Right. She is a former host of the poetry podcast, The Slowdown, and she teaches in the MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte, in North Carolina. Only my head is for you. In fact, Krista interviewed the wise and wonderful Ocean Vuong right on the cusp of that turning, in March 2020, in a joyful and crowded room full of podcasters in Brooklyn. In fact, Krista interviewed the wise and wonderful Ocean Vuong right on the cusp of that turning, in March 2020, in a joyful and crowded room full of podcasters in Brooklyn. Yeah. I almost think that this poem could be used as a meditation. Starting Thursday, February 2: three months of soaring new On Being conversations, with an eye towards emergence. Music: Seven League Boots by Zo Keating. Yeah. Out here, theres a bowing even the trees are doing. Perhaps, has an unsung third stanza, something brutal, snaking underneath us as we absentmindly sing, the high notes with a beer sloshing in the stands, hoping our team wins. And if its weekly, theres a day of the week and you do it. [laughter] Where some of you were like, Eww, as soon as I said it. I think I enjoy getting older. rough wind, chicken legs, And if I had to condense you as a poet into a couple of words, I actually think youre about and these are words you use also wholeness and balance. Winters icy hand at the back of all of us. I live in the low parts now, most But you said I dont know, I just happened to be I saw you again today. I feel like our breath is so important to how we move through the world, how we react to things. I think its definitely a writing prompt too, right? Theres a lot of different People. Jen Bailey, and so many of you. Where being at ease is not okay. And then there are times in a life, and in the life of the world, where only a poem perhaps in the form of the lyrics of a song, or a half sentence we ourselves write down can touch the mystery of ourselves, and the mystery of others. Yeah. Limn: Oh, definitely. Before the road So its this weird moment of being aware of it and then also letting it go at the same time. like water, elemental, and best when its humbled, The term "compassion" -- typically reserved for the saintly or the sappy -- has fallen out of touch with reality. would happen if we decided to survive more? The original idea, when we say like our, thesis statement, or even when we say like. But I think the biggest thing for me is to begin with silence. if we launched our demands into the sky, made ourselves so big God, which I dont think were going to get to talk about today. abundance? It feels important to me, right now, because I want to talk to you about this a little bit, what weve been through. Exit Tippett: The thesis. Yeah. A scholar of belonging. A scholar of magic. She grew up loving science fiction, and thought wed be driving flying cars by now; and yet, has found in speculative fiction the transformative force of vision and imagination that might in fact save us. Theres also how I stand in the field across from the street, thats another way because Im farther from people and therefore more likely to be alone. So that even when youre talking about the natural world: we are of it not in it. the drama, and the acquaintances suicide, the long-lost I love that you do this. So can we just engage in this intellectual exercise with you because its completely fascinating and Im not sure whats going on, and Id like you to tell me. Tippett: Ada Limn is the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States. Tippett: So I feel like the last one Id like for you to read for us is A New National Anthem, which you read at your inauguration as Poet Laureate. Poems all come to me differently. Musings and tools to take into your week. With an unexpected and exuberant mix of gravity and laughter laughter of delight, and of blessed relief this conversation holds not only what we have traversed these last years, but how we live forward. And this poem was basically a list of all the poems I didnt think I could write, because it was the early days of the pandemic, and I kept thinking, just that poetry had kind of given up on me, I guess. I do think I enjoy it. Krista Tippett is a Peabody-award winning broadcaster, National Humanities Medalist, and New York Times bestselling author. I feel like the short poem, maybe read that one, the After the Fire poem is such a wonderful example of so much of what weve been talking about, how poetry can speak to something that is impossible to speak about. But the song didnt mean anything, just a call, to the field, something to get through before, the pummeling of youth. with a new hosta under the main feeder. Want to Read. Sylvia gifts us this teaching: that nurturing childrens inner lives can be woven into the fabric of our days and that nurturing ourselves is also good for the children and everyone else in our lives. This is amazing. These are heavier, page 86 and page 87. Limn: I remember having this experience I was sort of very deeply alone during the early days of the pandemic when my husbands work brought him to another state. two brains now. If you had thought about it And you said that this would be the poem that would mean that you would never be Poet Laureate. The Adventure of Civility. Tippett: Im really glad youre enjoying it because theres many more decades. Limn: Yeah. Good, good. I have, before, been, tricked into believing Once it has been witnessed, and buried, I go about my day, which isnt, ordinary, exactly, because nothing is ordinary, now even when it is ordinary. 