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Wow.

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It's a pleasure and
an honor to be here,

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and I thank everybody
at the Poetry Center

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for welcoming me and
Natalie with open arms.

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And I got to say, that
apartment it is pretty sweet.

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[LAUGHTER]

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And also, thank you to the
friends and family of Morgan,

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for creating this space
for poets in Tucson.

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I had quite a bit of
interaction with Morgan

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via blogging and email.

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I was in upstate New York's--

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upstate New York teaching
at Colgate University

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when his first book came out.

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And I sent him an email, Morgan,
can I buy your book directly

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from you?

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And he goes, sure, 18 bucks.

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I'll send you a check.

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And a couple of days
later, he sent me an email.

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You want me to sign
your-- you want

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me to sign the book for you?

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And I found that very
endearing that he would ask,

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you want me to sign your book?

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Where most poets would just
dedicate it and just write

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their signature and
be done with it.

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But he asked before he
would sign that book for me.

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I want to read the first
poem from the book.

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And this poem borrows and steals
lyrics from the Prince song

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"Little Red Corvette," which
almost got me in trouble

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with a publisher, because
they assumed the copyright

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lawyers read poetry.

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[LAUGHTER]

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They don't.

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"Our Completion-- Oil on Wood.

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Tino Rodriguez, 1999."

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"Before nourishment,
there must be obedience.

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In his hands I was a cup
overflowing with thirst.

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Eighth ruler of my days,
ninth lord of my nights,

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he thrashed above
me like branches.

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Once, after weeks of rain,
he sliced a potato in half

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to remind me of the moon.

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The dark slept in the
small of his back.

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The back of his knees--

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pale music.

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We'd crumble the Eucharist
and feed it to the pigeons.

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Sinvergüenza.

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Escuintle.

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He who makes things sprout.

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In the margins in a book of
poems by Emily Dickinson,

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he scribbled, she had a
pocketful of horses, Trojan,

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and some of them used.

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Often, I mistook him
for a storyteller

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when he stood in the rain.

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A su izquierda, huesos.

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A su derecha, mapas de cuero.

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When I'd yawn, he'd pluck
black petals out of my mouth."

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