WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.840 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.840 --> 00:00:01.890 align:middle line:90% Thank you very much. 00:00:01.890 --> 00:00:04.740 align:middle line:90% 00:00:04.740 --> 00:00:08.280 align:middle line:84% I like the Kirk aspect of that anagram 00:00:08.280 --> 00:00:09.870 align:middle line:90% because I'm a big Star Trek fan. 00:00:09.870 --> 00:00:15.390 align:middle line:84% So any time we can talk about Kirk is a good time for me. 00:00:15.390 --> 00:00:17.810 align:middle line:90% So I'll read from three-- 00:00:17.810 --> 00:00:18.810 align:middle line:90% first of all, thank you. 00:00:18.810 --> 00:00:19.840 align:middle line:90% Thank you for having me. 00:00:19.840 --> 00:00:22.290 align:middle line:84% Thank you, so much, to the Poetry Center. 00:00:22.290 --> 00:00:26.970 align:middle line:84% Thank you, Tyler, Patri, Diana, Ander. 00:00:26.970 --> 00:00:31.140 align:middle line:84% Thank you so much for welcoming me, here, to Tucson. 00:00:31.140 --> 00:00:35.310 align:middle line:84% I didn't know anything about the University of Arizona, the MFA 00:00:35.310 --> 00:00:38.100 align:middle line:84% program, or the Poetry Center until a good friend of mine, 00:00:38.100 --> 00:00:41.220 align:middle line:84% from undergrad, Morgan Schuldt, actually, 00:00:41.220 --> 00:00:43.320 align:middle line:90% was admitted here for the MFA. 00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:48.270 align:middle line:84% And, as y'all know, he made a life and a wonderful career 00:00:48.270 --> 00:00:51.960 align:middle line:84% as a poet here before passing away several years ago now. 00:00:51.960 --> 00:00:54.270 align:middle line:84% So the last time that I was standing in this room 00:00:54.270 --> 00:00:56.190 align:middle line:90% was, actually, for his memorial. 00:00:56.190 --> 00:00:58.710 align:middle line:84% So I read one of his poems from the time 00:00:58.710 --> 00:01:01.290 align:middle line:84% that we knew each other back at the University of Virginia, 00:01:01.290 --> 00:01:04.269 align:middle line:84% and I met many of his friends and colleagues and teachers 00:01:04.269 --> 00:01:04.769 align:middle line:90% here. 00:01:04.769 --> 00:01:06.710 align:middle line:84% And that was my introduction to Tucson. 00:01:06.710 --> 00:01:09.330 align:middle line:84% It was my introduction to the Poetry Center. 00:01:09.330 --> 00:01:14.220 align:middle line:84% And I was just so moved by the wonderful community 00:01:14.220 --> 00:01:20.010 align:middle line:84% that Morgan built here and that all the people around him made. 00:01:20.010 --> 00:01:21.690 align:middle line:84% This is a place where things are-- 00:01:21.690 --> 00:01:23.230 align:middle line:90% wonderful things are-- created. 00:01:23.230 --> 00:01:26.790 align:middle line:84% So thank you for welcoming me back to read from my own work. 00:01:26.790 --> 00:01:34.080 align:middle line:90% 00:01:34.080 --> 00:01:36.500 align:middle line:90% "Contagion." 00:01:36.500 --> 00:01:40.850 align:middle line:84% "I wake up in my body, and it's worse than a war zone. 00:01:40.850 --> 00:01:43.190 align:middle line:90% My smoke-cloud of blood. 00:01:43.190 --> 00:01:46.850 align:middle line:84% My hair grenade-- tick, tick, boom. 00:01:46.850 --> 00:01:51.020 align:middle line:84% It's worse than a war zone when I cruise past your brunch-- 00:01:51.020 --> 00:01:54.590 align:middle line:84% just to get bread, just ordering juice. 00:01:54.590 --> 00:01:59.210 align:middle line:84% I open my mouth, and the war rolls out dense as a foghorn. 00:01:59.210 --> 00:02:02.490 align:middle line:84% I can't keep from squeezing my skull. 00:02:02.490 --> 00:02:06.230 align:middle line:84% I keep time-traveling back to the noon of my birth. 00:02:06.230 --> 00:02:10.280 align:middle line:84% Worse than a war zone that Sunday, that night, when 00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:13.010 align:middle line:90% I wept in the war of myself. 00:02:13.010 --> 00:02:15.290 align:middle line:90% That's the first war I knew. 00:02:15.290 --> 00:02:18.160 align:middle line:90% It was worse than a war."