I'm Adely Mone and this is The Slowdown.

The other day I was wondering what would happen if I just stopped worrying about my body.

My new book of poems is coming out and I was telling my podcast producer, Micah, who is

recording this with me now, how it's so strange to do the work of publicity.

First, you worry about the poems, only the poems, one word, one image at a time, and then

you worry about putting them together in a book, and then you worry about the cover, and

then the author photos and readings and press shoots.

You worry about your face and your body, and that doesn't seem like it should ever be a

part of any of it.

And so I've been working on not worrying, just being who I am in my body.

I'm not saying I am successfully not worrying all the time, but I am working on it.

And sometimes when I fail, and I catch myself saying something unpleasant about how I look

in the mirror or a photograph.

My friend Vaughn says, hey, be nice to my friend Ada.

And so that's what I've been trying to do, to be nice to my friend Ada.

Part of this work is also just trying to live as freely as possible.

I realize that yes, I may have ongoing pain and may have mysterious health issues now

and again, but wouldn't it be good if I could just get up in the morning and move to the

world and just feel whole and complete and exactly who I am meant to be?

It's a radical notion for me.

It's a radical notion for anyone who has grown up in our society.

I love to think about how the neighborhood fox gets up and thinks about maybe catching

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