Kayden Hern was the toast of the town in New York after serving as the poet laureate at Gov. Kathy Hochul’s inauguration on New Year’s Day.

The 9-year-old Harlem honor roll student, who received a personal invitation from the state’s first elected woman governor, stole the show.

"In my mind, I used to be a child of poverty, not knowing that hopes and dreams can become reality," the 4th-grader recited the poem he penned to his spellbound audience. “In my mind, I thought it was fine to sit in the back of the classroom because my teacher never asked me to read or write. But little did she know I was ever so bright.”

Hochul told the audience that she first met Kayden outside Harlem’s Apollo Theater on amateur night. She asked him if he was going inside to watch someone perform. “He goes, ‘No, I’m a poet. I’m going to go recite,’” the governor recalled their conversation.

Kayden seized the opportunity.

"I figured he'd whip out a piece of paper and read it to me," Hochul continued. "He had memorized it … I stood there on the spot and I said, 'If I win this election, you are my poet laureate and I want you here.'"

CBS News New York reported that Kayden’s grandmother was his inspiration “because she told me to write down my thoughts about what's happening around the world."

"He would ask questions about racism, about school, about ... in the old-fashioned days, what was going on?" his grandmother said. "And I told him what was going on, and we just started writing things together."