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<v Speaker 1>This is the Poet Speaks, a show all about or tradition,

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<v Speaker 1>hip hop and cardboard boxes on the bloc, Reget Bandolero

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<v Speaker 1>so your heavy metal punk rock and La Junior Hyde pop.

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<v Speaker 1>What makes poetry so amazing, so incredible is this absolute

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<v Speaker 1>fascination and ability to change our lives, the old tradition,

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<v Speaker 1>the reason why we speak.

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<v Speaker 2>This is the Poet Speaks. Hello everyone, and welcome back

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<v Speaker 2>to the Poet Speaks Podcast. Now, our next guest is

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<v Speaker 2>someone who's work truly bridges the personal and the political.

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<v Speaker 2>A poet who reminds us that identity belonging in home

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<v Speaker 2>are not fixed places, but living poems we keep rewriting.

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<v Speaker 2>He's the fifth inaugural poet of the United States, the

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<v Speaker 2>author of How To Love a Country in a voice

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<v Speaker 2>that continues to define the American experience in all it's beauty,

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<v Speaker 2>all of it's great, great complexities. Everyone, please, welcome to

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<v Speaker 2>the post Speaks Podcast. Richard Blanco. Richard, how are you.

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<v Speaker 3>Great? Thanks Amanda, It's wonderful to be here. Great intro.

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<v Speaker 2>Hey, no problem, no problem, It's a I feel like

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<v Speaker 2>an intro. Just it makes you feel good, don't It

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<v Speaker 2>makes you feel good before you get into some questions.

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<v Speaker 4>Right, absolutely covers.

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<v Speaker 3>A lot of ground.

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<v Speaker 2>There we go, there we go. That's what the intro

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<v Speaker 2>is for. So tell us before we begin, I want

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<v Speaker 2>to know where are you currently at? Where are we

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<v Speaker 2>talking to you in the world as of right now.

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<v Speaker 5>I'm in Miami, Florida and the same house I grew

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<v Speaker 5>up at my mother's house. So I'm teaching at Florida

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<v Speaker 5>and University's a semester and I'm just serve, just living

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<v Speaker 5>with my mom, she's eighty nine, and just serve keeping it,

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<v Speaker 5>you know, keeping tabs on her, make sure she's okay.

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<v Speaker 5>So that's where I am, back home my home city.

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<v Speaker 2>Wow, wow, Okay. Now you're a born and bred Miamiami,

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<v Speaker 2>Miami boy, right, Miami, right.

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<v Speaker 3>Almost. I got here when I was four years old.

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<v Speaker 5>I was born in Madrid, actually, and I got to

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<v Speaker 5>the United States when I was forty five days old,

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<v Speaker 5>first in New York City, and then eventually we moved

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<v Speaker 5>to Miami, which.

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<v Speaker 3>Was a typical sort of rout for a lot of

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<v Speaker 3>Cuban exiles.

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<v Speaker 5>You know, in nineteen sixty eight in Miami, there wasn't

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<v Speaker 5>as much opportunity as there was up in the northeast.

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<v Speaker 5>So but yes, and you can say it's about as

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<v Speaker 5>native as Miami.

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<v Speaker 2>And gets wow, amazing, amazing. Now, okay, before we get

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<v Speaker 2>into that, I mean, we have such you have such

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<v Speaker 2>a long breath, like you said, of your childhood growing up,

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<v Speaker 2>you have such a long breath of so much of

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<v Speaker 2>where you've been to get to where you are today.

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<v Speaker 2>But you know what, I kind of want to start

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<v Speaker 2>off this question. I want to start off with this

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<v Speaker 2>question because I know you have said your life's obsession

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<v Speaker 2>has been the word home right that you were as

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<v Speaker 2>you said, right now you're made in Cuba, assembled in Spain,

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<v Speaker 2>imported to the US. Now, after all these years, Richard,

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<v Speaker 2>and after I mean you've probably were in thousands upon

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<v Speaker 2>thousands of poems. Now, I mean, what what does home

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<v Speaker 2>even still mean to you? I mean, does it still

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<v Speaker 2>feel like a question? Or do you think you know

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<v Speaker 2>you've finally found that answer within you know, your body,

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<v Speaker 2>or even as you know your latest piece of poetry,

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<v Speaker 2>the latest piece that you're offering the world suggests you know,

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<v Speaker 2>what does home?

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<v Speaker 4>What is home even now?

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<v Speaker 3>For you? Yeah? Sure, great question. You know, asking what's

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<v Speaker 3>home is like asking what is love? Really?

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<v Speaker 5>It's such a big word, and so it's it's changed

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<v Speaker 5>over time. It's changed because I've changed, It's changed because

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<v Speaker 5>circumstances have changed. Like everything in life, we grow, we

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<v Speaker 5>mature and what not. So I'll try to be brief.

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<v Speaker 5>But so there's been very distinct phases in each one

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<v Speaker 5>of these are sort of marked by a book.

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<v Speaker 3>The very first book was really the question.

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<v Speaker 5>Of home more and in cultural identity, all right, being

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<v Speaker 5>a Cuban American and and sort of that that investigation

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<v Speaker 5>going to Cuba for the first time, understanding of the motherland,

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<v Speaker 5>so to speak. Then after I started reading some revisionist history,

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<v Speaker 5>I became a little bit of a sort of an

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<v Speaker 5>America bachelor, and I just wanted to be Cuban all

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<v Speaker 5>the way.

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<v Speaker 3>You know, that's my real country.

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<v Speaker 5>You know, I got to do whatever it takes to

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<v Speaker 5>sort of make sure Cuba is a free and democratic

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<v Speaker 5>country and whatnot. So that was a phase, but that

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<v Speaker 5>was also, of course beyond my control.

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<v Speaker 3>So eventually I moved.

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<v Speaker 5>I moved from the Republic of Miami to Cartford, Connecticut,

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<v Speaker 5>my first teaching job, which was this big you know,

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<v Speaker 5>I was thinking New England, Okay, finally going to the

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<v Speaker 5>real America, right, and sort of thinking about what that means.

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<v Speaker 5>And that's that's partly my second book. And then, of

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<v Speaker 5>course that fantasy of that real American story is exactly that.

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<v Speaker 5>It's a romanticized version of what immigrants grow up with.

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<v Speaker 3>Right.

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<v Speaker 5>So I started traveling a lot, and then those travels.

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<v Speaker 3>With that same question with his home.

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<v Speaker 5>So I started writing a lot about more cosmopolitan sense

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<v Speaker 5>of what my home might be. My home might be Venice,

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<v Speaker 5>home might be London, home might be somewhere in between.

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<v Speaker 5>And then and then I had put the question of

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<v Speaker 5>home a little bit to rust. As the poet Bosho said,

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<v Speaker 5>you know, life is a journey, and the journey itself

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<v Speaker 5>is home. But then when the White House called for

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<v Speaker 5>me to write a home, which was basically the assignment

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<v Speaker 5>was write a poem for America, I read all those questions,

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<v Speaker 5>Am I even an American?

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<v Speaker 3>What does that mean?

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<v Speaker 5>All those questions resurfaced, and in a way the poem

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<v Speaker 5>is an answer to those questions and the affirmative saying no,

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<v Speaker 5>damn it, I am part of this narrative. We are

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<v Speaker 5>all part of this narrative. And then since then, I,

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<v Speaker 5>like you said, the latest book has been yet the

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<v Speaker 5>latest invasion of what my sense of home is. And

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<v Speaker 5>I'm realizing that I've never lost home, and I've never

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<v Speaker 5>maybe even gained one, but that home is the sum

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<v Speaker 5>total of all one's experiences, which are beautiful in their

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<v Speaker 5>own way. But you know, you can't necessarily reclaim some

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<v Speaker 5>of these spaces anymore, but they still live in you,

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<v Speaker 5>in your body, and that's why the book is called

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<v Speaker 5>Homeland of My Body. So I've turned from outward sort

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<v Speaker 5>of looking inward and saying, no, all that is.

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<v Speaker 3>Always with me, and who knows what the next phase

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<v Speaker 3>will be.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, when I hear that, it's kind of something that

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<v Speaker 2>you said like kind of ripped out to me.

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<v Speaker 4>And I think a lot of people can.

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<v Speaker 2>Relate that have that immigrant child of immigrants whatever that

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<v Speaker 2>looks like, first generation entering into this new country. You

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<v Speaker 2>had said you had moved to what was it, Connecticut

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<v Speaker 2>and you felt like, Okay, I'm actually part of America America?

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<v Speaker 2>Could you expand a little bit more on what that

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<v Speaker 2>kind of meant when you what you mean when you

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<v Speaker 2>say that, sure, well.

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<v Speaker 5>I mean for anybody out there that are visiting Miami

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<v Speaker 5>for an extended period of time, you know, Miame is

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<v Speaker 5>kind of a cultural bubble, right, it's a very Latinized city,

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<v Speaker 5>and so.

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<v Speaker 3>You sort of you sort of grow it.

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<v Speaker 5>You grow up sort of not feeling like the other

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<v Speaker 5>really in some weird way, but the other nest comes like, no,

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<v Speaker 5>I want to be that person on TV.

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<v Speaker 3>I want to be or to think that that is

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<v Speaker 3>the real that the Brady.

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<v Speaker 5>Bunch is the real America, or that you know, all

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<v Speaker 5>these sitcom or the foods you would see on TV

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<v Speaker 5>that we didn't grow up with, like easy cheese. So

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<v Speaker 5>you know, this mythology of what is the America? What

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<v Speaker 5>is the real American? Because in a weird way it's ironic,

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<v Speaker 5>but because you're surrounded by more or less like ninety

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<v Speaker 5>eight percent of my class with Cuban or Latin next

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<v Speaker 5>folks just like me.

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<v Speaker 3>So you know, it's human nature.

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<v Speaker 5>You know, you're you in a where do way you exoticize?

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<v Speaker 5>That's the word that American as, which usually you know

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<v Speaker 5>Latinos get exoticized themselves by other people. Right, you are stereotyped.

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<v Speaker 5>So I had a stereotypic vision of what it meant

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<v Speaker 5>to be America that was still with me even in

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<v Speaker 5>my even when in during the inauguration when well, when

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<v Speaker 5>they asked me to write the poem, there was still

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<v Speaker 5>a part of me that, well, am I really part

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<v Speaker 5>of this American narrative? You know, I kind of feel

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<v Speaker 5>like it, But am I really part of this country

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<v Speaker 5>as not only as an immigrant, bred as a gay

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<v Speaker 5>man as well, and so uh so, Yeah, I went

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<v Speaker 5>up north looking for that, you know, the sleigh rides

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<v Speaker 5>in the snow and the little white picket fence and

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<v Speaker 5>and not to say that parts of that weren't there, right,

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<v Speaker 5>but it's certainly I call it the exile of my

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<v Speaker 5>exile because I felt like it was I was, I

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<v Speaker 5>was in his country. I didn't really know at all.

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<v Speaker 5>I thought I would know from from again stereotypes.

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<v Speaker 2>But yeah, now that's fascinating. I mean, you are correct

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<v Speaker 2>Miami versus Connecticut, I mean, like down south versus up East.

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<v Speaker 2>I mean that's part of really that that part of

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<v Speaker 2>the United States that's you know, very Boston. You know

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<v Speaker 2>that kind of I don't know how to say this

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<v Speaker 2>politically correct, but you know, maybe a bit Yankee thirteen Colonies.

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<v Speaker 4>You definitely definitely do have that type of vibe.

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<v Speaker 3>No.

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<v Speaker 2>I love that you said that, though, because I didn't

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<v Speaker 2>think that's very honest. Now, before we kind of move on,

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<v Speaker 2>I want to say this too. You know, so you

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<v Speaker 2>were an engineer before you were even a full time poet.

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<v Speaker 2>I mean, like, so that is such a I guess

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<v Speaker 2>if first rip, when you first hear that, anyone's gonna

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<v Speaker 2>just say, hey, that those are two completely one eighty

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<v Speaker 2>different sides of the coin in terms of a career.

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<v Speaker 2>I mean, but how do you see that? How did you?

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<v Speaker 2>I mean tell us, how did you even transition? Was

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<v Speaker 2>it something just in your heart that you wanted to

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<v Speaker 2>just become be a full time poet, full time writer

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<v Speaker 2>words myth? Or was engineering? I mean, was that something

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<v Speaker 2>you were passionate about? Tell us a bit about how

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<v Speaker 2>you made that career transition.

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<v Speaker 5>Yeah, I mean that that's also tidy. You know, all

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<v Speaker 5>these stories sort of intersect. And that also ties into

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<v Speaker 5>being an immigrant by forty five days, but also growing

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<v Speaker 5>up in an immigrant family, so of course a working

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<v Speaker 5>class immigrant, lower working class immigrant family, so I didn't

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<v Speaker 5>have much exposure to the arts or the humanities or

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<v Speaker 5>anything like that. Plus of course you know there's there's

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<v Speaker 5>the more you know, those immigrant values or you know,

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<v Speaker 5>you know, you're going to study something you know solid

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<v Speaker 5>so that you can make a better living than us.

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<v Speaker 5>You know, that kind of thing, which I think exists

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<v Speaker 5>in other families as well, traditional, but especially it's really

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<v Speaker 5>emphasized in an immigrant community. And then there's also a

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<v Speaker 5>cultural divide because what little my parents knew about arts

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<v Speaker 5>and humanities had to do with Cuba.

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<v Speaker 3>My parents didn't even know who Robert Frost was or

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<v Speaker 3>the Rolling.

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<v Speaker 5>Stones for that matter, So so there's no sort of

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<v Speaker 5>they couldn't even foster that even if they wanted to.

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<v Speaker 3>And then my grandmother was.

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<v Speaker 5>Was my primary caretaker, and she was very homophobic and

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<v Speaker 5>uh and so at one time I wanted to study

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<v Speaker 5>architecture and she thought that was too gay. So my

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<v Speaker 5>choices and the arts that was an encourage from from

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<v Speaker 5>from that point of view either.

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<v Speaker 3>But I was great at math.

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<v Speaker 5>I was always a left brain right brain kind of kid,

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<v Speaker 5>one of those obnoxious kids. I got a's or a

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<v Speaker 5>minuses and everything except physical education.

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<v Speaker 3>And uh so I really didn't know what exactly I

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<v Speaker 3>say about it. I was like, why not do engineering?

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<v Speaker 5>And I thought the plan was to uh get my

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<v Speaker 5>degree in engineering, specialize in structural engineering, go on, to

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<v Speaker 5>get a master's in architecture along the way that obviously

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<v Speaker 5>didn't happen, And it was really engineering that paved the

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<v Speaker 5>road to poetry part in the pun. But I didn't

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<v Speaker 5>realize half my like half my job was writing writing

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<v Speaker 5>letters and reports and studies and proposals, which were the

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<v Speaker 5>lifeblood of a consulting firm. And these are just narratives,

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<v Speaker 5>these are but also thinking about audience and tone and

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<v Speaker 5>word choice and diction and connotations and all this stuff

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<v Speaker 5>like really made me dive deep into language. And I

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<v Speaker 5>always knew I wanted to do something creative, you know,

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<v Speaker 5>I just didn't know what that would be. But that

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<v Speaker 5>triggered something. And what it triggered was a love for

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<v Speaker 5>language that I realized went back to I never remember

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<v Speaker 5>not knowing two languages since as far as I can remember,

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<v Speaker 5>I was the first one to effectively learn English in

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<v Speaker 5>my family, and so I remember translating for my parents

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<v Speaker 5>when I was four or five years old, and I

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<v Speaker 5>realized that language. I think that imprinted in me. And

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<v Speaker 5>you know, I didn't take language for granted. Granted was

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<v Speaker 5>language wasn't just something you communicate with, but it was

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<v Speaker 5>a way seeing the world.

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<v Speaker 3>There was power and language.

