I'm going to end with a poem that
is inspired by the meteorite at the Natural History Museum
in New York, the Willamette meteorite.
This is dedicated to Martha.
I haven't even gotten over to see the meteorites
at the Flandrau Science Center.
I can't wait though.
There's so much to do here.
It's incredible.
This is like a university that has everything that I
just always want, right nearby.
It's incredible.
And everything's like flat, and manageable.
[LAUGHTER]
And it's just such an incredible place.
You guys are so lucky to live here.
So I'm going to close with this poem that
comes from an audience with this meteorite.
"Willamette Meteorite, Rose Center for Earth and Space."
"All day, children, they touch me
without stopping their questions and chatter.
They touch me and their questions stop.
Their hands, all day inside these cavities,
and for a moment they are silent, annulus of a wave.
Then their voices begin again.
I am a shattered remnant of a planet--
nickel iron core of a planet.
Here I have length and height.
I have weight--
15.5 tons.
Here I am a specimen.
I am rare and important.
I should say, metallic iron meteorites
are a relatively rare kind here.
Imagine traveling this far and for so long.
First, the main shock of shattering,
then two subsequent shocks, one of which knocked me here.
I'm among the largest meteorites found.
Of what was never found, I am not the largest--
not the smallest either.
These cavities?
Don't think that's some kind of outer space thing.
That's local rain and oxygen that
came from sitting in one place, exposed.
The first ones dipped their arrowheads
in the water collecting in my crevices.
They'd drink it, spoon it into their sick.
Of course it changes them, makes them more like themselves.
Once, I never stopped moving.
I didn't have these edges or anything
that might provoke a name.
It was pure contiguity, then fire.
One day, a tiny dog wriggled from a handbag--
cold salt nose.
And before anyone could see, he peed on me.
I liked it, actually.
Otherwise, no rain, no fire.
Why do you insist we are different?
Here, put your cheek, put your hand here,
just above the solid part.
Float it there without touching.
Do you feel that hum in the sponge of your bones?"
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]