Thank you, Wendy, Tyler, Rebecca, [INAUDIBLE].
it's a real honor, and pleasure, and very moving
for me to be back here.
It's also my honeymoon this trip.
And better ways to live for sure.
The poetry and the sunshine, but especially
the community that I found here each time I've come,
and that Daisy, and my wife and I have found this time
has been very special--
and the sense of meeting and conversation.
So I hope that I can add a small amount of--
a dollop, as we would say back home-- a dollop to that
and that you'll all feel free to ask some questions.
I'm just going to read from two long poems tonight.
The first of the poems has a local association, which
is why I wanted to read it.
And the second will give you a taste of my bioregion, which
is currently struggling under snow, which happens every year,
and every year it struggles with the fact that it snowed again.
The first piece is called Global Oracle,
a work of prophetic science.
Are you doing OK with hearing me?
Yes.
Are we all right with this?
--get used to.
Yeah.
Most of this poem was actually written,
no pun intended, in Oracle, thanks to Gary and Laura,
who's shyly at the back, who most wonderfully hosted
me and gave me time and space to write.
It exists as a book and a work of art.
And the book has drawings in it.
And it also exists as a podcast recorded by Chris Watson, who's
a wonderful sound recordist.
Many of you will know his work actually,
because he does a lot of the sound on the David Attenborough
documentaries.
And a lot of my work exists, in that sense,
in different forms that come and meet and have
a conversation with each other.
It's a poem about bees and about prophecy.
And it takes us from the Oracle at Delphi to the Navstar
satellites, which make our mobile phones and car
navigation systems work.
So you are all familiar with that technology.
And I'm not going to explain anything else,
but I'll be very glad to answer questions at the end.