10 distinct works Similar authors. My grandmother is 98. Shes written six books of poetry, most recently, The Hurting Kind. This means that I am in a reciprocal relationship with the natural world, not that it is my job to be the poet that goes and says, Tree, I will describe it to you. [audience laughs] I have a lot of poems that basically are that. Sometimes youre, and so much of its. I love it that youre already thinking that. Yeah. The Fetzer Institute, supporting a movement of organizations applying spiritual solutions to societys toughest problems. A friend [laughs]. a need to nestle deep into the safekeeping of sky. All right. Ive been reading Ada Limn for years, and was so happy when she was named the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States. Limn: Yeah. And theyre like, Oh, I didnt know that was a thing.. But its also a land that is really incredibly beautiful and special and sacred in a lot of different ways. So I want to do two more, also from The Carrying. Renamed On Being with Krista Tippett, the show was broadcast on more than 400 stations nationwide and, as a podcast, was regularly downloaded millions of times a month. And the next one is Dead Stars. Which follows a little bit in terms of how do we live in this time of catastrophe that also calls us to rise and to learn and to evolve. Her six books of poetry include, most recently, The Hurting Kind. Sometimes it feels like language and poetry, I often start with sounds. My familys all in California. In me. Helping to build a more just, equitable and connected America one creative act at a time. I guess maybe you had to quit doing that since you had this new job. And the Lilly Endowment, an Indianapolis-based, private family foundation dedicated to its founders interests in religion, community development, and education. And then thats also the space for us to sort of walk in as a reader being like, Whats happening here? and what I do not say is: I trust the world to come back. when it flickers, when it folds up so perfectly and I never knew survival [2] Her guests include the 14th Dalai Lama, Maya Angelou, Mohammed Fairouz, Desmond Tutu, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rosanne Cash, Wangari Maathai, Yo-Yo Ma, Paulo Coehlo . But I also feel a little bit out of practice with this live event thing. Because there are a lot of unhelpful things that have been told to me. And honestly, this feels to me like if I were teaching a college class, I would have somebody read this poem and say, Discuss.. Okay. And yet at the same time, I do feel like theres this Its so much power in it. Limn: Yeah. What a time to be alive, adrienne maree brown has written. And there are times where I think people have said as a child, Oh, you come from a broken home. And I remember thinking, Its not broken, its just bigger. But I think there was something deeper going on there, which was that idea of, Oh, this is when you pack up and you move. And I even had a pet mouse named Fred, which you would think I wouldve had a more creative name for the mouse, but his name was Fred. And that there was this break when we moved from pictographic language, which is characters which directly refer to the things spoken, and when we moved to the phonetic alphabet. No, question marks. like something almost worth living for. no one has been writing the year lately. Winters icy hand at the back of all of us. I think coming back to this idea that poetry is as embodied as it is linguistic. Youll see why in a minute. We can forget this. Tippett: Look at all these people. , the galley in the mail from Milkweed. podcast, this great poetry podcast for a while and. And then what happened was the list that was in my head of poems I wasnt going to write became this poem. Before I bury him, I snap a photo and beg My body is for me.. And I love it, but I think that you go to it, as a poet, in an awareness of not only its limitations and its failures, but also very curious about where you can push it in order to make it into a new thing. But the song didnt mean anything, just a call But something I started thinking, with this frame, really, this sense of homecoming and our belonging in the natural world runs all the way through every single one of your poems. Tippett: So I love it when I feel like the conversations Im having start to be in conversation with each other. So I want to do two more, also from. And I think about that all the time. Nov 19, 2022, 8:00pm PST. if we declared a clean night, if we stopped being terrified. And one of them this is also on. Its a source of a spiritual thoughtfulness that runs through this conversation with Krista. Theres a lot of different People. We practice moral imagination; we embrace paradoxical curiosity; we sit with conflict and complexity; we create openings instead of seeking answers or providing reductive simplicity. My mother says, Oh yeah, you say that now.. And then I would say in terms of the sacred, it was always the natural world. A special offering from Krista Tippett and all of us at On Being: an incredible, celebratory event listening back and remembering forwards across 20 years of this show in the good company of our beloved friend and former guest, Rev. us, still right now, a softness like a worn fabric of a nightshirt, and what I do not say is: I trust the world to come back. Dont get me wrong, I do Definitely. Limn: Yeah, I was convinced. You said there in a place, as Ive aged, I have more time for tenderness, for the poems that are so earnest they melt your spine a little. And it is definitely wine country and all of the things that go along with that. So is his love and study of the farmer-poet Wendell Berry, whose audiobook The Need to Be Whole Nick just recorded. Its Spanish and English, and Im trying, and Ill look at him and be like, How much degrees is it?. Its almost romantic as we adjust the waxy blue. A special offering from Krista Tippett and all of us at On Being: an incredible, celebratory event listening back and remembering forwards across 20 years of this show in the good company of our beloved friend and former guest, Rev. So its a very special place. In the modern western world, vocation was equated with work. Between the ground and the feast is where I live now. That really spoke to me, on my sofa. We read for sense. Tippett: To be made whole/ by being not a witness,/ but witnessed. Can you say a little bit about that? And then I kept thinking, What are the other things I can do that with? [laughter] Because there are a lot of unhelpful things that have been told to me. And it was this moment of like, Oh, this is abundance. the truth is every song of this country I love it that youre already thinking that. a certain light does a certain thing, enough And then what we find in the second poem is a kind of evolution. This might be hard for some of you right here. Its almost romantic as we adjust the waxy blue Tippett: I guess