I was trembling with a little fear on that one.
And I know what Ander is known for,
but Ander, thank you very much for those kind words.
And all of you, thank you for coming.
This is really, really fine proof
of how much you value this center and its vitality
to your cultural and artistic life.
And I'm really glad that lots of members of the university
are able to see your presence here.
So I'm really glad that we had an overflow crowd.
Gail already spoke about the various readings
we're going to have over the course of this semester,
and ways in which you can participate and donate.
And I'm going to give you one more.
I have these really, really nice, awesome broadsides
that were created by none other than Ander Monson.
And you can have one of them as a token of tonight's
great evening for a mere $5.
If you have $10, I don't have change.
[LAUGHTER]
But all of that money, whatever money
we collect from the broadsides I have with me
tonight, we're just going to directly give it
to the Poetry Center as a small gesture of thanks for giving us
this great evening tonight.
But before I begin, I also just want
to acknowledge one more way in which our community continues
to show how vital we are nationally.
I don't want to embarrass you, Eduardo C. Corral,
but could you stand up just for a moment
and say hi to everybody?
And I'll tell everybody who you are.
Wave.
[LAUGHTER]
Eduardo C. Corral, who is a resident of Casa Grande--
as I've been saying it-- as I've said that that's how
you're supposed to pronounce it--
is next year's Yale Younger Poet.
And I think it's really fantastic.
[APPLAUSE]
Isn't it really great that someone here, from this area,
is going to command that sort of national stage?