Tricycle Talks US Poet Laureate Ada Limón on the Practice of Startlement
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Sep 24, 2025 
Ada Limón, the 24th Poet Laureate of the U.S. and author of 'Startlement: New and Selected Poems,' explores the transformative power of poetry. She discusses 'startlement' as a pathway to spiritual awe and how poetry helps dissolve selfhood, revealing our interconnectedness. Limón shares her journey with loving-kindness meditation and highlights the beauty of human goodness. In readings from her latest collection, she emphasizes curiosity over nostalgia and the importance of language in capturing emotion, inviting listeners into a reflective experience.
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Do Daily Loving-Kindness
- Practice loving-kindness daily to ground and reshape your inner life.
- Ada credits Sharon Salzberg's loving-kindness teaching as a consistent, stabilizing daily practice.
Awe From Human Goodness
- Awe often arises more from seeing human goodness than from nature alone.
- Ada returns gratitude in poems as a reciprocal response to that awe and help.
Poem For The Climate Report
- Ada wrote the title poem for the National Climate Assessment after scientists urged her to avoid nostalgia.
- The poem emphasizes species interdependence and the need to become together rather than look backward.
