[APPLAUSE]
Hi.
Thank you, Colleen.
That was quite the introduction.
I don't know what to say except thank you.
It's wonderful, very generous.
And it's a pleasure being here.
Can you hear me?
Yes
Yeah.
It's a pleasure being here and a little overwhelming.
I feel like I've never read to this large group of people
in my life.
So it's a little strange.
And some are outdoors.
And that's strange.
It's strange to be in a place where you can
be outdoors this time of year.
Anyway it's great to be here.
Thanks Colleen.
And Thanks Gail and Cybele for inviting me
and all your help in getting me here,
and Sharon, my former student, for squire-ing me
around the town, and Janice and her excellent class
this morning after I arrived so terrified.
Thank you for being kind.
I guess I'm going to read some poems.
So it's going to be a mix of things from Double Shadow,
and Speak Low, and this book, Silverchest that's coming out,
and some newer poems.
So we'll start with this poem.
It's kind of short.
It's called, "Just the Wind for a Sound, Softly"
"There's a weed whose name I've meant all summer to find out.
In the heat of the day dangling pods
hardly worth the noticing, in the night blue flowers.
It's as if a side of me that he'd forgotten
have forced into the light briefly a side of him
that I'd never seen before.
And now I've seen it.
It is hard to see anyone who has become like your own body
to you.
And now I can't forget."
Short.