I want to thank the Poetry Center so much,
and Tyler, and Hannah, and Julie,
and Cybele and everyone who made me feel welcome this afternoon,
and the great faculty--
amazing faculty that you have.
Really cool poets.
So this book began with a single moment of weird insight.
I was between water and fire.
And I was thinking what on earth could I
bring to the idea of fire that poets haven't already brought?
And Bob and I were driving down the coast
and it was exactly this time of year.
And we looked out at a field and there were
lots of pumpkins, just pumpkins and gourds.
And I thought about--
I had a flash of thinking.
Those pumpkins have-- they don't need me at all.
They have a separate existence and they have no consciousness.
They're a different kind of life and they
have all these eyes that are lined up inside their bodies.
And it gave me such an immense feeling of happiness.
I just felt completely relieved about being on earth.
And it sort of-- this whole book bloomed inside
of me thinking about non-human nature trying
to be with human nature.
So this is the poem that came out of it.
And "Veronica's Veil" refers to-- if you had a Catholic
education, you know this-- but it refers--
Veronica held her veil up to Jesus' face
and the face left an imprint.
But for some reason they've never
been able to figure out where the veil is
and so it really doesn't exist.
"To spirits of fire after harvest.
Between earth and its noun I felt a fire.
What does it mean by I, Missus.
It means, and I quote, 'one of the vowels in the brain
and some of the you's.'
We were interested in the type of thing humans can't know,
interested in kinds of think animals think--
a rabbit or a skink.
You Mrs. Skiltonianus when autumn brings a grammar.
Wasp circle the dry stalks and you
can totally see through amber ankles dangling in dazzle
under our lord, the sun of literature.
Between noon and its noun, there were ridged and golden runes
on pumpkins, bluish gourds in the fields.
Their white eyes lined up inside.
Wait a sec, please don't nail the door shut.
The air is friendly and non-existent
as Veronica's veil.
Earth, don't torment your fool, your ambassador clown.
Bring the x of oxygen and sex, a fox running sideways
through present noon."