Astrue has been the head of the Social Security Administration since 2007. By day he is a bureaucrat reporting directly to the president and overseeing 65,000 employees. By night he is a poet, writing under the pen name “A.M. Juster.” Is it ironic to be a poet in D.C., the city of resume pushers?
There’s a bit of a tradition. [Walt] Whitman came here and wrote some of his most important poems.
Where do you find inspiration?
It’s just paying attention to what’s going on around you. If you think it’s something mysterious, you’re not going to find it.
Does having a creative side help you at work?
No. It may just be right side of the brain and left side of the brain, but I don’t think there’s been very much tie between one and the other.
What did your colleagues say when they heard you were a poet?
I think they were kind of surprised and thought it was extremely strange. When the story first broke, one of my press people came to me, looked very worried and said “What happens now?” And I said, “I don’t know, I guess we’ll find out.” It wasn’t really a problem. It’s sort of unusual. Because from time to time now in a work context, when you’re arguing with another agency or something like that, or somebody’s telling you did a bad job on a regulation or something, they say “But I bought your book, and I liked your book.” And I still haven’t figured out what quite what tosay to that.
Do you have advice for aspiring poets?
The most important thing is to read a lot, and to read in a lot of different traditions and styles. It’s hard to write good poetry, so you want your tool kit to be as well-developed as possible.