maybe you had to quit doing that since you had this new job. And together you kind of have this relationship. Which I hadnt had before. We literally. Yet it is a deep truth in life as in science that each of us is shaped as much by the quality of the questions we are asking as by the answers we have it in us to give. She created and hosts the public radio program and podcast On Being . And I think for all of us, kind of mark this, which is important. But I mean, Ive listened to every podcast shes done, so Im aware. scratched and stopped to the original With. It suddenly just falls apart [laughter], Limn: and I feel like there are moments that I travel a lot in South America, with my husband, and by the end of the second week, my brain has gone. Krista interviewed her in 2015, and it quickly became a much-loved show as her voice was just rising in common life. At human pace, they are enlivening the world that they can see and touch. [laughs] And its a very interesting thing to be a kid that goes back and forth, and Im sure many people have this experience or have had that experience, where youre moving from one home to another. And the right habitat for that, for all human flourishing, is for us to begin with a sense of belonging, with a sense of ease, with a sense that even though we are desirous and even though we want all of these things, right now, being alive, being human is enough. Tippett: Yeah, because its made with words, but its also sensory and its bodily. And what of the stanzas, we never sing, the third that mentions no refuge, could save the hireling and the slave? And then it hits you or something you, like you touch a doorknob, and it reminds you of your mothers doorknob. And it feels important to me whenever Im in a room right now and I havent been in that many rooms with this many people sitting close together that we all just acknowledge that even if we all this exact same configuration of human beings had sat in this exact room in February 2020, and were back now, were changed at a cellular level. so mute its almost in another year. But then I just examine all the different ways of being quiet. Yeah. What is the thesis word or the wind? We live the questions. Now, somethings, breaking always on the skyline, falling over. Tippett: And you have said that you fell in love with poetry in high school. Limn: Yeah. Before the new apartment. capture, capture, capture. Or theres just something happens and you get all of a sudden for it to come flooding back. my brother and my husband to witness this, nearly clear body. Ada Limn is the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States. And we think, Well, what are we supposed to do with that silence? And we read naturally for meaning. edges of the world, smudged by mist, a squirrels. to pick with whoever is in charge. bury yourself in leaves, and wait for a breaking, And I think there was a part of me that felt like so much of what I had read up until then was meant to instruct or was meant to offer wisdom. Now, somethings, breaking always on the skyline, falling over fact-like take the trowel, plant the limp body And I think Id just like to end with a few more poems. And I think most poets are drawn to that because it feels like what were always trying to do is say something that cant always entirely be said, even in the poem, even in the completed poem. Peabody Award-winning host Krista Tippett presents a live, in-person recording of the wildly popular On Being podcast, featuring guest speaker Isabel Wilkerson. the world walking in, ready to be ravaged, open for business. What happens after we die? And she says, Well, you die, and you get to be part of the Earth, and you get to be part of what happens next. And it was just a very sort of matter-of-fact way of looking at the world. It unfolded at the Ted Mann Concert Hall in Minneapolis, in collaboration with Northrop at the University of Minnesota and Ada Limns publisher, Milkweed Editions. And Im sure it does for many of you, where you start to think about a phrase or a word comes to you and youre like, Is that a word? Youre like, With. But I want you to read it second, because what I found in Bright Dead Things, which was a couple of years before that, certainly pre-pandemic, in the before times, was the way you wrote, a way that you spoke of the same story of yourself. Theres daytime silent when I stare, and nighttime silent when I do things. So would you read, its called Before, page 46. Ada Limn is the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States. Deeper truths and larger stories of ourselves as societies, as a planet, as humans, that at once complicate and enliven our capacity to live with dignity and joy and wholeness. Limn: It is still the wind. The truth is, Ive never cared for the National So how to get out? Once it has been witnessed I write. Her volume The Carrying won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, and her book Bright Dead Things was a finalist for the National Book Award. At human pace, they are enlivening the world that they can see and touch. Tippett: I think grief is something that is very We have so much to grieve even as we have so much to walk towards. The poets brain is always like that, but theres a little I was just doing the wash, and I was like, Casual, warm, and normal. And I was like, Ooh, I could really go for that.. I want to say first of all, how happy I am to be doing something with Milkweed, which I have known since I moved to Minnesota, I dont know, over a quarter century ago, to be this magnificent but quiet, local publisher. And I knew that at 15. Because I love this poem, and no one has ever asked me to read this poem. has lost everything, when its not a weapon, when it flickers, when it folds up so perfectly, you can keep it until its needed, until you can, love it again, until the song in your mouth feels, like sustenance, a song where the notes are sung. I will say this poem began I was telling you how poems begin and sometimes with sounds, sometimes with images This was a sound of, you know when everyone rolls out their recycling at the same time. So the poem you wrote, Joint Custody. You get asked to read it. 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