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<v Speaker 5>I mean, your parents are your linguistic mercy, you know,

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<v Speaker 5>in certain situations.

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<v Speaker 3>And I think that was that then clicked on.

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<v Speaker 5>But but I really I love both, and of course,

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<v Speaker 5>by necessity, I've been a practicing civil engineer and poet

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<v Speaker 5>for most of my adult life.

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<v Speaker 3>Really the big break, the big big break was.

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<v Speaker 5>Of course becoming presidentiary and augroup poet, which was a

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<v Speaker 5>game changer. But like most artists, you know, you just

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<v Speaker 5>we have to find, you know, some other way, means.

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<v Speaker 3>Of a livelihood. But I loved it. I think there

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<v Speaker 3>was there was an interesting.

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<v Speaker 5>Balance because when I was when I was wearing a

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<v Speaker 5>bad poetry day, I just my design bridge. When I

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<v Speaker 5>was saying about engineering day, I just write poetry at

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<v Speaker 5>work all day.

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<v Speaker 3>And I think it was a healthy balance.

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<v Speaker 5>And I always tell my students in my undergraduate class, Listen,

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<v Speaker 5>even if you don't go on to become a poet,

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<v Speaker 5>keep some art in your life always because it professions

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<v Speaker 5>your mind and it gives these new ideas for whatever

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<v Speaker 5>your career might be. But but yeah, that's kind of.

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<v Speaker 3>What it happened.

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<v Speaker 5>I mean, I you said the key word was as careers,

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<v Speaker 5>they're very different.

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<v Speaker 3>But also.

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<v Speaker 5>But on the other hand, I think, as you know,

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<v Speaker 5>designing is a very creative endeavor.

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<v Speaker 3>I sometimes when I'm designing something, I feel the same

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<v Speaker 3>sort of.

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<v Speaker 5>Juices flowing is when I'm designing a poem, and it's

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<v Speaker 5>like I like, I say, I create a bridge and

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<v Speaker 5>I design a poem. You know, it's not those two

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<v Speaker 5>things aren't mitually exclusive. But yes, careers they're very different obviously,

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<v Speaker 5>But but I've carried them both and proudly.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, no, I love. What I love about that too,

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<v Speaker 2>is you know you really kind of you expressed how

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<v Speaker 2>a lot of them. Again, people from the outside looking

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<v Speaker 2>in without the critical thinking lens, think they're two different things.

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<v Speaker 2>But like you said, that's the lifeblood of consulting at

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<v Speaker 2>a firm, right, you know, writing those proposals, you know,

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<v Speaker 2>And it's it's the same thing with you know, a

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<v Speaker 2>lawyer in a courtroom is using poe try to present

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<v Speaker 2>or defend their case. Right, a doctor is you know,

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<v Speaker 2>you're using poetry to you know, make the language translatable

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<v Speaker 2>to their patient.

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<v Speaker 5>Right.

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<v Speaker 2>So many people just don't put that into into the

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<v Speaker 2>world lens of so much of what we do so aligned.

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<v Speaker 2>It doesn't have to be so different than what we're

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<v Speaker 2>really thinking. Even as a person. Let's say you do finance,

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<v Speaker 2>there's poetry in that, you know what I mean, trying

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<v Speaker 2>to explain numbers, crunching numbers, et cetera, et cetera. So

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<v Speaker 2>I really really do love that, and it's it's this

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<v Speaker 2>kind of metaphor, you know, again, like you said, your

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<v Speaker 2>poems are still building those bridges, just in a in

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<v Speaker 2>a just in a different way, maybe even in the

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<v Speaker 2>same way.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, that's so true.

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<v Speaker 5>And you know, I think, you know, almost every human

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<v Speaker 5>endeavor comes down to written and oral communication skills to

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<v Speaker 5>be successful.

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<v Speaker 3>But also it's also about synthesis of.

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<v Speaker 5>Knowledge rather than this this sort of specialization. And unfortunately

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<v Speaker 5>our educational system generally still silos everything, right, it gives

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<v Speaker 5>you too much of one thing and not a golf

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<v Speaker 5>across the board.

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<v Speaker 3>And this is a whole other conversation.

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<v Speaker 5>But that's what they're they're they're finding out with AI

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<v Speaker 5>now that really specializing it is really not.

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<v Speaker 3>A good idea anymore.

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<v Speaker 5>You have to be a generalist to be able to

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<v Speaker 5>really that's where the future is and where the arts

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<v Speaker 5>and humanities are really going to matter. And but it's

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<v Speaker 5>also a two way street. Like people don't realize how

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<v Speaker 5>much left brain work there is in creating a poem, right,

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<v Speaker 5>especially in the in the in the later stages.

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<v Speaker 3>Right.

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<v Speaker 5>But a lot of times when I'm writing a poem,

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<v Speaker 5>I'm looking for some kind of internal logic, I'm looking

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<v Speaker 5>for a pattern. I'm looking for structure. I'm looking how

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<v Speaker 5>to break that structure. Right, And you know, at the beginning,

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<v Speaker 5>it's much more right. It's you know, the cigarettes of Martinez,

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<v Speaker 5>you know, but there comes a point where you're actually

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<v Speaker 5>you're you're you know, you're left braining the poem at

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<v Speaker 5>some point, right, So that's also trueing The same happens

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<v Speaker 5>when you create a bridge and you don't you don't

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<v Speaker 5>begin a bridge with just surf, an unknown, a bunch

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<v Speaker 5>of unknowns that you start trying to put together and

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<v Speaker 5>stitch together into a design. And sometimes there's many failures, right,

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<v Speaker 5>and you got to start it over again, or you

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<v Speaker 5>have to redirect in the middle of all that. And

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<v Speaker 5>I think, you know, we're all, we're all, we're you know,

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<v Speaker 5>we're we're all left brand and right brand.

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<v Speaker 3>I think we just don't always know that.

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<v Speaker 4>Yeah, no, absolutely don't.

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<v Speaker 3>Don't realize we're practicing it.

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<v Speaker 2>Already absolutely absolutely Well, moving along here just a bit now,

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<v Speaker 2>So Richard, I mean when when just this regular guy

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<v Speaker 2>named President Barack Obama just chose you as is a

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<v Speaker 2>nougural poet, I mean, your words literally became part of

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<v Speaker 2>national consciousness. I actually do remember actually seeing you. I

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<v Speaker 2>must have been I was, I was like a kid.

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<v Speaker 2>I remember seeing that was when he was elected all

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<v Speaker 2>those things, So I do remember seeing that on TV

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<v Speaker 2>just so you know. So, I mean that was part

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<v Speaker 2>of the national consciousness. And you at the time, I mean,

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<v Speaker 2>you were the youngest inaugural poet, is that correct at

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<v Speaker 2>that time? And you were the first openly gay man

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<v Speaker 2>at that time to be the nogural poet. I mean

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<v Speaker 2>you had a lot of first that was a really

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<v Speaker 2>the gravity of that moment. Again, you became part of

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<v Speaker 2>the national lexicon. I mean, what did it mean to

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<v Speaker 2>craft the poem that you made? One today no one

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<v Speaker 2>would speak for a country, especially at that time, very divided,

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<v Speaker 2>I mean, and kind of what did you want to leave?

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<v Speaker 2>What was the mark you want to lead there? When

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<v Speaker 2>you Well, first off, I want to say, what was

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<v Speaker 2>that call? Like, where do you even get that call?

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<v Speaker 2>Does someone call from a burner phone. How the heck

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<v Speaker 2>does that even? How does someone even get we really

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<v Speaker 2>need to know. I mean that that's the real that's

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<v Speaker 2>what people really want to know. How do you even

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<v Speaker 2>get that call?

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<v Speaker 3>Right? Right?

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<v Speaker 5>There's a I will add though, I was also the

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<v Speaker 5>first engineer, but that was yes, they didn't high that

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<v Speaker 5>too much. Actually, I was just driving. I was driving

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<v Speaker 5>from New York to my home in Maine, and I

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<v Speaker 5>just get this phone call, which is weird because I

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<v Speaker 5>have phone phobia. I rarely pick up the phone. But

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<v Speaker 5>I was stuck in traffic, and I thought, what the hell?

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<v Speaker 5>And I thought it was a practical joke. I didn't

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<v Speaker 5>understand what they were saying.

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<v Speaker 2>Wow.

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<v Speaker 4>Wow, It was like and.

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<v Speaker 5>Because you know nobody, this isn't something you apply for,

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<v Speaker 5>It isn't something that you're shortlisted for. Your finalist is

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<v Speaker 5>literally out of the blue, and they have your phone number.

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<v Speaker 5>But so the person said, finally, she said no, like

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<v Speaker 5>Robert Frost and Maya Angelou. I'm like, oh, okay, so

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<v Speaker 5>you can imagine.

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<v Speaker 3>I'm like, is this like some kind of dream? And

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<v Speaker 3>I still didn't believe it.

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<v Speaker 5>So I pulled over the side of the road and

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<v Speaker 5>I googled the person's name, and sure enough it came

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<v Speaker 5>up said presidential inaugural committee.

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<v Speaker 3>Wow.

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<v Speaker 5>My response, my immediate response was a little surprising for me.

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<v Speaker 5>I just felt overcome with its an incredible sense of gratitude,

401
00:20:09.240 --> 00:20:12.000
<v Speaker 5>and not because oh I was elected, I mean chosen

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<v Speaker 5>to be this thing, but just thinking about again, all

403
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<v Speaker 5>these stories intersect, right, the choices my mother leaving Cuba

404
00:20:18.920 --> 00:20:21.720
<v Speaker 5>pregnant with me, the choices my parents made for me,

405
00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:26.319
<v Speaker 5>all the sacrifices, you know, the typical sort of immigrant story, their.

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<v Speaker 3>Belief and education.

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<v Speaker 5>That all this stuff was at this moment was only

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<v Speaker 5>really possible because of all the love and guidance that

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<v Speaker 5>they gave me, and my grandparents and my community at

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<v Speaker 5>large and my extended family.

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<v Speaker 3>And so it was the sense of wow, you know,

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<v Speaker 3>we think.

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<v Speaker 5>That we were writing our own story after you know,

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<v Speaker 5>when we get in our late teens, right or maybe

415
00:20:47.960 --> 00:20:50.839
<v Speaker 5>even earlier, don't realize that a lot of that story

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<v Speaker 5>has already been or the foundations of that story has

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<v Speaker 5>already been written by the people around you, people that

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<v Speaker 5>love and nurture you. So that was a beautiful, beautiful feeling.

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<v Speaker 5>The whole world transfixed. Then came this sheer terror of having.

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<v Speaker 5>They asked me to write three poems and in three weeks.

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<v Speaker 5>So wow, which is not it is not I usually

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<v Speaker 5>write a poem a week as a draft, but arguably

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<v Speaker 5>not the most.

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<v Speaker 3>Important poem in my life.

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<v Speaker 5>And so the first poem was kind of a it

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<v Speaker 5>was all right, but I think it was more of

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<v Speaker 5>a warm up.

428
00:21:28.359 --> 00:21:30.000
<v Speaker 3>The second poem was one today.

429
00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:34.400
<v Speaker 5>And to get to that second point, Yeah, second poem,

430
00:21:35.799 --> 00:21:38.920
<v Speaker 5>you know, like we were talking about earlier, there's something

431
00:21:38.960 --> 00:21:40.960
<v Speaker 5>that was blocking me. It was a lot of writing

432
00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:44.240
<v Speaker 5>poetry is right when you're not asking the questions that

433
00:21:44.240 --> 00:21:47.079
<v Speaker 5>you're afraid to ask and you're not going there. And

434
00:21:47.880 --> 00:21:50.480
<v Speaker 5>the question was am I even part of this country?

435
00:21:50.640 --> 00:21:53.480
<v Speaker 5>Do I even love this country or eat enough to

436
00:21:53.519 --> 00:21:56.559
<v Speaker 5>write a poem for? And does this country love me back?

437
00:21:56.960 --> 00:21:57.119
<v Speaker 3>Right?

438
00:21:57.440 --> 00:22:00.680
<v Speaker 5>Yeah? And again that the poem is in some ways,

439
00:22:01.119 --> 00:22:03.119
<v Speaker 5>in many ways, is a response to that, in the

440
00:22:03.160 --> 00:22:07.599
<v Speaker 5>affirmative that yes, we're all our narratives are it's in

441
00:22:07.720 --> 00:22:11.599
<v Speaker 5>our motto out of the many one. So that gave

442
00:22:11.640 --> 00:22:14.039
<v Speaker 5>me a throne to the poem is something I felt

443
00:22:14.039 --> 00:22:16.720
<v Speaker 5>I could really believe. In a little small anecdote to

444
00:22:16.960 --> 00:22:20.799
<v Speaker 5>my very first creative writing assignment in my very first

445
00:22:20.839 --> 00:22:25.119
<v Speaker 5>creative writing class with my mentor was still my mentor

446
00:22:25.200 --> 00:22:29.039
<v Speaker 5>and now my colleague to this day. We read we

447
00:22:29.079 --> 00:22:32.640
<v Speaker 5>read some Frost and Ginsburg and the Witman, and my

448
00:22:32.680 --> 00:22:37.400
<v Speaker 5>assignment was write a poem about America. So in a way,

449
00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:39.640
<v Speaker 5>that became the first poem in my first book.

450
00:22:39.680 --> 00:22:40.559
<v Speaker 3>In a way, I've been.

451
00:22:40.440 --> 00:22:43.359
<v Speaker 5>Writing that poem all my life by questioning what it

452
00:22:43.400 --> 00:22:45.640
<v Speaker 5>means to be American and what does it mean to

453
00:22:45.640 --> 00:22:48.000
<v Speaker 5>be Cuban, which are kind of the same question, right,

454
00:22:48.200 --> 00:22:48.960
<v Speaker 5>What is identity?

455
00:22:48.960 --> 00:22:51.799
<v Speaker 3>What is country? What is home? What is belonging? What

456
00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:52.519
<v Speaker 3>is identity?

457
00:22:53.680 --> 00:22:57.640
<v Speaker 5>So I called my mentors, I got the same assignment,

458
00:22:57.720 --> 00:22:58.720
<v Speaker 5>only from the president.

459
00:23:00.440 --> 00:23:05.160
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so yeah, yeah, no, that is I mean, that's amazing,

460
00:23:05.200 --> 00:23:09.680
<v Speaker 2>and it's I wonder. I mean at the time, I mean,

461
00:23:09.839 --> 00:23:12.799
<v Speaker 2>were you did you let the gravity of that moment

462
00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:15.680
<v Speaker 2>sink in fully or was it you had to wait

463
00:23:15.759 --> 00:23:20.279
<v Speaker 2>some time after, you know, maybe weeks months after to

464
00:23:20.400 --> 00:23:26.079
<v Speaker 2>really realize the momentum, the hugeness of that moment for you.

465
00:23:27.680 --> 00:23:28.519
<v Speaker 3>Yeah?

466
00:23:29.119 --> 00:23:34.039
<v Speaker 5>I really, I really, I really didn't. Because there's just

467
00:23:34.559 --> 00:23:36.759
<v Speaker 5>three poems in three weeks. I mean a lot of

468
00:23:36.799 --> 00:23:41.519
<v Speaker 5>things shifted, and yeah, a lot of help and including

469
00:23:41.559 --> 00:23:45.400
<v Speaker 5>my husband and other friends, and hiring people to just

470
00:23:45.480 --> 00:23:45.839
<v Speaker 5>let me.

471
00:23:45.799 --> 00:23:47.720
<v Speaker 3>Write the poem right, to take care of the logistics

472
00:23:47.759 --> 00:23:48.200
<v Speaker 3>and all that.

473
00:23:48.559 --> 00:23:50.400
<v Speaker 5>So I was just go, go, go, right. The most

474
00:23:50.440 --> 00:23:52.240
<v Speaker 5>important to me thinking it was, of course, write the

475
00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:55.799
<v Speaker 5>best poem you can, right. And so when it really

476
00:23:55.920 --> 00:23:59.480
<v Speaker 5>kind of hit me was when I was waiting to

477
00:23:59.519 --> 00:24:01.680
<v Speaker 5>be called up to the podium.

