Poet Cleo Wade on the Difference Between Being Alone and Being Lonely

Women Who Travel | Condé Nast Traveler

Condé Nast Traveler

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.4 • 636 Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2021

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Even if you haven't seen her face, you've probably seen poet Cleo Wade's block letter handwriting and warm words on your social media feeds. The activist and author of three books—most recently a children's book called What the Road Said*—*has dedicated her career to sharing words of self-worth, encouragement, and community. She has penned poems in just about every situation, from scribbling thoughts onto bar napkins to setting up her pink typewriter, which she carried with her on trips around the world in her 20s. Her latest poem, “That Fairmont Feeling,” was written in a slightly more traditional way, as part of her latest role as poet-in-residence for Fairmont Hotels and Resorts.

This week, we sat down with Cleo to talk about toting around the aforementioned typewriter, why solo travel has proven to be the most inspiring time to write, and how she can't wait to watch her two children fall in love with travel.

Read a full transcription of episode here: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/cleo-wade-women-who-travel-podcast

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Women Who Travel, a podcast from Condoness Traveler. I'm Lale Aricoglu, and with me, as always, is my co-host Meredith Carey.
0:13.0	Hello. This week we're chatting to the poet, activist and author Clio Wade, whose words can be found
0:19.0	everywhere from our Instagram feeds to big city billboards.
0:22.5	Her most recent book, What the Road said, came out earlier this year, and she's currently the
0:27.0	poet in residence for Fairmont hotels and resorts. Thanks for joining us, Cleo. Thanks for
0:32.2	having me all. So it feels like life has quite suddenly come roaring back full force. How have you been adjusting
0:42.4	to being busy again? I am not adjusting. I think that everything right now is about finding
0:50.5	what's comfortable for you and how. And I was actually just saying earlier that I think
0:57.6	that when I went to New York for the Fairmont event unveiling this poem in their beautiful
1:02.0	installation, it was like one of the second times I've gotten on a flight in like two years. And that's
1:06.6	someone who used to travel 90% of the year touring. And two kids later. So I think that for me,
1:15.2	I'm, you know, just trying to stay as conscious as possible as far as, you know, what the
1:20.1	world means for going back full force and how to keep people safe and how to be responsible
1:25.8	and how to make sure that we can build
1:30.5	intentional loving community as we find a new normal during these times. So I'm just, I'm really,
1:38.4	I'm not adjusting. I'm just taking it one day at a time and really also trying to be as imaginative as possible during this time
1:46.5	because things are open but I mean not really I mean I'm not putting my kids on an airplane
1:50.4	yet or anything like that so I don't know clearly you're a very well-seasoned traveler
1:56.4	do you think you want to go back to that pace of traveling, or do you think that you feel like you're faced with an opportunity to sort of slow down a little bit and kind of assess how you want to travel?
2:12.6	I think if there's anything we've learned during these past two years of finding these,
2:18.3	you know, whether it's a grand escape or a mini escape, it's exploring your kind of immediate
2:24.5	environments. How do you turn your backyard or your friend's backyard or a park nearby
	...

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