The ever-gorgeous Mary-Louise Parker sparked up a conversation with long-time friend Ryan Adams last night at the New York Public Library. Maybe it’s because of her on-screen persona as the pot-dealing MILF in Weeds, but we couldn’t help but think that she and Adams were a little high. High on art, though, not grass. The conversation, about Adams’ new book of verse, Hello Sunshine, was as free-ranging as the poetry itself, moving seamlessly from anecdotes about Parker’s less-than-clean kitchen to a discussion of the writings of Frederick Siedel.

Adams’ first book, Infinity Blues, is a completely different animal to his latest, which he wrote, he said, from “a clean place.” The singer talked about how his poetry often imitates a text message - short, abrupt lines, little capitalization - and how this, in a way, had its antecedent in the work of e.e. cummings. But, as Parker pointed out later in the conversation, when she suggested to Adams that he should try adding meter or scansion to his work, there’s a difference between what’s considered to be free verse today and the form as the modernist poets envisioned it. 

One thing the two agreed on, though, was the overuse of rain and sleep imagery in poetry: both wanted to see more of something else (zombies, they decided, were severely under-represented.) Adams is more musical lyricist than poet. After reading Hello Sunshine, we’re not certain how we feel about his poetry. But we’re still definitely sure how we feel about Mary-Louise Parker.