I would like to dedicate this reading to Michael Cuddihy
and to his wife, Mary.
They have been wonderfully helpful in getting
me started in my profession.
And also I want to thank them for devoting
the whole issue of ironwood to me
and the Peruvian poet, Vallejo.
But I also want to dedicate this reading to them as friends.
Michael wanted me to publish a poem called The river again
and again as the last poem in my book, and I did do it.
And then it won the Pushcart Prize.
And so I thought I might make up for it a little bit
by reading it as the first poem for my reading.
The river again and again.
If I could show you how repetition
helps us to understand the truth,
if we stayed with each other long enough
to see the seasons return, to see the young animals,
and the opening of peonies and summer heat,
then we could make sense of the hawks calm with the deer
all lowering their heads again and continuing to eat,
and we would know each other sometimes with a love
that touches indifference.