Thanks, Matt, that was really flabbergasting.
Probably everybody who teaches at a university
deserves to have incredibly smart PhD students,
if they're teaching in the literature program.
But you don't really get to deserve
to have one who's also a terrific and well-published
poet and a fellow Buddhist.
So it's just-- we've been very close for a long time.
This is great, Matt.
And Gail was talking about what a difficult year it was,
in some respects.
And I realize she was talking about the big global picture,
which is incredibly difficult. It's
been a really aggravating and scary year at the university,
in some ways, so far, as most of you are well aware of.
But it's an incredible privilege to work
with just incredibly wonderful writing and PhD students.
I've had so many terrific students
who've gone on to do great things
and whose work I really love.
And that's one of the most wonderful of them.
So thanks very much to the Poetry Center,
and Gail and Renee and the whole crew, for inviting me to read.
And it's a great privilege and a lot of fun to read with Manuel.
I hope he'll come to Tucson.
I'm going to read from Ghost Snow Falls
Through the Void, a few sections.
And I'll just say a couple of things about it
and then try to get going.
Oh, one thing to say is that I'd better finish the book soon.
It's about 80%, 90% done.
And, happily, since November 4, some of what follows
has merely historical interest.
I was thinking about Cherríe Moraga's wonderfully titled
book, Loving in the War Years.
And so, I could tell you all about the project,
there's [? a little ?] missing, that this
can be called Sitting Zazen in the Bush Years.
It's like I kind of finish that up, all right.
I don't think I'll say too much.
I was working on the reading today
and I sort of shuffled certain sections in and out.
And I can't remember which ones are there anymore.
So I don't think I'll try and talk about many
of the references.
I will say that some of this stuff
is sort of engaged in googling around
to find out what's going on in Iraq, and so on.
And I've included a little bit of that, this one
long section toward the end.
But I thought, you know, probably for a reading,
most of you don't want to hear things
quoted from the internet.
So I didn't do too much with that.
And then the other thing I'll say,
for people who came to my POG reading last November,
about half of what I'm going to read is identical to that
reading, and then the other half isn't.
So some of it should be fresh.
I hope so.
I'm going to start with something
that's actually from the middle of the manuscript.
And I'm going to ask Matt to come up and read it with me.
It's one of the things that, again, is happily most dated.
And the role Matt is going to perform
has been previously played by Tim Peterson, Leslie Scalapino,
and Barb Henning.
So, here we go.
All right.
Do you have a copy or are you going to look at mine?
No, I'm just going--
All right, here we go.
So you're this guy.
Let me just tell you one more thing.
When we get here, we're going to read this together.
And this is not part of it.
That's my note.
Don't miss it.
Where do we start--
We're going to start up right here, when this guy goes--
What are you doing over there in the corner again?
I'm building a nation in Iraq.
I call it nation building.
What is that dead fork in your hand?
Nothing again, nothing.
I said I'm nation building, dammit.
Are you a roadside bombing terrorist?
No, I am the president.
I'm leading one nation and building another.
Where are you leading it?
I'm leading it to the other one to build it.
And where are you leading the one you're building?
I'm leading it to the other one, that's this one, to lead it.
And I will make it drink.
Are you leading it to water?
Oil.
Do they mix?
When the terrorists mix it, it explodes.
And you?
Even as it is said, as in the beginning,
so in the end, world unto world, what
does it profit a man to mix oil in his gas tank
if his axle is evil?
Who said that?
Sad man.
The aye, I told you, of North Korea.
What's your favorite book?
Windows on the World, for Dummies.
Is it a dirty book?
What am I doing over there in the corner again?
Why don't you go ask Dick?
You little slut.
Aren't you glad that in America we
can debate these issues freely?
Yes.
Me too.
Want to join me in the corner now?
What are you doing?
Come in under the shadow of this red rock
and I will show you something.
They called me the hyacinth girl.
And I knew nothing, looking into the heart
of light, the silence.
Where's that?
Iraq, you dummy.
Hosanna, you're the rapper, Ice George.
Get jiggy wit it.
[SPOKEN TOGETHER] Exeunt omnes, singing,
Dada said there'll be days like this.
Saddam said there'll be days like this.
'Sama said there'll be days like this.
But I don't worry 'cause.
Big enough to include the name of every drink served
in every tavern in America?
You bet.
Thank you, Matt.
[LAUGHTER]
[APPPLAUSE]