Well, my ideas about Douglas Kearney
are far from the real deal, but that is OK because he is here.
But when we want to have the root, the leaves, the flower,
and the fruit all together, we go
to the work of Douglas Kearney.
In his first book Fear, Some, in a poem called "Alameda Street,"
he says, we're all just trying to leave a mark.
Placing the statement in relation
to the work of Black Took last night, I hear mark
and I hear mass.
In his second book, The Black Automaton,
in a sequence called "The Six Cities,"
he says, yesterday I woke and believed
I was a city, a green one.
And he says, let's go down to the water, yes, though
not the water of what we don't want.
Yesterday I woke and believed I was a city, a green one.
Douglas, you were right.
Please help me welcome Douglas Kearney.
[APPLAUSE]