My new and selected poems just came out
a couple of months ago.
And this is the--
almost the first time that I've read from them.
I thought that I'd be more or less chronological tonight,
read one or two poems from each of the early books,
and then end with a larger selection of the new poems,
and then really end with three or four poems still
in manuscript.
This is really an older poem.
The book is dedicated to my daughter
Rachel for her graduation from high school.
And this was a poem about naming her when she was born.
It's called "Rachel."
And the literal meaning of the word is a ewe, a female sheep.
"Rachel."
Oh, OK.
We named you for the sake of the syllables
and for the small boat that followed the Pequod gathering
lost children of the sea.
We named you for the dark-eyed girl who waited at the well
while her lover worked seven years and again seven.
We named you for the small daughters of the Holocaust
who followed their six-pointed stars to death
and for all of them known as Rachel."