So now, we're going to take a few questions,
if you'd like to.
Oh, already.
Wow.
OK.
Was the woman on Martha's Vineyard saving the Wampanoag
language?
Yes.
I was a guest of hers, and she took me to the ocean.
The poem you shared on the bodies of water is there like
a--is there--
All these times you're visiting them,
is there a universal connection, would you say, about the water?
The different types of water?
Like streams and oceans?
For me, or in general?
Well, for me, I always find any surface water just--
it was just amazing to see even a small stream
or a pond or a lake just because of where we grew up.
That's a rare sight.
So surface water, to me, is just exciting at any time.
But the big waters, those to me are--
because they're just huge.
I would like to see the Great Lakes someday.
I don't think I've ever seen the Great Lakes.
But I'm glad that I've seen the Atlantic and the Pacific.
Those are new to me.
It's always almost a religious experience
when I go to the ocean, because that's
what it's supposed to be first.
And then you can have fun in it.
So those are a different type of experience.
But any surface water is, to me, always exciting.
The irrigation ditches, though, don't do that.
[LAUGHTER]
Thank you for your question, Skye.
Can you talk a little bit about how you write poems?
Do you spend a long time thinking about the same images,
or do you write them all at once?
Just because you do so many different things.
How do you get poems in there, too?
Yeah.
Yeah, it does take me quite a while to get pieces done.
I carry them around for a long time.
I was just telling a class earlier this week
that I find that I--
because they sort of asked me the same type of question.
I find that I observe things carefully,
and I hold on to those images.
Most of the time, I don't write them down.
I tried that.
I try writing them down.
But it always turns out that I forget where I wrote it down.
So if I put it somewhere in my memory,
I can eventually pull it back up.
So I'll carry things, information like that,
around for a long time.
And then at some point, I'll start pulling it forward.
Actually, I do a lot of the creation
and the formation of things just in my head,
and I go through that process for quite a while
before I'll put it on paper.
And I always write longhand.
And that's why I end up with lots of notebooks,
too, because I start that way before I type it
or anything like that.
So sort of the long answer.
It does take me quite a while to get a work done, or even just
one piece done.
Yeah.
Thank you for your question.
I think we have time for one more.
As a linguistics student, I didn't
catch the linguistics joke.
[LAUGHTER]
How is the lighthouse keeping?
Lighthouse keeping, or light housekeeping?
[LAUGHTER]
Well, that seems like a great note to end on.
[LAUGHTER]
OK.
Yeah.
Thank you all for coming out.
There are books and posters for sale.
So if you can afford-- if you're afforded to afford them,
why not?
And we will be here to sign books, answer questions, maybe
talk, I don't know.
So yeah, I think we should give her one more round of applause.
[APPLAUSE]