Thank you.
"Inside the trees, where tomorrow hides along
with years, tomorrow stirs, and there my sisters, never born,
touch lips to bark and begin to sing.
Brother of air, brother of sun, please tell our story
that we may live in the brief wind.
Wherever I stand, I hear the trees petition so.
By listening, I know I'm born.
By turning our faces toward the world,
we live as a friend of trees.
Listen together.
Be ready.
You may be born.
I touch the bark and call, deep as I can, part of me."
I wanted to start by just reading a poem--
this had, had a title "Always," but I just
wanted to start telling something,
"inside the trees, where tomorrow hides
along with years," and so on.
And I would like to continue something
like that, but with a little bit of insulation
between the poems.
So I'll say a little bit, sometimes,
trying to hold the program together,
but I have figured out, pretty well,
where to go, at least, in terms of what poems to read.