Hello and welcome to Frank Skinner's Poetry podcast. This week I'd like to look at the work

of the current United States poet laureate Aida Le Mone. Now Aida Le Mone, I really want

to call that Aida throughout this podcast because it's really one of my favourite names.

So for now I'll keep it formal, but I will lapse into that. Aida Le Mone is, and this

is always mentioned, you know, anything you ever read about her, she is the first Mexican

American poet laureate. And she wrote a poem, I won't do this whole poem, but I just give

you an insight into the honesty levels that Aida operates at. She wrote a poem called

the contract says, we'd like the conversation to be by lingua. It's about being a Mexican

American poet and about what I suppose why audiences expect from you, people who hire

you to do readings, etc. And the line breaks in this poem is what I'd just like to focus

on for a short time. So I won't read the whole bit through. I'm only going to do a couple

of tiny bits of this, but anyway I just say you get a taste. This is the contract says

we'd like the conversation to be by lingua. So it's about the contract you get for a poetry

reading. I imagine an educational establishment, an art centre, etc. When you come, bring

your brown. Now that's where the line ends. And you know that line breaks often are suspense

management. So I wonder what she wants to bring that's brown. When you come, bring your

brownness. So we can be sure to please line break the fonders. So that's the first line.

And it's in and it's in hard. Bring your brownness is quite a thing to say to a Mexican

American poet. I don't imagine they literally say that, but she is feeling that certainly.

And also feeling that she is a box being ticked to ensure funding. And I'll just give

you one small bit in which she, this is a great little couplet. And then on forgiving

insight into what these event organizers want from a biracial poet. And now they want

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