Hello.
I'm so honored to be here, and to be here
with old friends and new friends,
and to be here with my very dear friend, Catherine.
It's a real honor and a wonder to me
that I'm here and staying in the wonderful poet's house.
So thank you very, very much for having us here.
I'm going to read a couple poems from this most
recent book, Little Boat.
The first one I'm going to read a few from the last sequence
in the book.
The first one, the sequence itself is called "Maria
Gravida, Mary Expectant".
Maria Gravida.
Then the gold mother began her touching me
with her long, brown face and hands.
She tickled me and told me I was beautiful.
She held me in the ikon, and we gazed.
We had a pretty goldfish.
Death, salvation.
Love was strong as death.
Peacocks walked by, blue immortality.
Finches played in black branches, souls
around the cross.
It was death in life.
Our gold earth gravida.
Not a casket but a dark room for our love.
The herma wrought of silver gilded in fire.
Gold mother around me, inside me, gravida.