478
00:24:01.960 --> 00:24:04.240
<v Speaker 3>Uh, and I took. I took my mother with me.

479
00:24:05.400 --> 00:24:05.920
<v Speaker 3>I mean I took.

480
00:24:05.960 --> 00:24:08.000
<v Speaker 5>I had other guests, but you can only take one person,

481
00:24:08.160 --> 00:24:11.279
<v Speaker 5>like right next to you. So on the platform there,

482
00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:13.200
<v Speaker 5>and it was the first time that I could actually

483
00:24:13.240 --> 00:24:15.559
<v Speaker 5>I was you know, the poems are done, you know,

484
00:24:15.680 --> 00:24:18.559
<v Speaker 5>I'm ready, I've here, I've had the sound check where

485
00:24:18.599 --> 00:24:20.640
<v Speaker 5>you could finally just breathe and take.

486
00:24:20.480 --> 00:24:21.119
<v Speaker 3>In the moment.

487
00:24:24.279 --> 00:24:28.000
<v Speaker 5>It was like, oh my god, like a gay immigrant

488
00:24:28.079 --> 00:24:29.440
<v Speaker 5>kid is going to read a poem for the whole

489
00:24:29.440 --> 00:24:31.000
<v Speaker 5>country and it's me.

490
00:24:32.640 --> 00:24:36.200
<v Speaker 3>But it wasn't. It was more like it.

491
00:24:36.079 --> 00:24:39.279
<v Speaker 5>Was this feeling of I'm looking at my mother who

492
00:24:39.319 --> 00:24:41.119
<v Speaker 5>grew up in a dirt floor home in Cuba.

493
00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:41.319
<v Speaker 3>Right.

494
00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:44.720
<v Speaker 5>It was this feeling of really the most beautiful things

495
00:24:44.720 --> 00:24:45.640
<v Speaker 5>about this country.

496
00:24:45.839 --> 00:24:48.599
<v Speaker 3>It was this feeling of you feel a reference in

497
00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:49.559
<v Speaker 3>that inauguration.

498
00:24:49.960 --> 00:24:53.400
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, it's about Obama, but really you feel like that

499
00:24:53.559 --> 00:24:57.160
<v Speaker 5>really defines our democracy, where it's it's a sense that

500
00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:00.440
<v Speaker 5>your service to something much bigger than yourself. And so

501
00:25:00.519 --> 00:25:04.359
<v Speaker 5>in some ways that that kind of shifted from nervousness

502
00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:06.279
<v Speaker 5>to sort of just the sense of.

503
00:25:06.279 --> 00:25:08.119
<v Speaker 3>Where the ego goes away. You know, it was just

504
00:25:08.200 --> 00:25:10.039
<v Speaker 3>kind of like, no, this is for us.

505
00:25:09.880 --> 00:25:13.480
<v Speaker 5>And and I it's part of the poem already, because

506
00:25:13.519 --> 00:25:15.279
<v Speaker 5>you know, I always say my poems are smarter than me.

507
00:25:15.319 --> 00:25:17.440
<v Speaker 3>They're already sort of telling me what I'm going to feel.

508
00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:21.480
<v Speaker 5>But you know, it's uh, I wrote, I wrote a

509
00:25:21.480 --> 00:25:24.440
<v Speaker 5>small memoir of it, a memoir, and I call it.

510
00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:28.480
<v Speaker 3>It's called One Today for all of us.

511
00:25:28.759 --> 00:25:34.079
<v Speaker 5>Uh uh Now I can't forget One Today for all

512
00:25:34.519 --> 00:25:39.119
<v Speaker 5>what it is once today, the inaugural Poem's journey. And

513
00:25:40.160 --> 00:25:43.480
<v Speaker 5>I did that because I had never had this. After

514
00:25:43.559 --> 00:25:47.079
<v Speaker 5>I'm flying home, it just now it hit me, like,

515
00:25:47.119 --> 00:25:48.039
<v Speaker 5>what really happened?

516
00:25:48.039 --> 00:25:52.799
<v Speaker 3>All right? This is huge. I thought I was going.

517
00:25:52.640 --> 00:25:54.799
<v Speaker 5>To go home and get the nail and walk the dog,

518
00:25:54.880 --> 00:25:58.480
<v Speaker 5>because you know, nobody reads poetry like I thought my

519
00:25:58.480 --> 00:25:59.920
<v Speaker 5>life would just go on the way it was.

520
00:26:00.319 --> 00:26:02.839
<v Speaker 3>But it suddenly hit me, and it was so fast.

521
00:26:02.920 --> 00:26:04.079
<v Speaker 3>So I get the call on.

522
00:26:04.160 --> 00:26:08.079
<v Speaker 5>December twelfth, the inaugurations on January twenty first. So it's

523
00:26:08.119 --> 00:26:11.440
<v Speaker 5>the first time I wrote write a book just out

524
00:26:11.480 --> 00:26:13.759
<v Speaker 5>of this sheer impulse to write it down, to make

525
00:26:13.799 --> 00:26:18.759
<v Speaker 5>sure it happened, make sure it happened, and remember it

526
00:26:18.839 --> 00:26:21.720
<v Speaker 5>because it all seems so quick and was quick. And

527
00:26:21.759 --> 00:26:24.119
<v Speaker 5>I also thought, for God's sake, the next person that

528
00:26:24.200 --> 00:26:26.119
<v Speaker 5>becomes a nougurl poet, you know a little bit about

529
00:26:26.119 --> 00:26:28.400
<v Speaker 5>what to expect. So when I got a chance to

530
00:26:28.839 --> 00:26:31.200
<v Speaker 5>when Amanda Gorman was chosen, I got a chance to

531
00:26:31.240 --> 00:26:31.799
<v Speaker 5>speak with her.

532
00:26:31.880 --> 00:26:32.759
<v Speaker 3>I sent her the book.

533
00:26:33.599 --> 00:26:36.119
<v Speaker 5>I told her, you know, sort of shared like you know,

534
00:26:36.160 --> 00:26:38.519
<v Speaker 5>we search compared notes about the call and all that,

535
00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:39.839
<v Speaker 5>because I mean.

536
00:26:39.960 --> 00:26:41.720
<v Speaker 3>I never got to talk to my Angelou.

537
00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:44.680
<v Speaker 5>I talked a little bit to Elizabeth Alexander, which is

538
00:26:44.680 --> 00:26:47.559
<v Speaker 5>my predecessor. And now there's only there's only three of

539
00:26:47.640 --> 00:26:51.039
<v Speaker 5>us alive. And like my husband says, more people have

540
00:26:51.079 --> 00:26:53.480
<v Speaker 5>been to the Moon than I've been President's or nougurl poets.

541
00:26:53.519 --> 00:26:55.720
<v Speaker 5>It's so it's a feeling that you can't just sort

542
00:26:55.720 --> 00:26:58.519
<v Speaker 5>of call a friend and say, like, hey, last time

543
00:26:58.559 --> 00:27:01.400
<v Speaker 5>you read it, but anyway, but yeah, that's when it

544
00:27:01.519 --> 00:27:07.920
<v Speaker 5>really was like, you know, okay, something shifted, right, and yeah,

545
00:27:07.160 --> 00:27:11.079
<v Speaker 5>and I just wanted to record that with the written word,

546
00:27:11.119 --> 00:27:11.960
<v Speaker 5>which is what I do.

547
00:27:12.839 --> 00:27:16.519
<v Speaker 2>Tell me a bit about too. You know, again, we

548
00:27:16.640 --> 00:27:20.839
<v Speaker 2>think of that day and you know, obviously, like you

549
00:27:20.880 --> 00:27:23.960
<v Speaker 2>talked about, it's such a select club of people and

550
00:27:24.039 --> 00:27:26.160
<v Speaker 2>such amazing people that have been able to do it.

551
00:27:26.599 --> 00:27:29.799
<v Speaker 2>Tell me you had mentioned earlier you had given kind

552
00:27:29.839 --> 00:27:33.079
<v Speaker 2>of segue to this next question. You said, basically, I

553
00:27:33.079 --> 00:27:34.960
<v Speaker 2>mean it was a game changer for you in terms

554
00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:37.599
<v Speaker 2>of your writing career. I mean for those that are listening.

555
00:27:37.720 --> 00:27:40.599
<v Speaker 2>You know a lot of people they you know, they

556
00:27:40.680 --> 00:27:44.240
<v Speaker 2>may not see poetry as viable career wise. Tell us,

557
00:27:44.359 --> 00:27:46.240
<v Speaker 2>I mean we you know, just out of my own

558
00:27:46.279 --> 00:27:50.480
<v Speaker 2>curiosity too, tell us what kind of the roller coaster

559
00:27:50.640 --> 00:27:52.519
<v Speaker 2>were you able to go on in terms of your

560
00:27:52.519 --> 00:27:55.559
<v Speaker 2>career in poetry after having such a big honor like that.

561
00:27:55.680 --> 00:27:57.680
<v Speaker 2>What did that look like that you'd be willing to share?

562
00:27:58.960 --> 00:27:59.160
<v Speaker 3>Yeah?

563
00:27:59.279 --> 00:28:01.839
<v Speaker 5>Sure, so you know it's it's arguably, right, the most

564
00:28:01.839 --> 00:28:05.440
<v Speaker 5>public moment for poetry in the entire country, right, you know,

565
00:28:05.599 --> 00:28:08.359
<v Speaker 5>sixty million people here at one poem at the same time,

566
00:28:08.839 --> 00:28:12.079
<v Speaker 5>and it triggers, Uh, it triggers a lot of things

567
00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:16.759
<v Speaker 5>for people. So so what happened a few things that

568
00:28:16.920 --> 00:28:20.240
<v Speaker 5>were you know, things that I never knew were possible, right,

569
00:28:21.240 --> 00:28:23.079
<v Speaker 5>you know, And I think a lot of a lot

570
00:28:23.119 --> 00:28:24.839
<v Speaker 5>of this might happen if you want a pulitzer or

571
00:28:24.839 --> 00:28:27.960
<v Speaker 5>something like that, right, And a lot of our careers

572
00:28:27.960 --> 00:28:28.839
<v Speaker 5>as poets is you.

573
00:28:28.839 --> 00:28:30.920
<v Speaker 3>Know, hanging in there and having faith.

574
00:28:30.960 --> 00:28:34.559
<v Speaker 5>That's something beautiful and big will happened at my shift,

575
00:28:34.559 --> 00:28:35.039
<v Speaker 5>does or not?

576
00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:37.279
<v Speaker 3>Like that's fine too, Like I wasn't. I was.

577
00:28:37.359 --> 00:28:38.720
<v Speaker 5>I was a point of my career where I was

578
00:28:38.720 --> 00:28:41.880
<v Speaker 5>fine where I was. Of course I was dreaming for more.

579
00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:45.319
<v Speaker 5>But anyway, so first of all, agents called from all

580
00:28:45.359 --> 00:28:49.200
<v Speaker 5>over the place. That was nuts, like suddenly because I

581
00:28:49.200 --> 00:28:52.720
<v Speaker 5>had a memoir. I had a drafted memoir about about

582
00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:57.319
<v Speaker 5>my childhood, about growing up in Miami. So so that

583
00:28:57.519 --> 00:29:03.960
<v Speaker 5>was like what like interviewing, interviewing, interviewing agents on the phone.

584
00:29:04.519 --> 00:29:07.359
<v Speaker 3>As soon as I got back off the stage and.

585
00:29:07.359 --> 00:29:10.720
<v Speaker 5>Back into the Senator's office, they were ready, people calling

586
00:29:10.799 --> 00:29:14.160
<v Speaker 5>my speaker's agent to book me. So it was like

587
00:29:14.279 --> 00:29:17.079
<v Speaker 5>what I thought, I was going to walk the dog

588
00:29:17.119 --> 00:29:19.480
<v Speaker 5>and get the mail and go back to my engineering

589
00:29:19.559 --> 00:29:24.960
<v Speaker 5>day job right now. So yeah, all sorts of which, again,

590
00:29:25.039 --> 00:29:27.680
<v Speaker 5>these stories aligned for me because it was not the

591
00:29:27.759 --> 00:29:30.720
<v Speaker 5>usual suspects. It was people I've read for the USDA,

592
00:29:30.920 --> 00:29:34.880
<v Speaker 5>the fdi C, all sorts of immigrant advocacy groups, all

593
00:29:34.920 --> 00:29:38.640
<v Speaker 5>sorts of LGBT groups, all sorts of nonprofits, all sorts

594
00:29:38.680 --> 00:29:40.359
<v Speaker 5>of I've done corporate events.

595
00:29:41.680 --> 00:29:44.400
<v Speaker 3>And for me, again being that kid that.

596
00:29:44.400 --> 00:29:49.720
<v Speaker 5>Didn't have access to the arts, right, for me, that democratization.

597
00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:50.279
<v Speaker 3>Of poetry, it was so inviting.

598
00:29:50.400 --> 00:29:52.960
<v Speaker 5>Right, It's kind of like I always thought of myself

599
00:29:53.119 --> 00:29:54.839
<v Speaker 5>wanting to be a poet of the people, and that

600
00:29:55.160 --> 00:29:57.599
<v Speaker 5>almost sounds a little pretentious, but what I mean by

601
00:29:57.599 --> 00:30:01.519
<v Speaker 5>that is, you know, I always thought we should put

602
00:30:01.519 --> 00:30:03.240
<v Speaker 5>poetry out there and not wait for people to come

603
00:30:03.279 --> 00:30:05.599
<v Speaker 5>to poetry kind of the work you do, right, Like,

604
00:30:05.680 --> 00:30:07.480
<v Speaker 5>it's like, let's put it out there, let's not wait

605
00:30:07.519 --> 00:30:09.559
<v Speaker 5>for people to come. And so that idea of being

606
00:30:09.599 --> 00:30:12.759
<v Speaker 5>almost like a poet to your evangelist, right, of being

607
00:30:12.759 --> 00:30:15.000
<v Speaker 5>able to walk into rooms where people have never even

608
00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:18.279
<v Speaker 5>seen or heard a living poet and be that.

609
00:30:18.160 --> 00:30:19.799
<v Speaker 3>Person was really special.

610
00:30:19.839 --> 00:30:22.480
<v Speaker 5>And so but yeah, I spent about ten years of

611
00:30:22.519 --> 00:30:24.559
<v Speaker 5>my life just being on the road about seventy percent

612
00:30:24.599 --> 00:30:27.319
<v Speaker 5>of my time, which I never knew that was possible

613
00:30:27.799 --> 00:30:31.640
<v Speaker 5>as a career. But I fully embraced it because I

614
00:30:31.640 --> 00:30:34.920
<v Speaker 5>felt like I was doing something good, something good, not

615
00:30:35.599 --> 00:30:39.440
<v Speaker 5>for poetry itself, right, and for people themselves, not just

616
00:30:39.480 --> 00:30:40.400
<v Speaker 5>because it's my career.

617
00:30:40.559 --> 00:30:43.359
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, it was. You know, there's a lot.

618
00:30:43.279 --> 00:30:46.000
<v Speaker 5>Of venues, you know, these places call you you don't

619
00:30:46.039 --> 00:30:49.799
<v Speaker 5>call them, right that I never knew anything about. So

620
00:30:49.799 --> 00:30:51.680
<v Speaker 5>so it was like living the dream in a way, right,

621
00:30:51.759 --> 00:30:57.200
<v Speaker 5>like just making the flip side to that is that

622
00:30:57.279 --> 00:30:59.720
<v Speaker 5>kind of that kind of exposure.

623
00:31:00.279 --> 00:31:03.680
<v Speaker 3>I'm in some ways more afraid to publish now than before,

624
00:31:04.319 --> 00:31:07.519
<v Speaker 3>right because you're you're out there right, like there's.

