There's three good poems I've written in my life.
This is for George Evans, a Vietnam vet poet--
the best-- married to Daisy Zamora, my friend and mentor.
She was a combatant with the Sandinistas,
the voice of Radio Sandino, a great poet, and she was--
worked under father Ernesto Cardenal.
They started the literacy programs
that the dictatorship had--
the dictatorship obviously did not
want people to learn how to read.
And so they started literacy programs using poetry.
And so both my friend George and Daisy
have taught me about redemption through poetry.
How you come through war, how you come through PTSD,
how you come through it all, and that you can bring
with you words that save you.
And this is for George and Daisy.
"Clock."
"Wear a watch that does not work, because minutes lie.
Because hours are nails in the heart of god.
Let the hands of time tame you, instead.
Fingers of shadow, fingers of light.
The sun set sail, the sun docks.
Time is scrawled on the sidewalk.
Open the curtain, look in on your life against the laughter
of eternity.
Are you reading?
Are you weeping?
Are you setting out a blue bowl of fruit?
Holiness flowers in the fissures of this day.
Steep the seconds like manzanilla.
Wrap yourself in the steam of centuries.
Take time's pulse, hot in your own hands."
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]