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 went, you're ahead.
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 love hearing it.
I've read Thunderbird, I've read 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--
I don't know.
In the bodily kind of nest or something.
Yeah.
Thanks for coming.
[LAUGHTER]
You all know what a poetry reading
is for because you're here and you came for it.
I hope you got it.
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
Anyone else have a question?
[PLANE ENGINE OVERHEAD]
The planes have something to say,
but they're not speaking our language.
You hit the church bells really nicely.
You planned that, I know.
Worked on that.
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, so there's--
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 the--
sorry for the very broad question.
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.
And so I think--
[LAUGHTER]
I mean, 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 a test of a roller coaster, because I
have the ups and downs, as of truths and [INAUDIBLE]
of some kind of vague form, because you
talked about the Mediterranean, all the figs and pigs.
You talked about the salad and all people who
can categorize as figs, and then you
talked about the beautiful imagery of figs
and all the [INAUDIBLE].
How do you combine those two antagonistic ends
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 fugs, 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.
That was so long ago.
It's been a long day.
Well, yeah, I do think that there--
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 is a kind of-- 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.
And so it's like always one is sort of,
I don't know, acting on or pulling or working
on the other in some--
it was way better this morning.
[LAUGHTER]
Sorry.
We're getting there.
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.