625
00:31:07.359 --> 00:31:10.640
<v Speaker 5>A lot of eyes on you, so uh so in

626
00:31:10.680 --> 00:31:13.359
<v Speaker 5>a way that so oh yeah, so that's it kind

627
00:31:13.400 --> 00:31:16.119
<v Speaker 5>of ironic, but uh you know, are people just saying

628
00:31:16.200 --> 00:31:18.359
<v Speaker 5>yes or do I have just yes? People that are

629
00:31:18.400 --> 00:31:20.559
<v Speaker 5>accepting poems, but they're not really up to part way

630
00:31:20.559 --> 00:31:21.279
<v Speaker 5>where it should be.

631
00:31:22.119 --> 00:31:23.759
<v Speaker 3>And then the other great thing that started happening.

632
00:31:23.799 --> 00:31:28.440
<v Speaker 5>People started actually me to write more occasional commissioned poems

633
00:31:28.480 --> 00:31:32.519
<v Speaker 5>and commemorative poems, like a poems for Boston Strong at

634
00:31:32.519 --> 00:31:33.759
<v Speaker 5>the benefit concert.

635
00:31:34.160 --> 00:31:35.400
<v Speaker 3>So that was another way.

636
00:31:35.279 --> 00:31:38.319
<v Speaker 5>Of writing that I never knew, like literally, like they're

637
00:31:38.359 --> 00:31:42.920
<v Speaker 5>like assignments. Yeah, it's And so having the practice of

638
00:31:42.960 --> 00:31:46.039
<v Speaker 5>what I learned from writing an occasional poem the one

639
00:31:46.119 --> 00:31:49.400
<v Speaker 5>today really worked and helped to understand what that really

640
00:31:49.440 --> 00:31:50.480
<v Speaker 5>means and how does.

641
00:31:50.319 --> 00:31:52.680
<v Speaker 3>That work and how do you do that? And why

642
00:31:52.680 --> 00:31:53.759
<v Speaker 3>would you do that? Right?

643
00:31:54.720 --> 00:31:57.839
<v Speaker 5>So that was another, you know, another another sort of

644
00:31:58.359 --> 00:32:01.920
<v Speaker 5>another door that opened, and another way of sort not

645
00:32:02.039 --> 00:32:05.839
<v Speaker 5>only uh, another way of not only putting poetry out there,

646
00:32:05.880 --> 00:32:07.920
<v Speaker 5>but also of writing poetry myself.

647
00:32:08.079 --> 00:32:10.319
<v Speaker 3>Another source of kind of inspiration.

648
00:32:11.240 --> 00:32:14.680
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely and in that same spirit, I mean, you became

649
00:32:14.799 --> 00:32:18.920
<v Speaker 2>Miami Dade's first poet laurette and the Academy of American

650
00:32:18.960 --> 00:32:23.400
<v Speaker 2>Poets Education Ambassador. So I mean your Miami Dade County,

651
00:32:23.480 --> 00:32:25.880
<v Speaker 2>I mean, like you said, that is a bastion of

652
00:32:25.920 --> 00:32:29.240
<v Speaker 2>culture diversity, and you know, they never had a poet

653
00:32:29.279 --> 00:32:32.519
<v Speaker 2>lorette before. And you tell us about kind of how

654
00:32:33.359 --> 00:32:34.920
<v Speaker 2>I mean, you know, and you you strike me as

655
00:32:34.920 --> 00:32:38.359
<v Speaker 2>a type of person. I mean you just take the opportunities,

656
00:32:38.759 --> 00:32:41.839
<v Speaker 2>you know, you you almost you create the opportunities really

657
00:32:41.880 --> 00:32:44.279
<v Speaker 2>for yourself that I really do feel like you strike

658
00:32:44.319 --> 00:32:46.640
<v Speaker 2>as that type of person. You do want to strike

659
00:32:46.720 --> 00:32:48.240
<v Speaker 2>the iron, Like you said, you want to be a

660
00:32:48.279 --> 00:32:50.880
<v Speaker 2>poet of the people. You know, tell us how did

661
00:32:50.920 --> 00:32:53.920
<v Speaker 2>you come about being Miami Dades first poet Lourette? Was

662
00:32:53.960 --> 00:32:57.119
<v Speaker 2>that something you just kind of came in conjunction. They

663
00:32:57.160 --> 00:32:59.920
<v Speaker 2>called you, you called them, or you saw you saw

664
00:33:00.119 --> 00:33:02.319
<v Speaker 2>space and you said you want to enter that space.

665
00:33:04.920 --> 00:33:05.640
<v Speaker 3>A little both.

666
00:33:06.480 --> 00:33:11.640
<v Speaker 5>So, uh, Miami Dad County actually had a poetry ambassador,

667
00:33:11.880 --> 00:33:19.839
<v Speaker 5>a role which is the mayor loves poetry and she's uh,

668
00:33:19.960 --> 00:33:21.720
<v Speaker 5>I mean she's a big fan of poetry. And so

669
00:33:22.880 --> 00:33:26.839
<v Speaker 5>so this person, uh works it's part of the cultural

670
00:33:27.079 --> 00:33:29.559
<v Speaker 5>when I forget the exact department, but cultural affairs or

671
00:33:29.599 --> 00:33:30.079
<v Speaker 5>something like that.

672
00:33:30.119 --> 00:33:30.680
<v Speaker 3>But they have a.

673
00:33:30.640 --> 00:33:34.200
<v Speaker 5>Poet that a poetry ambassador, and then someone who's also

674
00:33:34.200 --> 00:33:37.119
<v Speaker 5>a writer obviously, and and.

675
00:33:35.839 --> 00:33:37.240
<v Speaker 3>We we were calling.

676
00:33:37.359 --> 00:33:39.000
<v Speaker 5>She was talking to me one day about like the

677
00:33:39.039 --> 00:33:45.440
<v Speaker 5>possibility of creating the first you know, poet laureateship and said,

678
00:33:45.480 --> 00:33:46.519
<v Speaker 5>that's a great idea.

679
00:33:46.880 --> 00:33:49.880
<v Speaker 3>And she asked me for people, and I said, well,

680
00:33:49.880 --> 00:33:52.079
<v Speaker 3>I have a bunch, but I will do it if

681
00:33:52.079 --> 00:33:54.519
<v Speaker 3>you want. Why not, right.

682
00:33:56.039 --> 00:33:59.920
<v Speaker 5>Again, if it's in line with my with my you know,

683
00:34:00.119 --> 00:34:03.319
<v Speaker 5>sort of my my mission, and it's not not my brand,

684
00:34:03.319 --> 00:34:05.799
<v Speaker 5>but again putting poetry out there, and so the ability

685
00:34:06.039 --> 00:34:09.079
<v Speaker 5>anywhere I can, I can be that person, that ambassador,

686
00:34:09.119 --> 00:34:12.400
<v Speaker 5>that that that that person that brings people poetry, that

687
00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:15.960
<v Speaker 5>uh that gets to sort of be the messenger of

688
00:34:16.039 --> 00:34:20.360
<v Speaker 5>having people changed by poetry. So I welcomed that and

689
00:34:20.440 --> 00:34:23.440
<v Speaker 5>we did. My big project was was something modeled after

690
00:34:23.559 --> 00:34:26.719
<v Speaker 5>Robert Pinsky's project. It was called My Favorite Poem Project,

691
00:34:27.159 --> 00:34:29.960
<v Speaker 5>and so we just went around the whole country doing

692
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:33.400
<v Speaker 5>different sorry the whole county during different events, but just

693
00:34:33.480 --> 00:34:39.000
<v Speaker 5>choosing people from firemen to like county commissioners to poets,

694
00:34:39.039 --> 00:34:44.960
<v Speaker 5>to artists, to politicians to teachers, and just asking them

695
00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:47.840
<v Speaker 5>to share their favorite poem and the story behind it

696
00:34:47.880 --> 00:34:51.159
<v Speaker 5>and how it changed their life, and with these wonderful conversations,

697
00:34:51.239 --> 00:34:51.679
<v Speaker 5>right like.

698
00:34:51.840 --> 00:34:53.639
<v Speaker 3>So, so that was great, Uh.

699
00:34:54.320 --> 00:34:59.480
<v Speaker 5>With the with the Academy of American Poets, that's also

700
00:34:59.559 --> 00:35:00.559
<v Speaker 5>sort of an same thing.

701
00:35:01.440 --> 00:35:05.039
<v Speaker 3>Once I saw the incredible reaction to.

702
00:35:05.119 --> 00:35:08.400
<v Speaker 5>That one poem right read, and I thought, what if

703
00:35:09.000 --> 00:35:12.239
<v Speaker 5>you know, I just thought, you know, how many kids

704
00:35:12.239 --> 00:35:14.119
<v Speaker 5>they're out there, how many people there are out there

705
00:35:14.159 --> 00:35:18.159
<v Speaker 5>that in our educational system really thinking about how they.

706
00:35:18.360 --> 00:35:21.880
<v Speaker 3>Don't get to that exposure to poetry. So I thought,

707
00:35:21.880 --> 00:35:23.519
<v Speaker 3>I got to change that, or I want to change

708
00:35:23.559 --> 00:35:24.679
<v Speaker 3>I want to help change that.

709
00:35:25.400 --> 00:35:27.920
<v Speaker 5>I want a little boy like me to know about

710
00:35:27.960 --> 00:35:30.159
<v Speaker 5>poetry earlier in life and the arts in general.

711
00:35:30.599 --> 00:35:33.280
<v Speaker 3>And so I got to talking to the Academy American.

712
00:35:32.880 --> 00:35:37.199
<v Speaker 5>Poets who serve Who's a big part of who they serve,

713
00:35:37.280 --> 00:35:40.000
<v Speaker 5>our educators, And I thought, well, I can't do.

714
00:35:39.960 --> 00:35:40.800
<v Speaker 3>This single handedly.

715
00:35:40.840 --> 00:35:43.679
<v Speaker 5>But if we team up with educators and give them

716
00:35:43.719 --> 00:35:47.519
<v Speaker 5>a leg up right and thinking about giving them resources

717
00:35:47.519 --> 00:35:51.000
<v Speaker 5>and tools to teach poetry and interesting and innovative ways,

718
00:35:51.639 --> 00:35:55.920
<v Speaker 5>then the numbers, you know, are exponential. You know how

719
00:35:55.920 --> 00:35:59.559
<v Speaker 5>many hundreds thousands of students run across their classrooms in

720
00:35:59.599 --> 00:36:00.239
<v Speaker 5>their life time.

721
00:36:00.639 --> 00:36:02.760
<v Speaker 3>And so that's my role there, And that was sort

722
00:36:02.760 --> 00:36:04.519
<v Speaker 3>of self created too, because I just.

723
00:36:04.840 --> 00:36:08.639
<v Speaker 5>Again I wanted to I wanted to poetry, poetry for

724
00:36:09.239 --> 00:36:12.360
<v Speaker 5>the people, by the people of the people, so to speak.

725
00:36:13.039 --> 00:36:16.679
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Absolutely, and I really again i'd love that. And

726
00:36:16.719 --> 00:36:21.119
<v Speaker 2>I really do commend you for again really putting poetry

727
00:36:21.119 --> 00:36:24.320
<v Speaker 2>in a place, especially with your platform that's so kind

728
00:36:24.320 --> 00:36:27.719
<v Speaker 2>of touchable, it's so reachable. It's very commendable for you

729
00:36:27.760 --> 00:36:30.920
<v Speaker 2>to be doing that, especially in a place where like

730
00:36:30.960 --> 00:36:34.280
<v Speaker 2>where you're living Miami, Dad. So I want to move

731
00:36:34.320 --> 00:36:38.000
<v Speaker 2>on a bit here now. In How to Love a Country,

732
00:36:38.039 --> 00:36:42.719
<v Speaker 2>First off, that title is already an interesting and interesting title,

733
00:36:42.760 --> 00:36:44.360
<v Speaker 2>and I would love to kind of find out more

734
00:36:44.360 --> 00:36:47.000
<v Speaker 2>about how that that title even came about. But in

735
00:36:47.079 --> 00:36:51.039
<v Speaker 2>How to Love a Country, you write of America's I

736
00:36:51.079 --> 00:36:56.320
<v Speaker 2>would say, almost painful and beautiful contradictions, right, beauty and

737
00:36:56.360 --> 00:36:57.480
<v Speaker 2>its brokenness.

738
00:36:57.800 --> 00:36:58.000
<v Speaker 5>Right.

739
00:36:58.639 --> 00:37:00.840
<v Speaker 2>I mean at this point, you know, looking at the

740
00:37:00.840 --> 00:37:03.159
<v Speaker 2>world we live in today, Richard, I mean, do you

741
00:37:03.280 --> 00:37:08.440
<v Speaker 2>believe poetry can still heal a nation? Or are we

742
00:37:08.480 --> 00:37:11.199
<v Speaker 2>at a different phase in life now? What are your thoughts?

743
00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:14.639
<v Speaker 3>Yeah? Sure?

744
00:37:14.719 --> 00:37:20.280
<v Speaker 5>So that book was an outgrowth of, again, the same

745
00:37:20.360 --> 00:37:22.719
<v Speaker 5>question of home, right, but not just what home means

746
00:37:22.719 --> 00:37:25.280
<v Speaker 5>to me, but what is the larger question of home

747
00:37:25.360 --> 00:37:27.480
<v Speaker 5>means to us? So a lot of that poetry is

748
00:37:27.480 --> 00:37:30.599
<v Speaker 5>more the poetry of weed than the poetry of me. Again,

749
00:37:30.679 --> 00:37:33.880
<v Speaker 5>but with the same question, because you know, traveling around

750
00:37:33.920 --> 00:37:37.760
<v Speaker 5>and or just the response of tens of thousands of

751
00:37:37.760 --> 00:37:40.840
<v Speaker 5>emails of people saying they finally felt like part of America.

752
00:37:40.440 --> 00:37:44.599
<v Speaker 3>Anyway, but again being on the road, right, what can

753
00:37:44.639 --> 00:37:45.679
<v Speaker 3>a poem do in the world? Right?

754
00:37:45.719 --> 00:37:48.559
<v Speaker 5>How can a poem participate in some kind of civic discord.

755
00:37:48.639 --> 00:37:51.320
<v Speaker 5>What does a poem do? And so that book was

756
00:37:51.440 --> 00:37:54.760
<v Speaker 5>really different for me in that sense, I dare to

757
00:37:54.800 --> 00:37:57.119
<v Speaker 5>sort of step way outside my comfort zone in terms

758
00:37:57.199 --> 00:38:01.039
<v Speaker 5>of just my sort more autobiographical foundations.

759
00:38:01.119 --> 00:38:04.119
<v Speaker 3>Right so, so U.

760
00:38:04.599 --> 00:38:07.000
<v Speaker 5>So that I wanted, I wanted us all to look

761
00:38:07.039 --> 00:38:10.280
<v Speaker 5>at that.

762
00:38:08.719 --> 00:38:11.320
<v Speaker 3>That, like you said, was where do you use that? Something?

763
00:38:12.280 --> 00:38:17.760
<v Speaker 3>Horrible beauty? What was the I mean beauty and it's beauty.

764
00:38:18.199 --> 00:38:20.840
<v Speaker 2>Painful contradiction, but a beautiful one.

765
00:38:23.039 --> 00:38:26.519
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, and uh and I think that you know, you

766
00:38:26.519 --> 00:38:28.719
<v Speaker 5>could almost put a question mark behind that title.

767
00:38:29.480 --> 00:38:32.440
<v Speaker 3>It's like, how how do you how to love a country?

768
00:38:32.519 --> 00:38:34.679
<v Speaker 3>Question mark? What does that even mean? What? How do

769
00:38:34.719 --> 00:38:35.159
<v Speaker 3>we love it?

