Moon Beams #11 - Kelli Russell Agodon
My recent conversation with Kelli Russell Agodon brimmed over with highlights, a pleasure in the moment and an honor to share here with episode 11 of “Moon Beams.”
One among many of said highlights was a foundational, paradigm-shifting conversation she had with one of her mentors, the poet Paula Jones Gardiner.
At the time, Kelli was voicing doubts about being able to afford quitting a lucrative job she had at the time, in order to devote the time and energy she saw as needful for fully committing to living, breathing, and producing poetry.
Gardiner told her, simply, directly: “You can’t afford not to.”
According to Kelli, “That was the one sentence that totally re-routed my life.”
We went to plenty of different places in our chat, including the much-needed work of educating young people about contemporary poetry being done by the #teachlivingpoets project created by Melissa Smith, as well as Agodon’s upcoming book, “Accidental Devotions,” coming in spring 2026, a collection Kelli said is, “Full of ghosts and god and Dickinson and desire and technology, there’s a lot.”
On a very moving note, Kelli also shared lines from her friend Martha Silano, who passed away this past May 5th from ALS.
“As long as she could, she wrote through the disease,” Kelli said, speaking to the family of neurological disorders under the ALS name that leaves the brain very functional, while hampering and steadily eating away at the signals that make essential movements and processes possible.
Touching on the topic connected with a personal place for me (see here for a piece I wrote about supporting the ALS Association’s Orange County Chapter), and it was beyond inspiring and heartening to hear Silano’s words in the recently-published poem, titled “Martha Silano - Poetry,” at “The Pedestal Magazine:”
“Cultivate the unexpected like cultivating/plums. Become the uncommon prune of the ages…. /Be the antidote and the anecdote…. /Especially in the morning,/listen to pigeons and scientists…./Unrigid your flagpole.”
“Her word play and her images have always just amazed me,” said Kelli, encouraging people to buy Martha’s upcoming book, “Terminal Surreal” by Acre Books which will be released on September 2nd, Martha’s birthday.
I’m tremendously grateful to Kelli for everything she does as a stand-out presence for inspiration and leadership in the poetry community, from her many publications to her role as co-host on the “Poems You Need” podcast she hosts with fellow-poet Melissa Studdard.
I’m thrilled to see what she does next, and for where “Moon Beams” in the near future, as the value it’s bringing me is as unpredictable as it is just plain fun to ride.
Be well and write more and definitely read more poetry, everybody.
