Hi.
Thank you, so much.
It's a real thrill to be here.
But first of all, you guys--
wow.
How good are they, seriously?
I work with Renée on Poetry Out Loud just about every year,
and this is really a highlight for me.
It's just so amazing to see the incredible work
that you are doing and the incredible support
you get from your community.
All the teachers, friends, parents, siblings, coaches,
thank you, guys, so much for what you do.
It's fantastic.
Let's hear it for you.
So I'm going to read for a few minutes.
And it's Valentine's Day, and I caved.
I did pull together a set of love poems for today,
but I am construing that very broadly.
And as I was pulling together this set,
I discovered, of course, that it's a very big subject.
It's a complicated subject.
It's a terrible subject and a wonderful subject
all at the same time.
And so I felt like, for this particular setting,
I would put together a set of poems
that attacks the subject in short bursts
from a lot of angles.
So here is a series of short love poems.
Happy Valentine's Day.