770
00:38:36.079 --> 00:38:39.800
<v Speaker 5>I think that that broken beauty comes from two things.

771
00:38:39.840 --> 00:38:42.800
<v Speaker 5>One is, as I like to say, my my parents

772
00:38:42.800 --> 00:38:45.639
<v Speaker 5>are more American than I could ever be, or more

773
00:38:45.639 --> 00:38:48.519
<v Speaker 5>patriotic at least, and because of the leap of faith

774
00:38:48.559 --> 00:38:51.679
<v Speaker 5>and the sacrifices they made, the quintessential belief in the

775
00:38:51.719 --> 00:38:56.559
<v Speaker 5>American American dream and the values, uh, the traditional values

776
00:38:56.559 --> 00:38:57.960
<v Speaker 5>and the whole you know, the whole.

777
00:38:57.800 --> 00:39:00.800
<v Speaker 3>Promises of this country which we take for granted.

778
00:39:00.880 --> 00:39:03.039
<v Speaker 5>Right So, but they've always instilled in me a sense

779
00:39:03.039 --> 00:39:06.079
<v Speaker 5>of optimism that no matter how bad things are, there's

780
00:39:06.119 --> 00:39:09.719
<v Speaker 5>always something good to look at, right, and also their

781
00:39:09.760 --> 00:39:12.760
<v Speaker 5>own countries, right, but that yeah, there's a lot of

782
00:39:12.800 --> 00:39:16.760
<v Speaker 5>broken stuff that we also have to look up.

783
00:39:16.800 --> 00:39:20.519
<v Speaker 3>But I think, you know, to say that I know

784
00:39:20.599 --> 00:39:22.599
<v Speaker 3>where and where we are now that book was.

785
00:39:22.519 --> 00:39:26.559
<v Speaker 5>Published in before the twenty sixteen election, and that we

786
00:39:26.559 --> 00:39:30.280
<v Speaker 5>were already a bit broken, right yeah, And like you say,

787
00:39:30.360 --> 00:39:33.440
<v Speaker 5>where we are now is like, so that's the question,

788
00:39:33.760 --> 00:39:35.480
<v Speaker 5>and it's social sort of maybe what I'm going to

789
00:39:35.519 --> 00:39:38.320
<v Speaker 5>be writing around around next You know, I don't to

790
00:39:38.360 --> 00:39:40.519
<v Speaker 5>be honest with you, and I don't I don't like

791
00:39:40.840 --> 00:39:43.719
<v Speaker 5>saying that you know that anything really changes the world

792
00:39:43.800 --> 00:39:47.079
<v Speaker 5>per se like boom like. But what I always do

793
00:39:47.159 --> 00:39:50.320
<v Speaker 5>believe is that you know, art, a poem can change

794
00:39:50.320 --> 00:39:52.719
<v Speaker 5>a person, and a person can change the world. And

795
00:39:52.960 --> 00:39:54.920
<v Speaker 5>what's weird what we do is artists, right, It's like

796
00:39:54.960 --> 00:39:57.039
<v Speaker 5>we never see the ripple effects of what we do.

797
00:39:57.199 --> 00:39:59.960
<v Speaker 5>You know, who knows if little Barack Obama read up

798
00:40:00.079 --> 00:40:03.599
<v Speaker 5>Home by Maya Angelou or you know, by Gwendolen Broke

799
00:40:03.679 --> 00:40:06.360
<v Speaker 5>and said I'm going to change the world. We do

800
00:40:06.400 --> 00:40:08.519
<v Speaker 5>what we do, right, but we we we also do

801
00:40:08.559 --> 00:40:11.440
<v Speaker 5>it in a in a in acquired way. So I

802
00:40:11.480 --> 00:40:14.920
<v Speaker 5>think I think that is the role of poetry, at

803
00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:16.880
<v Speaker 5>least that's what I wanted to do in that book,

804
00:40:17.199 --> 00:40:20.239
<v Speaker 5>you know, because as artist, as poets, we're asking questions

805
00:40:20.239 --> 00:40:21.719
<v Speaker 5>hopefully that aren't being asked.

806
00:40:21.960 --> 00:40:24.679
<v Speaker 3>We're not just stating the obvious. Sometimes we need to

807
00:40:24.719 --> 00:40:25.440
<v Speaker 3>state the obvious.

808
00:40:25.480 --> 00:40:27.800
<v Speaker 5>But it's also art should give us a way out

809
00:40:27.920 --> 00:40:31.320
<v Speaker 5>or or some some way, not a way out, but another.

810
00:40:31.079 --> 00:40:34.559
<v Speaker 3>Possibility right that we be looking at.

811
00:40:34.800 --> 00:40:38.480
<v Speaker 5>I think art also humanizes these issues that get abstracted

812
00:40:38.519 --> 00:40:40.320
<v Speaker 5>by the news and by social media.

813
00:40:40.719 --> 00:40:43.239
<v Speaker 3>Right when you when when you when you write.

814
00:40:43.079 --> 00:40:45.880
<v Speaker 5>Poetry of witness, when you create, when you write a

815
00:40:45.920 --> 00:40:48.559
<v Speaker 5>poem about a real person, there's a real faith, there's

816
00:40:48.599 --> 00:40:50.960
<v Speaker 5>real names, there's real tears, there's real.

817
00:40:51.119 --> 00:40:55.199
<v Speaker 3>Smiles, there's real all that, right, it becomes a real thing.

818
00:40:55.360 --> 00:41:00.679
<v Speaker 3>So so I don't quite no.

819
00:41:00.960 --> 00:41:03.840
<v Speaker 5>I think I've been talking to a lot of my friends,

820
00:41:03.880 --> 00:41:07.199
<v Speaker 5>as I'm sure you have to, and and we're we're

821
00:41:07.599 --> 00:41:09.639
<v Speaker 5>we're like, what is the role of poetry right now?

822
00:41:09.719 --> 00:41:10.400
<v Speaker 3>What can we do?

823
00:41:10.840 --> 00:41:15.280
<v Speaker 5>And part of what we're feeling too is that right now,

824
00:41:15.400 --> 00:41:17.880
<v Speaker 5>joy and beauty are radical as well, and that can

825
00:41:17.920 --> 00:41:21.280
<v Speaker 5>also change things, right if we can start looking at

826
00:41:21.280 --> 00:41:23.960
<v Speaker 5>the beauty, and by that I don't necessarily mean oh,

827
00:41:24.000 --> 00:41:25.239
<v Speaker 5>a rose or something like that.

828
00:41:25.280 --> 00:41:27.840
<v Speaker 3>But again, what are we not looking at? Where is there.

829
00:41:27.719 --> 00:41:32.679
<v Speaker 5>Something that can help help these help these divide I

830
00:41:32.679 --> 00:41:36.480
<v Speaker 5>wouldn't say heal these divides, but let's get people talking

831
00:41:36.559 --> 00:41:40.000
<v Speaker 5>in some ways. And again it's quiet work, right, but

832
00:41:40.039 --> 00:41:45.159
<v Speaker 5>there's a lot of us. But I think it's really

833
00:41:45.199 --> 00:41:45.880
<v Speaker 5>interesting the.

834
00:41:45.920 --> 00:41:47.760
<v Speaker 3>Role of poetry becomes more and more important.

835
00:41:47.800 --> 00:41:50.719
<v Speaker 5>And you've seen that in our country as things become

836
00:41:50.760 --> 00:41:54.320
<v Speaker 5>more politically complex, as they are in Latin American countries

837
00:41:54.360 --> 00:41:57.920
<v Speaker 5>and in oppressed countries right where the poets and it's

838
00:41:57.920 --> 00:42:00.159
<v Speaker 5>not even that they're writing political poems, it's just the

839
00:42:00.159 --> 00:42:02.840
<v Speaker 5>fact that they dare to hope and dream, they dare

840
00:42:03.000 --> 00:42:04.760
<v Speaker 5>to say something that.

841
00:42:04.679 --> 00:42:05.519
<v Speaker 3>Nobody is saying.

842
00:42:05.679 --> 00:42:08.639
<v Speaker 5>And that's why you get you know, poets jailed in

843
00:42:08.679 --> 00:42:10.760
<v Speaker 5>all these countries, unfortunately.

844
00:42:10.159 --> 00:42:15.440
<v Speaker 3>But you know that that's that's where I feel we're

845
00:42:15.639 --> 00:42:16.880
<v Speaker 3>in starting to be in this moment.

846
00:42:16.920 --> 00:42:19.440
<v Speaker 5>This is why we also have right, you've even seen

847
00:42:19.679 --> 00:42:22.320
<v Speaker 5>the poets that have originated from spoken word, who has

848
00:42:22.320 --> 00:42:25.079
<v Speaker 5>always carried a different not a different kind of torch,

849
00:42:25.159 --> 00:42:28.079
<v Speaker 5>but a much brighter torch in terms of social political issues.

850
00:42:28.519 --> 00:42:29.800
<v Speaker 3>How they have become.

851
00:42:29.480 --> 00:42:31.400
<v Speaker 5>More a part of the forefront right now you have

852
00:42:31.519 --> 00:42:35.000
<v Speaker 5>poets like Patricia Smith or teachers at Princeton, right, that

853
00:42:35.159 --> 00:42:39.039
<v Speaker 5>sense of the collective voice, the voice that sort of

854
00:42:39.760 --> 00:42:43.000
<v Speaker 5>that sort of is about we, and and dares the

855
00:42:43.119 --> 00:42:46.039
<v Speaker 5>question that we has been coming more and more important.

856
00:42:46.119 --> 00:42:50.519
<v Speaker 5>So yeah, I think everybody, every art and every discipline

857
00:42:50.559 --> 00:42:53.039
<v Speaker 5>has to do their own their own part. But again,

858
00:42:53.079 --> 00:42:56.960
<v Speaker 5>the work is quieter, or we don't always see it, right, Yeah,

859
00:42:57.119 --> 00:42:58.639
<v Speaker 5>the ripple takes a while, man.

860
00:42:59.440 --> 00:43:02.440
<v Speaker 2>So it's it's it's interesting Richard with you, I mean,

861
00:43:02.480 --> 00:43:05.079
<v Speaker 2>and you kind of answered this question a bit there

862
00:43:05.199 --> 00:43:08.840
<v Speaker 2>is you do see a balance of the art with

863
00:43:08.960 --> 00:43:11.840
<v Speaker 2>the activism or even in some ways from which while

864
00:43:11.880 --> 00:43:15.480
<v Speaker 2>I'm hearing you say, you almost see them intertwined into one. Right,

865
00:43:15.519 --> 00:43:18.639
<v Speaker 2>even said our joy is our resistance. That is a

866
00:43:18.679 --> 00:43:22.400
<v Speaker 2>form of revolution in itself. Just writing about the beauty,

867
00:43:22.880 --> 00:43:25.800
<v Speaker 2>I mean for you, I mean, how do you? Because

868
00:43:25.800 --> 00:43:28.800
<v Speaker 2>I do feel reading your work there is a very deep,

869
00:43:29.039 --> 00:43:35.840
<v Speaker 2>deep tenderness. There's a deep consideration for for something, a

870
00:43:35.960 --> 00:43:39.519
<v Speaker 2>nurturing for something. How do you, I mean, when you're

871
00:43:39.559 --> 00:43:43.719
<v Speaker 2>confronting is you know, issues with history, pain, you write

872
00:43:43.800 --> 00:43:48.840
<v Speaker 2>poems for marriage equality, reopening the US embassy in Cuba, tragedy,

873
00:43:48.880 --> 00:43:52.719
<v Speaker 2>there's triumph. How do you kind of keep your tenderness right?

874
00:43:52.800 --> 00:43:55.320
<v Speaker 2>How do you keep that beauty still as a thread

875
00:43:55.400 --> 00:43:58.440
<v Speaker 2>in your work? I mean where do you locate that?

876
00:43:58.639 --> 00:43:59.119
<v Speaker 2>For you?

877
00:43:59.400 --> 00:44:01.960
<v Speaker 4>I mean where where do you find that within yourself?

878
00:44:03.360 --> 00:44:07.679
<v Speaker 3>Yeah? I think it comes down to empathy. And empathy

879
00:44:07.719 --> 00:44:08.119
<v Speaker 3>is such.

880
00:44:08.000 --> 00:44:11.360
<v Speaker 5>A weird word in English because it's so close to sympathy, right,

881
00:44:11.559 --> 00:44:16.639
<v Speaker 5>but it is real. Empathy is has a different kind

882
00:44:16.679 --> 00:44:21.599
<v Speaker 5>of connotation. It's really about really stepping outside of yourself, right.

883
00:44:21.920 --> 00:44:23.679
<v Speaker 5>But also where does that come from?

884
00:44:24.039 --> 00:44:25.199
<v Speaker 3>For me? I think it.

885
00:44:25.199 --> 00:44:28.880
<v Speaker 5>Comes from Uh maybe perhaps the empathy I wish I

886
00:44:28.920 --> 00:44:32.480
<v Speaker 5>would have had, right so as an immigrant, as a gay,

887
00:44:32.679 --> 00:44:36.719
<v Speaker 5>as a gay man, as as a gay man with

888
00:44:36.719 --> 00:44:39.960
<v Speaker 5>my grandmother who was also verbally abusive. You know, I

889
00:44:40.039 --> 00:44:44.320
<v Speaker 5>always think, I guess I side with kind of the underdog,

890
00:44:44.400 --> 00:44:46.079
<v Speaker 5>and I think what I want to give them instead

891
00:44:46.119 --> 00:44:48.840
<v Speaker 5>of telling them you're the underdog or this is wrong

892
00:44:48.880 --> 00:44:49.119
<v Speaker 5>or right?

893
00:44:49.639 --> 00:44:51.519
<v Speaker 3>How can I uplift everyone? Right?

894
00:44:51.559 --> 00:44:54.039
<v Speaker 5>Like, how can I how can I open open up,

895
00:44:54.760 --> 00:44:57.599
<v Speaker 5>open up new ways of looking at but also You're right,

896
00:44:57.639 --> 00:45:00.840
<v Speaker 5>there's a it's always I think with love somehow with empathy,

897
00:45:00.920 --> 00:45:05.760
<v Speaker 5>because I think it's just a real deep belief in me.

898
00:45:05.880 --> 00:45:07.840
<v Speaker 5>You know, as a cliche goes, you can catch more

899
00:45:07.880 --> 00:45:10.960
<v Speaker 5>flies with honey than with vinegar, and I kind of

900
00:45:11.880 --> 00:45:14.400
<v Speaker 5>or to quote Michael Jackson, and I'm a lover, not

901
00:45:14.440 --> 00:45:20.000
<v Speaker 5>a fighter, right, you know, art, I think art for me,

902
00:45:20.039 --> 00:45:20.840
<v Speaker 5>and I think there's.

903
00:45:20.599 --> 00:45:22.199
<v Speaker 3>Many ways of handling that, right.

904
00:45:22.280 --> 00:45:24.679
<v Speaker 5>Different poets handle it different ways, which can be just

905
00:45:24.719 --> 00:45:27.559
<v Speaker 5>as effective. But for me, it's very much ingrained in

906
00:45:27.639 --> 00:45:30.360
<v Speaker 5>that always feeling like like that other, and therefore the

907
00:45:30.400 --> 00:45:34.440
<v Speaker 5>empathy that I'm just about putting out their empathy right

908
00:45:34.840 --> 00:45:36.079
<v Speaker 5>and lifting people up.

909
00:45:35.960 --> 00:45:39.559
<v Speaker 3>And saying Jane Hirshfield, I think it was Jane.

910
00:45:39.360 --> 00:45:43.079
<v Speaker 5>Hersfield and might be misquoting this because it's one of

911
00:45:43.119 --> 00:45:45.440
<v Speaker 5>those things you hear at a cocktail party or something,

912
00:45:45.760 --> 00:45:50.960
<v Speaker 5>but she said, poetry is simply a hand reaching out

913
00:45:51.000 --> 00:45:52.119
<v Speaker 5>and saying me too.

