This year, Ada Lemone was named the 24th U.S. Poet Laureate.

Her poetry has been lauded for its ability to connect, which is funny to me given how much of it addresses that divide we all feel inside.

Not enough of this, too much of that, the ambivalence around freedom versus commitment, the

who we are with ourselves versus the who we are in relation to others.

I got a chance to sit with Ada in person at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.,

and she was every bit as brilliant and charming and funny as her poems made me believe she was.

We talked about her path from theater to marketing to the event that compelled her to go for it,

to make all the poems, to not miss out on her own life.

Thank you. the poems to not miss out on her own life. Ada, how amazing to be with you in the Library of Congress.

Oh, thank you so much. It is such a pleasure to be here. The library is one of my favorite places on the planet. It's so beautiful. So how does one find out that they're going to be the next U.S. Poet Laureate? It's so interesting because it's not something that you apply for. You know, it's not something that you've sent out a resume and asked people you know to

write letters of recommendations. So it's not really on your radar. It certainly wasn't on mine.

I got a invitation from my representative, Von Fielder, who's marvelous and a dear friend.

And she said, you're going to need to be on this Zoom call at 1015 on Wednesday morning, and I'm sorry, I can't tell you anything more. And I said, okay, but, you know, I have physical therapy that day, so I'm probably not going to be able to make it. And she said, no, you're going to want to make it. She said, also, you might want to, you know, put some lipstick on to your hair. And I was like, what is this? And so I sat down and

got all ready for the call and had no idea what was happening. They sent me a link. I went to the

link and in the middle of the Zoom call was Dr. Carla Hayden, the librarian of Congress. And she

invited me to be the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States.

And you said?

I mean, well, first of all, I said nothing because I was completely without words.

I never say the word flabbergasted, but I feel like flabbergasted is a great word for that.

I was flabbergasted. And so I found myself really sort of staring into the ether and thinking about all the people who have come before me in this position.

And it really felt like they were all kind of with me in the room at the same time.

And of course I said yes.

...