And then there's a chance, every poem on the side of it has written, what would you say to the landscape around you? And so people can respond. And write their own poem, and there's a hashtag, YouAreHerePoetry, and they can just share it and then make their own poems. And, it doesn't even have to be a poem, it could just be a line, it could be a sentence. But I'm encouraging people to not only read, but to also write in response to the natural world.

Laura Villareal 33:44

Yeah. Who are some of the poets represented by those? Yeah,

Ada Limon 33:49

thank you. This comes full circle a little bit because, I was really happy with the Redwoods National Parks is that, I get to include a poem, called Alone by, Francisco X Ardalcon and it's just been so beautiful to have his work there, since he was such a light in my life and in my journey. And when he passed, I remember feeling very sorrowful that I hadn't had a chance to thank him. And in some ways I feel like this is my way of thanking him. So his poem will be in the Redwoods. Mount Rainier has A. R. Ammons, which is a great poem. And then, Mary Oliver, has a poem, we'll have a poem in Cape Cod. Then we have Lucille Clifton in the Smoky Mountains. We have June Jordan in the Everglades. And then, in sort of a tribute to, with Jean Valentine in Cuyahoga Valley. And then, and as a tribute, to, to Joy Harjo's incredible project as, for her laureateship, which was Living, Living Nations, Living Words. Um, when we were discussing which poem would go into Saguaro. we were thinking that it could be a living poet, which is the only living poet that we're using. And, her name is Ophelia Zapata and, the poem's just incredible. And the event for Saguaro will actually be just featuring her and I'll be in the background. but it's an opportunity to also talk about, indigeneity and, the impact the national parks have had on sacred lands. Thanks. And so I think, it's just. The project really has come together in a way that, continues to surprise and delight me as we go forward. I think it's going to be really powerful.

Laura Villareal 35:29

Yeah. I'm excited about it. I hope I get to go to these parks. I guess just a general question to conclude, but, what do you hope for the future of the Laureate show?

Ada Limon 35:43

Yeah, it's very interesting because you can't help but when you're in this role to just really start thinking about the next person that will hold this role. Yeah. Which is interesting. Yeah.'cause it's, it goes by very fast. Like one term, you could just do one term, but that's just a, a year. And really the year, September through April, it's a academic year. Yeah. or congressional year. Yeah. And, um, I, for one, would really love to see. someone up the momentum Yeah. Of bringing poetry into places that we may not expect it. and I would also love the Laureate ship to be a way of, talking to not just poets, but to readers of all ages and of, of all different kinds, types of. Educational backgrounds. I would also love for the laureateship to, to bring people to the library and to celebrate libraries. I know that for me, my local library in Sonoma, California is still very significant in my life. it's so beautiful. And it's where I remember first reading poems and first reading, that, that thrill of going to the library and coming back with a stack of books thinking, how is this, how am I even allowed to do this? I think also, for me in my last term, what I really hope to do, is to be as inclusive as possible and to really highlight the different ways that poetry can be available to us. That not all of us are going to like the same poem. Not all of us are going to have the reaction to the same, poetry. And that's okay. And so I feel like if I can allow all readers to have some kind of new curiosity when it comes to poetry, that would really be very heartening for me. and I hope that as I tour the national parks and then have my last event a year from, almost a year from today, that, that I can look back and really say to myself, yeah, I left it all on the mat. that I amplified a lot of different voices and for most part amplified the power that poetry

Laura Villareal 38:07

can have. Thank you so much for this conversation. I think we're all very lucky have you our Poet Laureate. Thank you so much. Those were really beautiful questions.