914
00:45:53.519 --> 00:45:55.480
<v Speaker 3>And I've never forgotten that, right, It's a hand that

915
00:45:55.519 --> 00:45:57.280
<v Speaker 3>it says me too, and then me too.

916
00:45:57.400 --> 00:45:59.599
<v Speaker 5>Is not just the people you're you know, it's not

917
00:45:59.679 --> 00:46:03.559
<v Speaker 5>just my LGBTQ family, It's not just my immigrant family.

918
00:46:03.599 --> 00:46:06.400
<v Speaker 5>It's all of us have felt pain, we've all felt displaced,

919
00:46:06.440 --> 00:46:09.760
<v Speaker 5>we've all felt lost, right, we've all felt joy, we've

920
00:46:09.800 --> 00:46:14.079
<v Speaker 5>all felt ecstasy and desire, and so it's just yeah,

921
00:46:14.199 --> 00:46:19.079
<v Speaker 5>me too, here's the poem, Me too, And so so

922
00:46:19.199 --> 00:46:22.880
<v Speaker 5>that's part of what And you're right. I've learned from

923
00:46:23.280 --> 00:46:26.320
<v Speaker 5>a lot of times from writing occasional or commissioned poems

924
00:46:26.719 --> 00:46:29.960
<v Speaker 5>that I think the tenderness that you feel coming through,

925
00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:32.679
<v Speaker 5>even when it can be something like a poem for

926
00:46:32.760 --> 00:46:37.039
<v Speaker 5>Boston Strong, which is something I didn't experience directly, you know,

927
00:46:37.199 --> 00:46:39.400
<v Speaker 5>something that was written for the people of Boston.

928
00:46:40.960 --> 00:46:45.800
<v Speaker 3>I think what you're sensing there is that this is

929
00:46:45.800 --> 00:46:47.920
<v Speaker 3>a big lesson in terms of craft that I realized.

930
00:46:47.920 --> 00:46:51.159
<v Speaker 5>An occasional poem isn't really just about the occasion, but

931
00:46:51.239 --> 00:46:55.000
<v Speaker 5>it's about what one feels about the occasion. In other words,

932
00:46:55.239 --> 00:46:57.920
<v Speaker 5>like a poem, Like every poem, a poem's poets feelings

933
00:46:57.960 --> 00:47:01.440
<v Speaker 5>have to really sort of guide the poem and inform

934
00:47:01.519 --> 00:47:04.400
<v Speaker 5>the poem. And that's the tenderness I think you feel.

935
00:47:04.440 --> 00:47:07.079
<v Speaker 5>And for me, just to give you that example of

936
00:47:07.119 --> 00:47:10.199
<v Speaker 5>Boston Trunk, my heart was really broken by the little

937
00:47:10.239 --> 00:47:13.280
<v Speaker 5>boy Martin that that that past that died and that

938
00:47:13.400 --> 00:47:15.719
<v Speaker 5>was my emotional way into that poem and saying, you know,

939
00:47:15.840 --> 00:47:18.639
<v Speaker 5>I have an emotional authority to write this. Now I

940
00:47:18.639 --> 00:47:22.239
<v Speaker 5>can write with honesty and with real feeling, and so.

941
00:47:23.679 --> 00:47:24.880
<v Speaker 3>Again, even that poem.

942
00:47:24.760 --> 00:47:26.800
<v Speaker 5>Is sort of a poem of empathy for the people

943
00:47:26.840 --> 00:47:30.199
<v Speaker 5>of Boston and victims and the survivors. So yeah, I

944
00:47:30.239 --> 00:47:32.960
<v Speaker 5>always try to find that that way. That's my way

945
00:47:33.000 --> 00:47:34.039
<v Speaker 5>into poetry a lot.

946
00:47:34.480 --> 00:47:38.480
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely. Oh, I love that. I love the individual that

947
00:47:38.760 --> 00:47:43.039
<v Speaker 2>you quoted right there. Poetry is about you give someone

948
00:47:43.039 --> 00:47:45.960
<v Speaker 2>a poem. It's them just telling you me too, and

949
00:47:46.000 --> 00:47:47.639
<v Speaker 2>you reading it, you're saying you know what, me too.

950
00:47:48.079 --> 00:47:49.960
<v Speaker 2>So I love that and I love that that stayed

951
00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:51.800
<v Speaker 2>with you, and I think that'll stay with the folks

952
00:47:51.800 --> 00:47:54.679
<v Speaker 2>that are listening. So thanks so much for that. Now,

953
00:47:54.719 --> 00:47:59.039
<v Speaker 2>moving quite along here, Yeah, you have your memoir, The

954
00:47:59.079 --> 00:48:04.119
<v Speaker 2>Prince of Love called. I said that it correctly said that,

955
00:48:04.159 --> 00:48:10.639
<v Speaker 2>please correct me. But it's being developed for television. My goodness. Congratulations. Now,

956
00:48:10.760 --> 00:48:13.360
<v Speaker 2>I mean, what is that like? I mean is that?

957
00:48:13.880 --> 00:48:16.519
<v Speaker 2>I mean you've already had so many I've made it moments.

958
00:48:17.000 --> 00:48:19.440
<v Speaker 2>Is that another one? Just to kind of keep keep

959
00:48:19.679 --> 00:48:22.519
<v Speaker 2>sticking that nail in that wall? I mean that is

960
00:48:23.039 --> 00:48:25.719
<v Speaker 2>that is huge and that's so amazing. I mean, what's

961
00:48:25.760 --> 00:48:29.400
<v Speaker 2>it like to really see your life translated into a

962
00:48:29.440 --> 00:48:32.880
<v Speaker 2>whole new media I'm a TV show and really tell

963
00:48:32.960 --> 00:48:35.719
<v Speaker 2>us about how that process began and what that's gonna

964
00:48:36.280 --> 00:48:39.199
<v Speaker 2>what that's going to transform into. Uh as we look

965
00:48:39.239 --> 00:48:40.800
<v Speaker 2>forward to seeing that on television.

966
00:48:43.199 --> 00:48:47.440
<v Speaker 5>Sure, Sure, And I should warn people though, I mean development,

967
00:48:47.880 --> 00:48:50.559
<v Speaker 5>there's still one big hurdle after that, which is the

968
00:48:50.679 --> 00:48:54.039
<v Speaker 5>studio that actually buys the you know, now we're working

969
00:48:54.079 --> 00:48:56.599
<v Speaker 5>on it right, but still even get to development, and

970
00:48:56.599 --> 00:48:59.599
<v Speaker 5>it's a big deal. So I'm not I'm not downplaying that,

971
00:48:59.679 --> 00:49:02.960
<v Speaker 5>but it's still there's still that one b card.

972
00:49:03.519 --> 00:49:05.679
<v Speaker 3>So again, you were saying, like how many times I

973
00:49:05.719 --> 00:49:06.760
<v Speaker 3>go after things or not?

974
00:49:06.960 --> 00:49:11.360
<v Speaker 5>So I happened to be I was a speaker at

975
00:49:11.400 --> 00:49:15.199
<v Speaker 5>the Aspen Ideas Festival, and I met Michael Eisner, who

976
00:49:15.320 --> 00:49:20.079
<v Speaker 5>is the former CEO of Disney World, and and I

977
00:49:20.119 --> 00:49:22.039
<v Speaker 5>was just like, I didn't even know he had like

978
00:49:22.199 --> 00:49:25.559
<v Speaker 5>a company now that options books and whatnot. But I

979
00:49:25.599 --> 00:49:27.960
<v Speaker 5>was just I told him, im, I guess how many

980
00:49:27.960 --> 00:49:29.079
<v Speaker 5>times I've been in Disney World.

981
00:49:29.599 --> 00:49:33.800
<v Speaker 3>He's like coming in like fifty eight times near in Miami.

982
00:49:33.840 --> 00:49:34.440
<v Speaker 3>That's what you do.

983
00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:38.320
<v Speaker 5>Anyway, we got to talking about just that that it

984
00:49:38.360 --> 00:49:40.360
<v Speaker 5>was just a very for me. It was just very

985
00:49:40.440 --> 00:49:42.960
<v Speaker 5>uncarafter Michael. I mean, I do care that you're Michael Wiser,

986
00:49:43.199 --> 00:49:46.679
<v Speaker 5>but I was just really wanted to connect with him,

987
00:49:46.760 --> 00:49:48.840
<v Speaker 5>like we're the same love I have for this place.

988
00:49:49.519 --> 00:49:52.000
<v Speaker 5>And so it turned out he had this option company

989
00:49:52.000 --> 00:49:55.559
<v Speaker 5>and the optioned the book, and so we've been He's

990
00:49:55.599 --> 00:50:00.760
<v Speaker 5>also made made a co writer because he it'd be

991
00:50:00.920 --> 00:50:02.519
<v Speaker 5>smart enough. I think that he said, you know, it's

992
00:50:02.519 --> 00:50:05.480
<v Speaker 5>such a particular and unique and important story that we

993
00:50:05.480 --> 00:50:06.840
<v Speaker 5>don't want someone else to like.

994
00:50:06.840 --> 00:50:09.199
<v Speaker 3>Be met messing it up that are really getting the

995
00:50:09.280 --> 00:50:12.039
<v Speaker 3>nuances of it. So he's very aware of that.

996
00:50:12.119 --> 00:50:15.760
<v Speaker 5>So I have I'm working with someone who has knows

997
00:50:15.800 --> 00:50:18.400
<v Speaker 5>more of the mechanics of like what works, because I don't.

998
00:50:18.480 --> 00:50:22.400
<v Speaker 5>I've never written for television. What's been What's been great?

999
00:50:22.519 --> 00:50:24.800
<v Speaker 5>There's It is a big dream come true for me,

1000
00:50:24.960 --> 00:50:27.239
<v Speaker 5>and in the sense that I'm kind of a TV

1001
00:50:27.320 --> 00:50:30.719
<v Speaker 5>holic again for reasons we were talking about earlier. TV

1002
00:50:30.960 --> 00:50:34.960
<v Speaker 5>was my window into this country that I thought that

1003
00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:38.599
<v Speaker 5>I wanted to belong to, like the whole you know,

1004
00:50:39.039 --> 00:50:40.000
<v Speaker 5>I dream of Genie.

1005
00:50:40.719 --> 00:50:42.320
<v Speaker 3>So I always wanted.

1006
00:50:42.039 --> 00:50:46.280
<v Speaker 5>To see what it's always been a dream to have.

1007
00:50:46.440 --> 00:50:48.440
<v Speaker 5>Like what when I wrote the book, I almost wrote

1008
00:50:48.480 --> 00:50:51.239
<v Speaker 5>it episodically because I was like, I hope this is

1009
00:50:51.280 --> 00:50:53.840
<v Speaker 5>a TV show someday, because I could see the whole

1010
00:50:53.840 --> 00:50:54.679
<v Speaker 5>Blanco family.

1011
00:50:55.559 --> 00:50:58.679
<v Speaker 3>So so that's just exciting in and of itself.

1012
00:50:59.800 --> 00:51:02.880
<v Speaker 5>What it's really weird, not weird, but what's different of course,

1013
00:51:02.960 --> 00:51:05.599
<v Speaker 5>which is kind of like a little like playwriting, although

1014
00:51:05.679 --> 00:51:08.039
<v Speaker 5>you have more tricks when you do TV because you

1015
00:51:08.039 --> 00:51:09.400
<v Speaker 5>have lighting and sound.

1016
00:51:09.119 --> 00:51:11.920
<v Speaker 3>And all these other things going on. You know, it's

1017
00:51:12.039 --> 00:51:13.760
<v Speaker 3>and you can cut it, edit, you know, all this

1018
00:51:13.840 --> 00:51:14.440
<v Speaker 3>other stuff.

1019
00:51:14.800 --> 00:51:18.920
<v Speaker 5>But was you know, as opposed to writing poetry or

1020
00:51:18.920 --> 00:51:22.280
<v Speaker 5>even a memoir where you're really detailing things and scenes

1021
00:51:22.960 --> 00:51:25.320
<v Speaker 5>and the furniture in the room, and you know, it's

1022
00:51:25.320 --> 00:51:28.639
<v Speaker 5>really mostly about dialogue and plot and sort of learning

1023
00:51:28.639 --> 00:51:31.760
<v Speaker 5>how to pull back from that and letting you know.

1024
00:51:31.760 --> 00:51:34.400
<v Speaker 3>If you've ever read a script, like even for something

1025
00:51:34.440 --> 00:51:37.559
<v Speaker 3>like Seinfeld, it's not even that funny.

1026
00:51:38.400 --> 00:51:42.599
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, it's the magic of the how, what what the

1027
00:51:42.880 --> 00:51:45.159
<v Speaker 5>what the actors bring to it. How it's all on

1028
00:51:45.400 --> 00:51:47.679
<v Speaker 5>folds on that say so. So it's also been a

1029
00:51:47.679 --> 00:51:51.679
<v Speaker 5>process of trusting and letting go as a writer, I

1030
00:51:51.719 --> 00:51:54.360
<v Speaker 5>have to you know, you know, the club has to

1031
00:51:54.400 --> 00:51:57.119
<v Speaker 5>be this color or like that's not exactly the right

1032
00:51:57.159 --> 00:51:59.719
<v Speaker 5>food for the scene like that.

1033
00:52:00.719 --> 00:52:03.880
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, no, that's I mean, but what an exciting process.

1034
00:52:04.119 --> 00:52:06.199
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I know, like you said, you know you're

1035
00:52:06.239 --> 00:52:08.719
<v Speaker 2>still waiting for that studio, but I mean to even

1036
00:52:08.760 --> 00:52:11.400
<v Speaker 2>be in development, I mean, and that that kind of

1037
00:52:11.440 --> 00:52:14.800
<v Speaker 2>already that hookup with Michael Eisner. I mean, I think

1038
00:52:14.840 --> 00:52:17.480
<v Speaker 2>you're I think you're good as golden honestly, Richard, I

1039
00:52:17.639 --> 00:52:19.039
<v Speaker 2>don't think you're going to really have much of a

1040
00:52:19.079 --> 00:52:23.519
<v Speaker 2>problem with him back in you what is.

1041
00:52:23.519 --> 00:52:26.679
<v Speaker 5>Such a champion too, and we're talking about how people

1042
00:52:26.760 --> 00:52:30.000
<v Speaker 5>feel things, you know, so he's like he loves the

1043
00:52:30.039 --> 00:52:32.639
<v Speaker 5>story because he's like this Jewish kid that grew up

1044
00:52:33.239 --> 00:52:35.639
<v Speaker 5>you know, Brooklyn and completely feeling.

1045
00:52:35.639 --> 00:52:36.199
<v Speaker 3>Like the other.

1046
00:52:36.480 --> 00:52:40.599
<v Speaker 5>So you know, so that's the hand too, Like he

1047
00:52:40.760 --> 00:52:42.960
<v Speaker 5>just adores the story and like, what would a Cuban

1048
00:52:42.960 --> 00:52:47.559
<v Speaker 5>and a Jewish comment, Well, it's it's still diaspora in

1049
00:52:47.559 --> 00:52:49.519
<v Speaker 5>a way, right, and not in a way it is right.

