Thank you guys so much you're both such excellent readers
of your work.
Thank you
What is a poetry reading for?
[LAUGHTER]
We both [INAUDIBLE].
[LAUGHTER]
I mean, I think, I love hearing Jane read.
It's been quite a while since I've heard Jane read.
And I love to hear the poem in the body
and the voice and the throat and everything.
I've read Thunderbird.
I've heard it a couple of times, but I haven't heard her read
from it yet.
And to me, it's like you get to kind of revel
in the bodily kind of nest or something.
The end.
[LAUGHTER]
Thanks for coming.
[LAUGHTER]
You all know what a poetry reading
is for because you're here.
You came for it.
I don't know if you got it.
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
Anyone else have a question?
The planes have something to say,
but they're not speaking our language.
You hit the church bells really nicely.
You find that.
I know.
[LAUGHTER]
Don't be shy.
They've been stunned into silence.
Oh, there we go.
This guy's a good leader.
We've seen him before.
Hi, this is actually for Jane.
So throughout Thunderbird, I picked up
some themes about religion.
Could you elaborate more on what you wanted to--
I guess, the key point you wanted
to make by referencing God a few times throughout Thunderbird?
Sorry for the very broad question.
[LAUGHTER]
Well, everybody's got a spiritual life.
And I am not a religious person per se,
but I am trying to develop my spiritual life.
And I just wanted to communicate that to everyone
and try to connect with people on that level
that we're all terrified, we wake up feeling dread.
Sometimes we have a few wonderful things
that happen to us during the day, and then it's dread again.
[LAUGHTER]
[INAUDIBLE]
But you know what?
Quite seriously, I mean, your question is huge,
and I'm not a theologian or anything like that,
but I do feel that it's important to speak
of large things that we don't understand.
And God is just one of many things
that I speak about that I don't understand.
Speaking of which, I have a sense of the test of a roller
coaster-- roller coaster--
because I have the ups and downs as of truth
and [INAUDIBLE] of some kind of [INAUDIBLE]
because you talked about the Mediterranean,
all the elders on [INAUDIBLE] of figs and pigs
and talked about the Stalin [INAUDIBLE]..
And then you talk about the beautiful imagery
of things [INAUDIBLE].
How do you combine those two antagonistic end
in such a pleasing way?
Thank you.
Can you hear his question?
He's talking about the antagonistic elements
that he hears in my work.
Figs and [INAUDIBLE],, for example.
And Josh and I were working this morning,
in two wonderful classes of honor students
where we were discussing just that, Josh was quite eloquent.
I'm going to let him pick up on this.
But I do think that it's in poetry in general,
that poetry is, by nature, paradoxical and deals
with opposites that to some people
might seem inappropriate.
But I think that, in fact, all of it
is contained in our world.
But could you say a few words because you were
quite beautiful this morning?
That was this morning.
So long ago.
Still a long day.
Well, yeah, we were talking a little bit this morning
about how the way that in Jane's poems
and I think also a little bit in my poems
there's a little doom and gloom, and then it always is sort of--
I don't know-- carried forth by some pleasure or some joy,
some wish to prolong something positive or good
or glorious or surprising or amazing.
And it's undergirded again by that same counterforce
or something too.
It was one sort of--
I don't know-- acting on or pulling or working
on on the other and some--
it was way better this morning.
[LAUGHTER]
Sorry.
Hi, this is a question for Jane.
I'm from the Northwest.
And I just wondered why you chose the title Thunderbird?
Well, Thunderbird has a number of meanings to me.
My mother had a Ford Thunderbird when we were growing up.
That was how it started.
And I often go hiking.
Those of you who know the West Side of Tucson
will know there's a Thunderbird Trail out there.
But more to your question.
The question is about the title and how it is indeed
a Pacific Northwest reference.
The storms here got me looking up what was going on.
And they seemed so human in a gigantic way.
I began to anthropomorphize, if you will, about the storms
and eventually end up doing some research.
And I found out that the giant Thunderbird,
while it is a Pacific Northwest reference,
was seen here in the Southwest right
around Tucson supposedly photographed.
And there was some contention about this.
And I just got simply fascinated one monsoon season
with what was going on above me, the sound of the lightning
and so on.
And so the metaphor grew and grew.
Also, just as a postscript to that,
when the Air Force showcases its jets,
that is known as the Thunderbird show.
So the whole thing kind of began to cluster for me.