1050
00:52:50.159 --> 00:52:51.960
<v Speaker 2>Tell me kind of, I mean, and you know again

1051
00:52:52.159 --> 00:52:55.079
<v Speaker 2>you hear kind of these you know, these moments that

1052
00:52:55.159 --> 00:52:57.199
<v Speaker 2>you have and I'm sure when you look back on

1053
00:52:57.360 --> 00:53:01.320
<v Speaker 2>just how opportunities have came about for you. I'm sure

1054
00:53:01.320 --> 00:53:05.840
<v Speaker 2>it's been a collection of smaller moments where you didn't

1055
00:53:05.840 --> 00:53:08.480
<v Speaker 2>even come into a thinking that. I mean, if you

1056
00:53:08.519 --> 00:53:10.480
<v Speaker 2>could even speak to people that are listening to this,

1057
00:53:10.559 --> 00:53:12.920
<v Speaker 2>the are novice poets, you know, they could only dream

1058
00:53:12.960 --> 00:53:15.679
<v Speaker 2>of a career like yours, Richard, I mean, but what

1059
00:53:15.719 --> 00:53:17.880
<v Speaker 2>would you say to them, though? You know, what would

1060
00:53:17.920 --> 00:53:21.119
<v Speaker 2>you say to them in terms of expansion, maybe of

1061
00:53:21.239 --> 00:53:24.719
<v Speaker 2>poetry looking outside the box? Then maybe the rigid way

1062
00:53:24.719 --> 00:53:29.639
<v Speaker 2>in which academia schooling has taught us that writing specifically

1063
00:53:29.840 --> 00:53:33.000
<v Speaker 2>poetry can box us into what would you say to

1064
00:53:33.079 --> 00:53:36.320
<v Speaker 2>people that want to really see their career flourish and

1065
00:53:36.440 --> 00:53:38.920
<v Speaker 2>didn't don't really have maybe the open mind, but are

1066
00:53:39.000 --> 00:53:39.599
<v Speaker 2>looking for that.

1067
00:53:44.320 --> 00:53:48.760
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, so you know, I think this applies the most everything.

1068
00:53:48.960 --> 00:53:50.840
<v Speaker 5>You obviously have to show up, and you have to

1069
00:53:50.840 --> 00:53:54.480
<v Speaker 5>do the work right and try to constantly honing your

1070
00:53:54.519 --> 00:53:57.719
<v Speaker 5>skills right and forgetting accolades because you know, you got

1071
00:53:57.719 --> 00:53:58.519
<v Speaker 5>to get back to that.

1072
00:53:58.679 --> 00:54:00.440
<v Speaker 3>It's just you and the poem, right, It's just.

1073
00:54:00.440 --> 00:54:02.800
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, the I guess it depends on what stage you

1074
00:54:02.800 --> 00:54:05.480
<v Speaker 5>are a lot of my undergraduates get a little ahead

1075
00:54:05.480 --> 00:54:06.559
<v Speaker 5>of themselves, and they're like.

1076
00:54:06.480 --> 00:54:07.559
<v Speaker 3>We want to publish them like this.

1077
00:54:08.079 --> 00:54:10.199
<v Speaker 5>Your job right now is to learn how to write

1078
00:54:10.239 --> 00:54:13.119
<v Speaker 5>the best poem you can write, and there'll be time

1079
00:54:13.159 --> 00:54:15.360
<v Speaker 5>to publish. Don't worry about that right now. I mean,

1080
00:54:15.400 --> 00:54:17.719
<v Speaker 5>you have to share your work if you want, put

1081
00:54:17.760 --> 00:54:20.039
<v Speaker 5>it on Instagram if you want. But don't feel like

1082
00:54:20.559 --> 00:54:23.440
<v Speaker 5>it's a vocation not a career right now. Right Well,

1083
00:54:23.480 --> 00:54:27.480
<v Speaker 5>it's always a vocation at some points, right So, I.

1084
00:54:27.400 --> 00:54:30.639
<v Speaker 3>Guess it depends where you are. But I guess I'll

1085
00:54:30.639 --> 00:54:33.480
<v Speaker 3>tell you what I've done. You know, you just you

1086
00:54:33.679 --> 00:54:38.840
<v Speaker 3>just you just stick it. You just have to show up.

1087
00:54:38.880 --> 00:54:40.960
<v Speaker 5>I mean, I can't explain it the way I would

1088
00:54:41.000 --> 00:54:43.719
<v Speaker 5>say that, you know, when we have other things in

1089
00:54:43.760 --> 00:54:47.559
<v Speaker 5>our lives, even my engineering, right I gave up promotions.

1090
00:54:49.599 --> 00:54:50.320
<v Speaker 3>At some point.

1091
00:54:50.960 --> 00:54:52.920
<v Speaker 5>I told my boss I only want to work thirty

1092
00:54:52.960 --> 00:54:56.559
<v Speaker 5>hours a week. I want to get benefits. And because

1093
00:54:56.639 --> 00:54:58.280
<v Speaker 5>they already knew I was a writer and I was

1094
00:54:58.400 --> 00:54:59.360
<v Speaker 5>out of my first book.

1095
00:54:59.639 --> 00:55:00.840
<v Speaker 3>But I guess that's what I want to say. It's

1096
00:55:00.880 --> 00:55:02.519
<v Speaker 3>there's a danger in losing.

1097
00:55:02.280 --> 00:55:06.159
<v Speaker 5>Sight of of that dream, right and then just not

1098
00:55:06.239 --> 00:55:10.199
<v Speaker 5>writing or just so and not participating in that world anymore,

1099
00:55:10.280 --> 00:55:12.920
<v Speaker 5>and so I always say, set up your life to

1100
00:55:12.960 --> 00:55:16.119
<v Speaker 5>sort of feed feed that part of you, right, if

1101
00:55:16.119 --> 00:55:20.159
<v Speaker 5>you're serious about it, because because most of us will

1102
00:55:20.159 --> 00:55:22.239
<v Speaker 5>have to do something else, right, unless we're trust fund

1103
00:55:22.280 --> 00:55:24.920
<v Speaker 5>babies and are just living off whatever the trust right,

1104
00:55:24.960 --> 00:55:26.599
<v Speaker 5>we're going to have to find some other kind of

1105
00:55:26.639 --> 00:55:29.119
<v Speaker 5>lively you know, not only that it's healthy to have

1106
00:55:29.159 --> 00:55:33.280
<v Speaker 5>something else sometimes too, that can you know. So so

1107
00:55:33.280 --> 00:55:35.639
<v Speaker 5>I would say to always, you know, again, show up

1108
00:55:37.079 --> 00:55:39.480
<v Speaker 5>the other little tidbit of advice. I would say, it's

1109
00:55:39.599 --> 00:55:42.840
<v Speaker 5>very hard to be in that space about career expansion

1110
00:55:43.320 --> 00:55:45.280
<v Speaker 5>and all that stuff and be in the creative space

1111
00:55:45.320 --> 00:55:49.000
<v Speaker 5>at the same time, and so you should try to

1112
00:55:49.039 --> 00:55:52.000
<v Speaker 5>compartment compartmentalize those Like, first of all, you need to

1113
00:55:52.039 --> 00:55:55.599
<v Speaker 5>have work right to be get anywhere. Right, You're not

1114
00:55:55.599 --> 00:55:59.519
<v Speaker 5>going to get anywhere without good work. That's or in

1115
00:55:59.599 --> 00:56:01.960
<v Speaker 5>good work. I mean, you know that's relative too, right,

1116
00:56:02.039 --> 00:56:06.360
<v Speaker 5>that always that's subjective. But so what I try to

1117
00:56:06.400 --> 00:56:09.000
<v Speaker 5>do is your moments of or not moments or really

1118
00:56:09.039 --> 00:56:13.599
<v Speaker 5>periods of intense creativity and then create something. Usually it's

1119
00:56:13.599 --> 00:56:16.960
<v Speaker 5>a book. And then I just switched to complete marketing.

1120
00:56:17.239 --> 00:56:20.320
<v Speaker 5>You know, give me a reading, let me do this right,

1121
00:56:20.480 --> 00:56:23.679
<v Speaker 5>Like it's time to hit the road, it's time to

1122
00:56:23.719 --> 00:56:24.960
<v Speaker 5>send to review urgs.

1123
00:56:25.039 --> 00:56:26.199
<v Speaker 3>It's time and.

1124
00:56:26.079 --> 00:56:28.599
<v Speaker 5>That's another part of our job, right, But it's hard

1125
00:56:28.599 --> 00:56:30.159
<v Speaker 5>to do those at the same time.

1126
00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:34.079
<v Speaker 3>Because you're you're kind of you know that other stuff.

1127
00:56:34.119 --> 00:56:37.960
<v Speaker 5>You're always you're putting yourself out there in a different way.

1128
00:56:38.000 --> 00:56:41.480
<v Speaker 5>That's kind of is important, but it's also not the

1129
00:56:41.480 --> 00:56:43.880
<v Speaker 5>same thing as you know, putting yourself out in your

1130
00:56:43.880 --> 00:56:46.239
<v Speaker 5>own work, right, the chances you're taking with you sitting

1131
00:56:46.280 --> 00:56:48.639
<v Speaker 5>at the desk, which that's important. So I like to

1132
00:56:48.679 --> 00:56:51.039
<v Speaker 5>compartmentalize those things, and I think you know that's part

1133
00:56:51.079 --> 00:56:54.000
<v Speaker 5>of that's part of how you you know, you keep

1134
00:56:54.039 --> 00:56:57.719
<v Speaker 5>on moving forward and again put you know, there's moments

1135
00:56:57.760 --> 00:57:01.119
<v Speaker 5>to be out there and active. We pursue stuff that's

1136
00:57:01.159 --> 00:57:03.360
<v Speaker 5>going to help your I'm going to use the word

1137
00:57:03.440 --> 00:57:05.800
<v Speaker 5>vocation instead of career because I think that's really what

1138
00:57:05.840 --> 00:57:10.800
<v Speaker 5>it is. And then those opportunities start happening and multiplying

1139
00:57:11.039 --> 00:57:13.679
<v Speaker 5>because the other the other thing is also I always

1140
00:57:13.719 --> 00:57:17.840
<v Speaker 5>tell you know, being part of community of writers, that's important, right,

1141
00:57:17.960 --> 00:57:21.400
<v Speaker 5>like just being in community, going to poetry readings, going

1142
00:57:21.480 --> 00:57:24.719
<v Speaker 5>to if you have an opportunity to teach a workshop,

1143
00:57:24.800 --> 00:57:28.159
<v Speaker 5>let's say at a at a community center, being part

1144
00:57:28.280 --> 00:57:30.880
<v Speaker 5>of poetry in some other way too, that that's part

1145
00:57:30.920 --> 00:57:35.159
<v Speaker 5>of our what makes us energetically feel like keeps on

1146
00:57:35.280 --> 00:57:36.480
<v Speaker 5>lifting us up, keeps us.

1147
00:57:36.360 --> 00:57:39.360
<v Speaker 3>Feeling like we are writers that we are. Also there's other.

1148
00:57:39.239 --> 00:57:44.760
<v Speaker 5>People in our same shoes too, So so yeah, I would,

1149
00:57:45.119 --> 00:57:48.599
<v Speaker 5>And I guess you know, the bottom line is you

1150
00:57:48.719 --> 00:57:51.440
<v Speaker 5>got to remain true to your voice. And that's that

1151
00:57:51.440 --> 00:57:55.320
<v Speaker 5>that covers a lot of ground. But there is a

1152
00:57:55.360 --> 00:57:58.039
<v Speaker 5>lot of intimidation out there to write like so and so,

1153
00:57:58.280 --> 00:58:01.480
<v Speaker 5>or do this like so and so. Yeah, you know,

1154
00:58:01.559 --> 00:58:04.559
<v Speaker 5>find find I mean, I'm not saying, you know, find

1155
00:58:04.800 --> 00:58:05.679
<v Speaker 5>finding our voice.

1156
00:58:05.719 --> 00:58:07.679
<v Speaker 3>You know, I don't want to excuse poetry that's not

1157
00:58:07.880 --> 00:58:10.039
<v Speaker 3>you know, that's my voice. That's not what I'm saying.

1158
00:58:10.039 --> 00:58:12.519
<v Speaker 5>If the boy, if the poem is you know, not

1159
00:58:12.599 --> 00:58:14.840
<v Speaker 5>where it should be, or the poetry is in Britschard,

1160
00:58:14.840 --> 00:58:19.199
<v Speaker 5>but it's really being authentic to your voice. And I

1161
00:58:19.239 --> 00:58:21.000
<v Speaker 5>think there's a lot of danger in that when we

1162
00:58:21.079 --> 00:58:24.000
<v Speaker 5>start thinking about MFA programs, when we saw start writing

1163
00:58:24.079 --> 00:58:26.760
<v Speaker 5>like each other. So always keep that in mind and

1164
00:58:26.840 --> 00:58:30.320
<v Speaker 5>find something that you really really care an obsession, what

1165
00:58:30.480 --> 00:58:32.840
<v Speaker 5>is home, something that is really a deep part of

1166
00:58:32.880 --> 00:58:35.360
<v Speaker 5>your big question in life, and let let every poem

1167
00:58:35.360 --> 00:58:39.320
<v Speaker 5>sort of start from there, and the rest will come.

1168
00:58:39.480 --> 00:58:43.760
<v Speaker 2>I think absolutely the rest is still unwritten. We love it,

1169
00:58:43.800 --> 00:58:44.679
<v Speaker 2>we love it, we love it.

1170
00:58:44.960 --> 00:58:47.639
<v Speaker 3>All right, well, right, you know exactly.

1171
00:58:47.639 --> 00:58:50.119
<v Speaker 4>Exactly exactly, shout out Natasha Beddingfield.

1172
00:58:50.119 --> 00:58:50.519
<v Speaker 3>There we go.

1173
00:58:50.960 --> 00:58:53.360
<v Speaker 2>Now, all right, Richard, Now you've said, there's a quote

1174
00:58:53.360 --> 00:58:58.360
<v Speaker 2>that you've said, you said, great art keeps asking questions. Now,

1175
00:58:58.400 --> 00:59:01.079
<v Speaker 2>if you could leave us all with one question that

1176
00:59:01.639 --> 00:59:06.440
<v Speaker 2>we want to keep asking about home, about love, about life,

1177
00:59:06.559 --> 00:59:09.119
<v Speaker 2>or about America, what would it be?

1178
00:59:11.239 --> 00:59:11.440
<v Speaker 3>Yeah?

1179
00:59:11.559 --> 00:59:15.519
<v Speaker 5>I think it's it's we've been sort of circling around it,

1180
00:59:15.599 --> 00:59:17.480
<v Speaker 5>I think, because I think, you know, the questions I

1181
00:59:17.480 --> 00:59:19.280
<v Speaker 5>have in my head are also thinking like what am

1182
00:59:19.280 --> 00:59:20.920
<v Speaker 5>I going to be writing about next? And how and

1183
00:59:20.960 --> 00:59:25.519
<v Speaker 5>why and how that's going to happen. But I've been thinking,

1184
00:59:25.599 --> 00:59:27.920
<v Speaker 5>and I think it started with how to love a country?

1185
00:59:28.320 --> 00:59:31.119
<v Speaker 5>The question on my mind. Of course, Okay, we can say,

1186
00:59:31.280 --> 00:59:33.840
<v Speaker 5>you know, I you know, I have almost you know,

1187
00:59:33.880 --> 00:59:38.239
<v Speaker 5>an epigenetic trauma of exile because of my mother being pregnantly.

1188
00:59:38.320 --> 00:59:41.280
<v Speaker 5>I'm really scared about what's happening right now right in

1189
00:59:41.320 --> 00:59:43.039
<v Speaker 5>our country. I mean there are days when I'm like,

1190
00:59:43.039 --> 00:59:44.440
<v Speaker 5>am I gonna have to do like my mom and

1191
00:59:44.559 --> 00:59:45.639
<v Speaker 5>like leave and like.

1192
00:59:45.920 --> 00:59:50.519
<v Speaker 3>Start a holy life somewhere else, literally because there's no

1193
00:59:50.559 --> 00:59:51.320
<v Speaker 3>other choice.

1194
00:59:51.599 --> 00:59:55.360
<v Speaker 5>So so the question that I'm asking how much can

1195
00:59:55.400 --> 00:59:55.719
<v Speaker 5>I do?

1196
00:59:56.280 --> 00:59:59.840
<v Speaker 3>What should I be doing? Is it just poetry? Right?

1197
01:00:00.039 --> 01:00:03.039
<v Speaker 5>Because the pen is mightier than the sword, but the

1198
01:00:03.119 --> 01:00:07.119
<v Speaker 5>sword's out there, you know, So I'm trying to see what.

1199
01:00:07.199 --> 01:00:09.960
<v Speaker 3>Is that space? How?

1200
01:00:11.440 --> 01:00:14.880
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, like what should poetry be doing in the world

1201
01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:18.119
<v Speaker 5>right now? For me and for us all, but also

1202
01:00:18.760 --> 01:00:23.639
<v Speaker 5>beyond the sort of very sort of patu sort of

1203
01:00:24.119 --> 01:00:26.079
<v Speaker 5>let's heald the divide kind of thing.

1204
01:00:27.559 --> 01:00:29.599
<v Speaker 3>And maybe this has something to do with empathy.

1205
01:00:29.639 --> 01:00:33.239
<v Speaker 5>But I'm feeling like there's this shifting momentum in some

1206
01:00:33.320 --> 01:00:38.159
<v Speaker 5>weird way that this country is still our country is

1207
01:00:38.199 --> 01:00:40.719
<v Speaker 5>still very much stuck on this idea of independence.

1208
01:00:41.079 --> 01:00:41.280
<v Speaker 3>Right.

1209
01:00:41.280 --> 01:00:44.360
<v Speaker 5>We haven't shaken that off for good reason, right, Like

1210
01:00:44.440 --> 01:00:48.360
<v Speaker 5>that's we broke away from whatever. But really, if we're

1211
01:00:48.400 --> 01:00:50.360
<v Speaker 5>going to survive, it's really about how do we shift

1212
01:00:50.400 --> 01:00:51.840
<v Speaker 5>that thinking to interdependence?

1213
01:00:51.960 --> 01:00:52.079
<v Speaker 3>Right?

1214
01:00:52.199 --> 01:00:55.239
<v Speaker 5>Like that really that's the next highest level of thinking.

1215
01:00:55.239 --> 01:00:58.400
<v Speaker 5>And I'm thinking that that's that's kind of what I started.

1216
01:00:58.440 --> 01:01:00.440
<v Speaker 5>I think hope to show, hope to show in the

1217
01:01:00.440 --> 01:01:02.840
<v Speaker 5>inaugural poem that whether you know it or not, we're

1218
01:01:02.880 --> 01:01:06.599
<v Speaker 5>all connected, right, and all this survival really belongs on

1219
01:01:06.760 --> 01:01:09.159
<v Speaker 5>up with all of us are a cog, you know,

1220
01:01:09.480 --> 01:01:13.719
<v Speaker 5>a gear and this and this thing called life. We

1221
01:01:13.840 --> 01:01:18.760
<v Speaker 5>kind of learned that in the pandemic, but soon forgot it, right, So,

1222
01:01:19.360 --> 01:01:21.880
<v Speaker 5>uh so that's the question. It's really a question of

1223
01:01:21.920 --> 01:01:25.960
<v Speaker 5>how what what is interdependence? How do we get there? Like,

1224
01:01:26.079 --> 01:01:29.920
<v Speaker 5>what does that look like? And it's just it's yes,

1225
01:01:29.960 --> 01:01:31.519
<v Speaker 5>it's our country, but that's a big word.

1226
01:01:31.519 --> 01:01:35.320
<v Speaker 3>It's also our communities. It's also our family, all the.

1227
01:01:35.280 --> 01:01:38.760
<v Speaker 5>Divides that are big and small out there, and and

1228
01:01:38.800 --> 01:01:43.199
<v Speaker 5>how do we how do we use language to some degree?

1229
01:01:43.360 --> 01:01:44.880
<v Speaker 5>And that comes from that space.

1230
01:01:45.400 --> 01:01:49.119
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely absolutely, I love that as the one question he

1231
01:01:49.199 --> 01:01:52.320
<v Speaker 2>would leave us to keep on asking, all right, Richard,

1232
01:01:52.599 --> 01:01:55.960
<v Speaker 2>our last question of the interview of the day of

1233
01:01:56.079 --> 01:01:59.960
<v Speaker 2>the night you ask every poet on the poet Speaks podcast, Richard,

1234
01:02:00.280 --> 01:02:01.920
<v Speaker 2>why do you need to get your words out?

1235
01:02:06.360 --> 01:02:06.679
<v Speaker 3>Okay?

1236
01:02:07.679 --> 01:02:12.039
<v Speaker 5>I don't know out, but there might be two sides

1237
01:02:12.079 --> 01:02:14.400
<v Speaker 5>of the same question, two sides of the same coin, right, So,

1238
01:02:15.039 --> 01:02:17.280
<v Speaker 5>and I always tell my students.

1239
01:02:16.719 --> 01:02:18.880
<v Speaker 3>This which they kind of freak out a bit.

1240
01:02:19.639 --> 01:02:23.079
<v Speaker 5>I tell I'm writing a poem is the stupidest, most arrogant,

1241
01:02:23.119 --> 01:02:28.360
<v Speaker 5>self serving, dumbest thing you can do in the world.

1242
01:02:28.519 --> 01:02:32.400
<v Speaker 5>And then I also felt it's also the most generous, selfish,

1243
01:02:32.639 --> 01:02:37.000
<v Speaker 5>self less, gregarious, honest, most beautiful thing you can do

1244
01:02:37.039 --> 01:02:40.239
<v Speaker 5>in the world. And I perceived to explain that, you know,

1245
01:02:40.840 --> 01:02:43.639
<v Speaker 5>when a poem first begins in us, we have to

1246
01:02:43.679 --> 01:02:45.519
<v Speaker 5>come with all the blood, sweat and tears. We have

1247
01:02:45.559 --> 01:02:47.559
<v Speaker 5>to come with all you know, everything that is not

1248
01:02:47.679 --> 01:02:50.199
<v Speaker 5>why bother. You know, we have to believe that our

1249
01:02:50.360 --> 01:02:54.039
<v Speaker 5>lives need need art right, and I need.

1250
01:02:53.920 --> 01:02:56.599
<v Speaker 3>To make art out of this why to understand it?

1251
01:02:57.039 --> 01:02:59.800
<v Speaker 5>Every time I finish a poem or almost finished a poem,

1252
01:03:00.039 --> 01:03:02.239
<v Speaker 5>I feel like I learned something new about myself, about

1253
01:03:02.239 --> 01:03:05.400
<v Speaker 5>my world, about people in my life, about a memory

1254
01:03:05.400 --> 01:03:07.880
<v Speaker 5>that I've had for thirty years haunting me, about a

1255
01:03:08.000 --> 01:03:11.760
<v Speaker 5>current event, about politics.

1256
01:03:11.800 --> 01:03:14.559
<v Speaker 3>And I think when I discover that for myself, this is.

1257
01:03:14.480 --> 01:03:17.800
<v Speaker 5>How it turns from something selfish into something selfless, because

1258
01:03:17.840 --> 01:03:21.840
<v Speaker 5>then that discovery is there again the hand that says

1259
01:03:22.039 --> 01:03:24.559
<v Speaker 5>me too, And then your poem is a gift in

1260
01:03:24.599 --> 01:03:25.000
<v Speaker 5>the world.

1261
01:03:25.079 --> 01:03:28.599
<v Speaker 3>And that's why I want. That's why that's why I

1262
01:03:28.639 --> 01:03:29.920
<v Speaker 3>write my poems, and that's why I.

1263
01:03:29.920 --> 01:03:32.719
<v Speaker 5>Want them out there, is for those stories that come

1264
01:03:32.760 --> 01:03:35.679
<v Speaker 5>back to you that say that poem made me think

1265
01:03:35.719 --> 01:03:39.920
<v Speaker 5>of when blank blank blank, that poem I'd never thought

1266
01:03:39.920 --> 01:03:42.360
<v Speaker 5>about this, but that poem shifted to something in me,

1267
01:03:43.039 --> 01:03:46.039
<v Speaker 5>that poem, because what they're seeing is what happened to me.

1268
01:03:46.360 --> 01:03:48.360
<v Speaker 5>In some ways, they're seeing it in their own lives

1269
01:03:48.360 --> 01:03:50.119
<v Speaker 5>and maybe a different context.

1270
01:03:50.760 --> 01:03:53.079
<v Speaker 3>And so that's why I want it out.

1271
01:03:52.960 --> 01:03:56.360
<v Speaker 5>There, because it does no good just sitting on my

1272
01:03:56.360 --> 01:03:58.719
<v Speaker 5>my notebooks are on my desk or in my computer.

1273
01:03:59.519 --> 01:04:02.000
<v Speaker 4>It does no good just sitting there. It has to

1274
01:04:02.000 --> 01:04:02.880
<v Speaker 4>be on the world.

1275
01:04:03.000 --> 01:04:05.559
<v Speaker 2>All right, Well, Richard, thank you so much. We really

1276
01:04:05.639 --> 01:04:08.840
<v Speaker 2>appreciate you being on a podcast today. Before we wrap up,

1277
01:04:08.840 --> 01:04:11.000
<v Speaker 2>wrap up, please do I mean tell us what is

1278
01:04:11.039 --> 01:04:13.519
<v Speaker 2>the rest of twenty twenty five looking like for you?

1279
01:04:13.920 --> 01:04:15.840
<v Speaker 2>Any events you want to tell us about, and please

1280
01:04:15.880 --> 01:04:19.639
<v Speaker 2>do drop below tell us links social media websites where

1281
01:04:19.679 --> 01:04:21.239
<v Speaker 2>we can check out all of your amazing work.

1282
01:04:23.400 --> 01:04:28.840
<v Speaker 5>So right now I'm teaching two classes, which keeps me

1283
01:04:28.920 --> 01:04:30.760
<v Speaker 5>kind of busy just doing you know, some gigs here

1284
01:04:30.800 --> 01:04:32.960
<v Speaker 5>and there. I have something very exciting that it just

1285
01:04:33.000 --> 01:04:36.199
<v Speaker 5>started two weeks ago. So I am starting to do

1286
01:04:36.599 --> 01:04:43.119
<v Speaker 5>through my website, online online courses, book consultations, portfolio consultations,

1287
01:04:43.519 --> 01:04:47.239
<v Speaker 5>just trying something new. There's a free one coming up

1288
01:04:47.239 --> 01:04:50.440
<v Speaker 5>on November twentieth, which is just called It's just a

1289
01:04:50.440 --> 01:04:55.639
<v Speaker 5>forum again free of charge. And so you think you're

1290
01:04:55.679 --> 01:04:58.679
<v Speaker 5>not a popet, that's the name, and it's just I

1291
01:04:58.679 --> 01:05:00.639
<v Speaker 5>want to share my story about like we talked about

1292
01:05:00.719 --> 01:05:03.639
<v Speaker 5>like because for a while, I just I also had

1293
01:05:03.679 --> 01:05:06.119
<v Speaker 5>sort of this imposter syndrome, right, how can I be

1294
01:05:06.119 --> 01:05:07.119
<v Speaker 5>an engineer and a poet?

1295
01:05:07.440 --> 01:05:09.760
<v Speaker 3>Until everything started really gelling together for me?

1296
01:05:10.840 --> 01:05:12.679
<v Speaker 5>And so I want to share that story, and I

1297
01:05:12.679 --> 01:05:15.119
<v Speaker 5>want others to share their stories about and again sort

1298
01:05:15.159 --> 01:05:18.440
<v Speaker 5>of how do we make our way through our vocations

1299
01:05:18.480 --> 01:05:20.679
<v Speaker 5>while we have to do have other jobs, some of

1300
01:05:20.719 --> 01:05:22.440
<v Speaker 5>which we love, some of which we might not love.

1301
01:05:22.519 --> 01:05:26.920
<v Speaker 3>So just opening up that conversation so uh so that

1302
01:05:27.119 --> 01:05:32.000
<v Speaker 3>I'm really excited about that venture. I've I have.

1303
01:05:32.079 --> 01:05:34.679
<v Speaker 5>Yet to start writing again for my last book because

1304
01:05:34.719 --> 01:05:36.760
<v Speaker 5>I'm that kind of writer. I told you I shift

1305
01:05:36.760 --> 01:05:39.719
<v Speaker 5>gears and I'm like all in, like you know, out there,

1306
01:05:39.880 --> 01:05:43.519
<v Speaker 5>out there mode. So uh that's the that's the question

1307
01:05:43.719 --> 01:05:46.639
<v Speaker 5>that I'm asking everyone, and then I'm asking myself. That's

1308
01:05:46.639 --> 01:05:49.679
<v Speaker 5>probably gonna be what the next book is. Other than that,

1309
01:05:51.039 --> 01:05:53.440
<v Speaker 5>uh yeah, just to usually can always check out my

1310
01:05:53.480 --> 01:05:57.639
<v Speaker 5>website w w W w w W Richard Blanco dot

1311
01:05:57.679 --> 01:06:00.280
<v Speaker 5>com with iphen and all my events are let's there

1312
01:06:00.320 --> 01:06:04.360
<v Speaker 5>as well as latest news. Also, you know, I love

1313
01:06:04.480 --> 01:06:08.440
<v Speaker 5>using social media, not just for me, but really to

1314
01:06:08.559 --> 01:06:13.039
<v Speaker 5>uplift other poets, uplift poetry in general. So there's things

1315
01:06:13.079 --> 01:06:16.920
<v Speaker 5>out there and it quotes, book recommendations, these kinds of

1316
01:06:17.000 --> 01:06:19.199
<v Speaker 5>things that hopefully you can get turned on to.

1317
01:06:20.719 --> 01:06:21.559
<v Speaker 3>If you were to kill me.

1318
01:06:21.599 --> 01:06:27.719
<v Speaker 5>I don't know my text, my handles, but Richard Blanco poet.

1319
01:06:27.760 --> 01:06:31.039
<v Speaker 5>And then one is poet Richard Blanco mostly mostly Instagram

1320
01:06:31.079 --> 01:06:34.000
<v Speaker 5>and Facebook, but that there's not that too many Richard

1321
01:06:34.039 --> 01:06:36.880
<v Speaker 5>Blancos out there. The only other one is a real

1322
01:06:37.000 --> 01:06:39.760
<v Speaker 5>estate agent and a soccer player, so you'll.

1323
01:06:39.519 --> 01:06:43.880
<v Speaker 2>Know if you're in the wrong until three Yeah, different people,

1324
01:06:43.920 --> 01:06:47.039
<v Speaker 2>So all right, perfect, perfect, Well, thank you again so much, Richard.

1325
01:06:47.079 --> 01:06:47.400
<v Speaker 3>Everyone.

1326
01:06:47.519 --> 01:06:50.719
<v Speaker 4>Richard's links will be down below in the description box

1327
01:06:50.800 --> 01:06:54.440
<v Speaker 4>no matter where you're listening to this amazing podcast. Again,

1328
01:06:54.639 --> 01:06:56.519
<v Speaker 4>all right, thank you so much for being on the

1329
01:06:56.559 --> 01:06:57.239
<v Speaker 4>podcast today.

1330
01:06:57.320 --> 01:07:00.480
<v Speaker 3>Richard thank you, and thank you Amanda for all you're

1331
01:07:00.519 --> 01:07:03.360
<v Speaker 3>doing and all you do. We're all into the same team.

1332
01:07:03.800 --> 01:07:05.679
<v Speaker 4>Absolutely, absolutely again everyone.

1333
01:07:05.760 --> 01:07:08.039
<v Speaker 2>Richard's links will be down below no matter where you're

1334
01:07:08.039 --> 01:07:09.480
<v Speaker 2>listening to his podcast again.

1335
01:07:09.559 --> 01:07:11.960
<v Speaker 4>This is the Pold Speaks podcast. We'll talk to you soon.

1336
01:07:12.079 --> 01:07:14.599
<v Speaker 4>Alive one